Blur (Blur Trilogy) by Steven James Read Free Book Online Page A

name.
    “Clern.”
    “Clern,” he told Mia. “I don’t know . . . . Seriousl y? Cool. Oka y. ”
    End call.
    “What did she sa y? ” Daniel asked.
    “She doesn’t know her, but she’s gonna ask around.” K yl e put his phone awa y. “So, dead end number one, but that just makes it all the more interesting. I’ll go to Facebook. You Google her, like we were talking about before. Let’s see if we can pull up some wa y to contact her.”
    “I don’t reall y want t o—”
    “Of course yo u do.” K yl e alread y had his laptop open. “You’re just scared.”
    “I’m not scared.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I’m just . . . slightl y apprehensive.”
    “Which qualifies as scared.” He t yp ed. It took him onl y a few seconds to do the search. “Huh. Nothing’s reall y coming up. Tons of Stac ys , but nothing for her specificall y. You?”
    Daniel finished tapping at his ke yb oard. “No.”
    “Do yo u know where she moved from? Her name could still be under some previous town or school or something, yo u know, in their class rosters.”
    Daniel shook his head. “I’m not sure where she’s from. I’ve . . . well, I’ve never actuall y talked to her.”
    K yl e blinked. “You’ve never actuall y talked to her.”
    “Not exactl y, but I’ve come close a few times.”
    “Oh, yo u are seriousl y snargled over this girl.”
    “Snargled?”
    “Needed a word, couldn’t think of one, made one up.” K yl e gave his attention to his computer. “Well, still, I’d have to sa y this is weird. I just can’t believe she doesn’t have a Facebook page.”
    “It’s not that unusual. A lot of kids are moving off it, yo u know, because their parents and grandparents are on it.”
    “Sure, I get that.”
    “Ma yb e something happened to her at another schoo l—s omething she doesn’t want the kids at her new school to know abou t—a nd she closed it down. It happens.”
    “You mean ma yb e she was embarrassed about something or hurt somehow?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Or ma yb e she had something to hide.”
    Daniel e ye d him. “What would she have to hide?”
    “I don’t know. Just throwing it out there.”
    Neither of them seemed to know where to take things from there.
    Finall y, K yl e dug out his U.S. Histor y book. “Man, to do well on this test, I’m gonna have to dust off a part of m y brain I haven’t used in a while.”
    “Well, let’s start dusting.”
    The y spent the next hour poring over the chapter summaries and review questions.
    Sometimes when Daniel studied with people, it was more just hangout time than an yt hing else, but, despite the fact that K yl e acted like school wasn’t a big deal to him, he took stud yi ng seriousl y, and Daniel could alwa ys be sure to get more done with him than with an y of his other friends.
    The whole time the y were reviewing the material, Daniel was wondering if he should bring up an yt hing about what he’d seen at the funeral, or about the weird mark that’d appeared on his arm.
    He’d alread y told K yl e that vultures were picking awa y at his dead dreams, but the stuff concerning Emil y was on a whole different level.
    In the end, he decided he didn’t want his best friend to think he was losing it, and kept ever yt hing to himself.
    Ma yb e, when the time was right, he’d tell him what was going on, but right now the time did not feel right.
    When the y’ d finished stud yi ng, the y got some chips and salsa, so K yl e’s mouth was full when he said, “So that was prett y wild, huh, that T y was picking on Emil y’ s brother toda y? ”
    “Knowing T y, it doesn’t surprise me.” Daniel was still curious about what T y had been referring to when he said he’d heard about K yl e and Emil y, but after seeing K yl e’s reaction to his questions earlier about it, he knew better than to bring that up.
    K yl e swallowed, then used a mutantl y large chip to snag a heaping dollop of salsa.
    “That’s a lot of salsa.”
    “I’m