Ghost of a Chance by Lauren Barnholdt Read Free Book Online

hating me.
    I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry.
    I force myself to look straight ahead and focus on the horizon in front of me. I read somewhere that you should do that if you’re in a boat and you start to feel seasick. Something about how focusing on one spot is supposed to make you feel grounded. Maybe it’ll work for feeling sick to your stomach about your best friend and your boyfriend both ditching you.
    Surprisingly, my new focusing-on-the-horizon technique does make me start to feel better, but after a second or two I start to get distracted by the fact that I can see Brandon walking a few yards ahead of me. I let out a sigh of relief when I see he’s not walking with Madison.
    In fact, I don’t see Madison anywhere. Is it possible that maybe she decided not to do this whole tutoring thing? Leave it to Madison Baker to figure out a way to get out of it. She probably sweet-talked Mr. Jacobi into letting her quit. And her math grades probably aren’t any better than mine. I mean, I don’t see how they can be. She never takes any notes.
    I glance around, looking for Madison, and I finally spot her a few rows back. She’s chattering away to someone I can’t see. Probably one of her little minions, the puppy-dog-like girls who follow her around and make her feel important. Seriously, how can people not see through her?
    I sigh and keep walking. I can see the elementary school in the distance now, and I forget about my plan to keep my eyes fixed on the horizon. Instead I keep them locked on the ground, just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.
    If I have to be in a group with Brandon and Madison, I don’t have to be obsessed with looking at them. In fact, I really shouldn’t care about them at all. Brandon’s not my boyfriend anymore. He’s not even my friend. And so what he does is none of my business.
    I am a secure, confident woman. And if Brandon isn’t secure enough to handle the fact that I can see ghosts, well then, that’s his problem, not mine.
    Although.
    One quick look at Brandon wouldn’t hurt, would it? I mean, it’s not like I’m obsessed with him or anything. And when you think about it, it’s probably better to know where he is. You know, so that I can make sure to avoid him.
    I peek back up toward the front of our class, but I can’t see Brandon anymore. His perfectly highlighted (naturally, of course—Brandon would never do anything like highlighthis hair—he’s way too manly for that) head is nowhere to be seen.
    I glance behind me, but I don’t see Madison anywhere either. I’m about to kind of freak out when I spot her, walking with Allison Lee.
    Hmm. Maybe this whole not-trying-to-keep-my-eyes-on-them thing isn’t the best strategy. Maybe telling myself that I shouldn’t be watching them is going to make me want to watch them even more. It’s, like, too tempting.
    I slow down my pace a little bit and move to the left of the crowd. I walk even more slowly until, finally, Madison is ahead of me. I’m so stealth! She didn’t even notice that I was dropping behind her so that I could spy on her.
    Of course, this is probably because she’s totally self-involved. I mean, right now she’s telling Allison Lee all about the new pool her dad’s putting in just for her, and how he’s making it aqua because that’s her favorite color. Which is kind of ridiculous. I mean, aren’t all pools aqua? I highly doubt her dad got an aqua pool just because she wanted it.
    What if her favorite color was brown? Was her dad going to get an ugly brown pool? I doubt it. That would have been horrible for property values. And grown-ups are always worried about property values. At least that was the excuse my dad used when I wanted to paint ladybugs all over the outside of our house in the third grade. I was really mad at him at the time, but now I’m