Her Evil Twin by Mimi McCoy Read Free Book Online

slammed her locker shut and hurried away. She had to find Emma and make sure that nothing was wrong.
    Anna looked for Emma by her locker, but she didn’t find her there. She checked everywhere else she could think of, even going up to the third-floor bathroom to see if the window was open (the sign that Emma was on the roof), but it was shut tight and locked from the inside. Emma didn’t seem to be in any of her usual places.
    It wasn’t until Anna had given up and was leaving school that she spotted Emma. She was standing at a maple tree in front of the school, leaning against its trunk. She made no move to greet Anna as she hurried up.
    “I’ve been looking all over for you,” Anna said. “Why didn’t you say hi to me in the hall?”
    “What were you and Dory talking about?” Emma asked coldly.
    “Nothing!” Anna said. Was
that
what Emma was upset about? “She just wanted to know what I was doing after school.”
    “I thought you said she wasn’t your friend anymore.”
    “She’s not. We were just talking,” Anna explained, confused. Why was Emma acting so strange?
    Emma said nothing, but her eyes pierced Anna coldly. Anna shivered and tugged at the zipper of her windbreaker. After the long stretch of Indian summer, the weather had finally taken a turn. Now, heavy clouds filled the sky like piles of wet cotton, and the sharp smell of burning leaves hung in the air.
    “We were just talking,” Anna repeated. “Let’s forget it, okay?” She tried a smile. “So, what should we do today? Want to go back down by the river? I think there’s still some paint left. Or we could go to the park….”
    Emma pushed herself off the tree. “Not today. I have something to take care of.”
    Without any more explanation, she turned and walked away.
    Saturday morning, Anna awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. She rolled over in bed and checked her clock. It was just after seven thirty.
Who would call so early on a Saturday?
she wondered with irritation.
    Anna flopped back on her pillow and closed her eyes, but she couldn’t go back to sleep. Finally, she climbed out of bed. She pulled on jeans and a sweater and went down to the kitchen.
    Her mother was standing in the middle of the room holding the cordless phone. She had a funny look on her face. “That was Dory’s mother on the phone,” she told Anna.
    “Oh, yeah?” said Anna. She got a box of cereal down from the cupboard and poured herself a bowl, then went to the refrigerator to get milk.
    “Something happened at the Welches’ house last night,” Mrs. Dipalo said.
    Anna paused with her hand on the refrigerator handle, waiting for her mom to go on.
    “Their property was vandalized,” her mother told her. “Someone wrote on the lawn in spray paint.”
    Anna’s mouth fell open. “What did they write?” she asked.
    Her mother cleared her throat, as if she wasn’t quite comfortable saying it out loud. “ ‘Dorky Dory.’”
    “That’s awful!”
It had to have been the Jackals,
Anna thought.
They’re getting back at her for walking out on their stupid trick. Poor Dory.
    “Do they know who did it?” she asked her mother, wondering if she should say something about Jessamyn.
    Mrs. Dipalo’s worried eyes burrowed into Anna’s. “Dory says it was you.”
    “What?”
    “Dory told her mother that she heard something in the middle of the night. She looked out the window and saw you running down the street.”
    “It’s not true!” Anna exclaimed. “She’s lying.”
    “Why would she say something like that?” her mother asked.
    “She’s just jealous because I’ve been hanging out with Emma. And now she’s trying to get back at me.” Anna yanked open the refrigerator door and grabbed the milk. “I can’t believe she would say that! You believe me, right? You know I would never do something like that.”
    “That’s what I told her mother.” Mrs. Dipalo looked relieved. “I knew it couldn’t have been you.”
    Anna sat down at the