Ominous by Kate Brian Read Free Book Online Page A

sizing up the necklace out of the corner of her eye as she took a bite of her fruit salad.
    “You should have that appraised. It could be worth something,” she said.
    I glanced at Noelle, feeling hot under my arms and around my collar.
    “Yeah,” I said. “Maybe I will.”
    Kiki and Astrid arrived, dropping into the chairs next to Tiffany and Portia. Then Lorna, Amberly, and Vienna crowded into the last few seats, adjusting their trays on the table so everything fit.
    “Check this out,” Astrid said, lifting her chin toward the head table where the headmaster and the tenured teachers usually sat. My blood turned cold when I saw that Mr. Hathaway was holding out a chair near the head of the table for Demetria Rosewell. She wore a winter white suit that made her black hair stand out even from across the room. She shook her curls back as she sat and gave a thin-lipped smile as the headmaster introduced the teachers around her.
    “Why has she been hovering so much lately?” I said under my breath.
    “I can tell you why.”
    A chill shot down my back as Missy Thurber leaned toward me from behind. She rested one hand on the back of my chair and the other on the corner of the table. She must have been walking down the aisle behind me when I’d posed my question. She smelled of lavender perfume and peanut butter—a gag-inducing combination—and I held my breath. Constance and London hovered at the end of the table. From the corner of my eye I saw Sawyer Hathaway, my friend and the headmaster’s son, stand up from his table. He had a worried look on his boyishly handsome face, like he was anticipating a fight.
    “I don’t think anyone here was talking to you, Missy,” Noelle snapped.
    Missy stood up straight, mercifully giving me room to breathe, and moved to stand next to her friends. Lifting her chin so that I could practically see her brain through her huge nostrils, she addressed the entire table with the air of a girl who knew she was about to drop a serious bomb.
    “Demetria Rosewell and Paige Ryan have decided to donate a few million dollars to the school to have Billings House rebuilt,” she said snidely.
    My heart skipped an excited beat. Billings was going to be rebuilt?
    “Why do I have a feeling that’s not everything?” Noelle asked, lowering her fork.
    “Well, Demetria has been convening with the board the past few nights, coming up with a list of requirements for admission to the dorm,” Missy said. “But they’ve already decided on one thing.” She turned and looked me in the eye. “You, Reed, won’t be getting in. Not after all the trouble you’ve caused this year.”
    My heart dropped and my fingers curled into fists atop the table.
    “In fact,
none
of you will be in,” Missy said, making sure to look each of the others directly in the eye. “The board asked me for a list of the girls who were the most disruptive influences during all that mess with Cheyenne and Sabine last semester, and I was more than happy to provide it.”
    “Missy,” Lorna said from the far end of the table, “you didn’t.”
    Missy’s cruel eyes slid over to her former best friend. “You chose your side. Now I’ve chosen mine.” Her mouth twisted into a wide grin. “Ta, ladies!” she said, twiddling her fingers at us. Then she turned onher heel and strode off. Constance shot me an uncertain look, ducked her head, and followed, with London behind her.
    “This. Cannot. Be happening,” Amberly said loudly.
    I looked across the table at Noelle, whose face was so red I thought she might start to melt. Then suddenly Sawyer was there, looking sheepish with his hands in the pockets of his slim-cut gray cords. He wore a white shirt open over a black band T-shirt.
    “Hey,” he said tentatively. “Are you okay?”
    “Is it true?” I said, looking up at him through my lashes.
    Sawyer gritted his teeth. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I would’ve told you, but I only found out this morning.”
    “Why?” Noelle