Second Kiss by Natalie Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

years again.

    But when the final bell rang on my last day as an eighth grader, I was so excited to get out of the dark, dingy school and into the sunshine that I nearly forgot about the tragedy that I was facing. Hoots and hollers rang through the halls as excited kids ran out of the classrooms and into the warm air. Summer vacation had begun. But I was reminded of the sadness when I saw Jess, leaning against the brick school wall with a thick manila folder in hand.
    “What’s that?” I said when I got close to him.
    Jess looked down at the folder. “It’s just a bunch of test scores and special projects that I’ve done over the past three years. I guess they save them for us and give it all back when we graduate from junior high.”

    “Don’t remind me,” I said.
    “What’s the matter, Gem? You’re supposed to be happy on a day like this. You’re free from school for a full three months.”
    I shrugged and quietly headed toward the main wooded road while he fell in line beside me. The sun was beating down on our heads. It was the hottest day of the year so far, and the smell of the hot pine made it feel so much more like summer. I couldn’t bear to think that this was the last time Jess and I would be walking home together from this school. It would be the last time we’d run through the soccer field and throw rocks at the old goal posts. It would be the last time we’d crawl through the fence into the cement jungle. We stepped silently onto the soccer field when Jess turned to me and said, “Seriously, what’s the matter?”
    I stared at him with narrow eyes. “You don’t know?” It made me angry that I was the only one realizing how horrible our separation was going to be. “Next year you’re going to high school, and I’m still going to be here in this lame school, and I’m going to have to walk here alone. This is the last time we’re going to walk to school together, probably ever! Next year you’ll be driving your own car to school and you’ll probably have a girlfriend.”
    Jess ducked his head and puffed out his bottom lip, but his eyes were smiling. “I tried failing my classes so I could be held back. But I’m just too smart.” I didn’t think it was funny. When I didn’t laugh, Jess lightly punched me in the shoulder with his fist. “Hey. It’s not like we’re not going to see each other. I live right across the street. I’ll be in your face all the time.”
    I was honestly surprised to hear that. “Really?”
    “You’ll be sick of me,” Jess promised.

    With that Jess leaped toward a nearby goal post, swinging from it like a monkey, then he pushed himself forward onto the grass. “Let’s go check out our old fort!” he yelled. He was a good twenty yards away from me by then. “We haven’t looked at it forever! I wonder if it’s still there!” His last words trailed behind him as he started running to the far side of the field. I held tightly to my backpack straps-and his promise-and sprinted after him.
    The summer break seemed much shorter than three months. I was finally getting old enough to realize that the “three-month” break that everyone talked about was not really three months at all. By the time school got out, it was practically mid-June, and it started up again in the latter part of August. That was barely more than two months! I figured it was just another way the adult population was trying to fool us kids.
    I looked at the cell phone that my parents had given me as an early birthday present and saw that it was already eight fiftyseven p.m. It was the last night of summer. School started the next day, and Jess and I had gone out for one last walk to the snow cone shack. We were approaching our houses as he was telling me his class schedule. He must have noticed me look at my phone because he asked, “What time do you need to be home tonight?”
    I glanced at my house and replied, “Nine.” Sometimes my mom watched for me out the front window. But