Secrets of the Sleeper: True Nature Series: Book One by Karen Lynn Bennett Read Free Book Online

begin our game of charades.”
    Thankfully, Mr. Romano wasn’t angry and seemed to know how to handle Isaac’s playfulness. The rest of the period showed us who the real hams were in the class. I was not one of them, and thankfully the bell rang before my turn arrived.
    As I started to rise, Isaac, who was already standing, blocked me by crouching down beside my desk. His face was so close to mine I could see every eyelash surrounding his golden brown eyes. He smelled woodsy and minty.
    “Tru, uh, I just wanted to say that I’m glad you’re back to normal this year.”
    I felt my face heat up, remembering last year. Isaac quickly backpedaled.
    “I know it was awful and everything, about your mom, but I’m just glad to see you smiling again.”
    I thought he was very sweet to say so, but I really did not want to talk about my mom or my horrible existence last year. So I just pasted on a smile and said, “Life sucks sometimes, but eventually you move on.”
    That’s what my dad said to me, and even though I did not feel like I was over it , I agreed that I had to move on. One corner of Isaac’s mouth turned up, and he grabbed my hand and squeezed.
    “I’ve gotta get over to Mr. Dao’s class,” he said. It was on the other side of campus. “But I’ll see you after school!”
    I shook my head with bemusement as I watched him stride away. Students and teachers alike moved out of his way, his sheer size bringing out their sense of self-preservation. Top that off with his soft brown skin, sun-kissed hair, and rippling muscles—well, I was surprised he didn’t have a crowd of groupies pursuing him yet. But it was just the first day of school, and I knew it was only a matter of time.
    My thoughts strayed to Zander as I headed to my next class. Although he wasn’t the hulking hotness that Isaac was, he was sure to attract his own “whore horde,” which is what Ruthie called the girl packs who hung out at guys’ lockers and followed them everywhere.
    PE wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Phoebe sat beside me on the gym bleachers as we listened to the teacher make her first-day-of-class speech, followed by locker assignments. Although we weren’t friends, she didn’t treat me like a plague victim like the other kids. I dared to think we could even be friends.
    Evidently, if Phoebe Efoti could stand sitting by me , then I must not be too bad. Most of the other girls eyed Phoebe warily, almost like they were scared of her. Perhaps that’s why she sat with me. We both seemed to be outsiders. I could see why Phoebe put them off. She was almost too confident and had little patience for idiots, demonstrated by the number of times she laughed at the questions. Admittedly, they were lame, but she certainly wasn’t winning any friends by pointing that out.
    We were finally left to our own conversations while the teacher handed out locker numbers. I was desperately trying to think of something to say to Phoebe, when Brianna, a girl I knew from middle school, sat down next to us.
    “Tru, I love what you did with your hair this year! Where do you get it highlighted?”
    When I said it wasn’t highlighted, several other girls joined in to tell me how lucky I was. They went on about how their hair was too frizzy, too straight, wouldn’t curl, and so on. Girl talk. And that was it—last year was forgotten. Go figure.
    I saw Phoebe rolling her eyes and pulled her into the conversation, asking her how it was possible she had such straight hair when Isaac’s was so curly. All the other girls looked enviously at her ebony curtain. Phoebe actually took the bait and explained that they each got one of their parent’s hair types.
    But when the girls started asking questions about Isaac, talking about him as if he were some rock star, Phoebe rolled her eyes again and shut up. So the conversation moved back to hair and what kind of shampoo everyone used. Honestly, even though Phoebe looked bored, it was nice that everyone