The Islanders by Katherine Applegate Read Free Book Online

dad is right, then I think we should help Mr. Cabral . . . deal with Lucas,” Claire said.
    â€œHow is that?” Jake asked.
    Claire met his eyes. “I think we should make sure he knows he’s not wanted by any of us, either,” she said slowly. “Cut him off totally.”
    â€œThere’s something about this that makes me uncomfortable,” Aisha said. “I mean, I don’t know—”
    â€œLook, no one’s forcing you to do anything,” Claire said reasonably. “But we’ve always stuck together.”
    Nina shook her head. “Maybe we should just go all out,” she said. “You know, grab our pitchforks, light some torches, and march on up the hill and drive the monster out like the peasants in a Frankenstein movie.”
    â€œLet’s save that for later,” Claire said. She looked around the group and saw them nodding, one by one—Aisha troubled, Nina mocking, Zoey almost distracted. Jake deadly serious.
    Claire took a deep breath and let it out slowly. For the first time since Nina had brought her the news, she felt . . . relief.
    Yes, that was the emotion, she realized. Relief. But why?
    Aisha Gray was still troubled when she left the group at the circle and headed toward home.
    She was halfway down Center before she realized that she was going to be passing right by Lucas’s house on the way to her own. Avoiding it would mean going some distance out of her way and making a much steeper climb. She didn’t feel like doing that. The walk back home was steep enough.
    So what did they all expect her to do if she went walking past the Cabrals’ and Lucas happened to be out front? Was she supposed to ignore him, refuse to answer if he said hello?
    It was ridiculous. Jake, she could understand. Maybe evenClaire. But why on earth would Zoey go along with this primitive reaction? Just because she was Jake’s girlfriend?
    The road beneath her feet began to steepen and she leaned into it, stretching her calf muscles, pumping her arms.
    There it was, right above the Passmores’ house, the little gray shingle cottage with the deck that looked down the hillside. She stole a glance at it. The windows weren’t curtained, but the interior was dark. Still, he could be in there, watching her walk past.
    She barely remembered Lucas. She’d only come to the island a year before Lucas had left. Mostly she recalled an image of long, unruly blond hair and a face too sweet for the eyes.
    She passed the house and kept climbing, feeling a mixture of relief and resentment. This island solidarity crap could get to be too much. On the other hand . . .
    Her parents had moved to Chatham Island and bought the inn three years ago, just as she was starting high school. It had been a shaky time for her, moving from Boston to this tiny, lily-white enclave. None of the kids her age had bothered even to say hello, and she’d assumed with sinking heart that it was racism on their part. Maybe to some extent it was.
    But when she’d taken the ferry to the mainland that first day, there’d been some subtle change. A couple of the kids at Weymouth High had started in with crude remarks about herrace. Zoey had told them to stop, but they had persisted. Which was when Zoey had gone to get Jake and his big brother, Wade. Jake and Wade had made it clear that Aisha was one of them. They didn’t even know her name, but what had mattered was that she was an islander.
    Of course, it had still taken a year before she’d been really accepted on the island itself. And that’s when the accident happened, and Lucas was sent away.
    Climbing Way turned and brought Gray House into view. It was a two-story brick structure with an attic ringed with dormered windows. The Gray family, Aisha, Kalif, and their parents, lived in bits and pieces of the huge old mansion. The family room, her parents’ bedroom, and the small private kitchen and bathroom were