Afraid Read Online Free Page A

still looked very uncertain. “But messing up the curve doesn’t get you many friends.”
    Jerry laughed. “Oh, I don’t know about that. You could be very popular with me if you helped me study for next week’s test. How about it, Lisa? Will you?”
    â€œWell—yes. I could do that.” Lisa began to smile. “There’s only one problem. I work after school.”
    â€œWhere do you work?” Jerry looked interested.
    â€œI’m a waitress at Shelly’s Coffee Shop on Fourth Street. It’s right across from the hospital.”
    â€œI don’t think I’ve ever been in there.” Jerry frowned slightly. “What kind of place is it?”
    Lisa laughed. “It’s ptomaine central. At least that’s what the interns call it. We send them most of their patients.”
    â€œPtomaine? As in ptomaine poisoning?” Jerry cracked up when Lisa nodded. “I was going to say I’d come in for a burger, but I think I’ll pass. What time do you get off?”
    â€œNine. That’s when we close. But then I have to go home and baby-sit. My mother works late, and my dad’s on call most nights.”
    â€œI could come to your house if your parents wouldn’t mind. Would that be okay with you, Lisa? I don’t want to blow this next test.”
    Lisa hesitated, and Donna thought she knew why. Lisa had mentioned that her family lived in a small, rented house on the edge of town. She was probably embarrassed and didn’t want Jerry to see it.
    Jerry leaned across the table. He looked very serious. “Come on, Lisa. Please help me out.”
    â€œWell . . . okay.” Lisa gave him a shy smile. “I guess we could study tonight, if that’s all right with you.”
    Jerry nodded, and then he stood up to wave at someone who’d just gone through the lunch line. Donna turned and began to blush as she saw that it was Steve.
    â€œHey, Steve! Over here!” Jerry waved once more and sat down again. And a moment later, Steve came over to their table.
    â€œHey, Donna . . . Lisa.” Steve set down his tray and pulled out a chair. “Any news on your scholarship, Jer?”
    Jerry nodded. “I got it—but they weren’t exactly thrilled when they saw how I was doing in calculus. Of course that’s going to change now that Lisa’s come into my life.”
    â€œI’m tutoring him.” Lisa was blushing as she explained.
    â€œGreat!” Steve gave her a warm grin, and then he turned to Donna. “I beard about your article this morning. It’s a really good idea. Everybody’s waiting to read it.”
    Donna frowned slightly. “Everybody except Tammy, right?”
    â€œWrong.” Steve shook his head. “Tammy thinks it’ll bring more publicity for the play, and all that stuff.”
    â€œBut my article’s not due until the end of next week and the play opens this Friday.”
    Steve nodded. “I know. That’s why Miss Adams is going to ask you to do a flyer about the cursed shoes. Tammy wants to send some to every school in the county so they’ll come to see her in the play.”
    â€œOh.” Donna tried not to show how upset she was. Tammy was trying to sabotage her article! Miss Adams would expect Donna to use all the best lines from her article in the flyer. And then, when “Curses and Superstitions” was published in the school paper, the students would have already read part of it.
    Steve seemed to know exactly how she was feeling because he reached out to take her hand. “Look, Donna, I know you’ll be using some of your best stuff in the flyer, but it could be almost like a serial in a magazine. You know—the first part will come out and everybody’ll read it. And then they’ll be holding their breath, waiting for the next part.”
    Donna nodded. What Steve said was true. Perhaps she could turn Tammy’s dirty