Best Friends for Never Read Online Free Page A

Claire looked down at her fluffy pink slippers.
    “Well, g'nite,” Massie said, her voice bursting with cheer. She kissed her parents and headed off to bed.
    Claire ran out after her.
    Todd was sitting on the hardwood floor outside the living room, playing his Game Boy on mute so he could eavesdrop.
    “Hey, Massie, how 'bout for the party I dress up as a rock star and you can go as my stalker?”
    “Hey, Todd,” Massie said. “How 'bout you dress up as a roadside raccoon and I'll go as a speeding truck driver?”
    “Are you serious?” Todd asked Massie. “I love that.”
    Massie ignored him and was speeding toward the stairs when she saw that Claire had followed her out of the room.
    “I can't believe you tricked me like that!” Claire shouted at Massie. “I thought we had a deal.”
    “Then DEAL!” Massie shouted back.
    “Good one!” Todd slapped his hand against his faded jeans. “Hey, who wants to make root beer floats?”
    But all he got in return were heavy sighs, stomping feet, and slamming doors.

HARDAPPLE ORCHARDS
HAYRIDE
    11:15 AM
    October 24th
    The rickety Hardapple Orchards wagon jerked and wobbled as it rolled over the clumps of hay and horse poo that covered the trails. The entire seventh-grade class struggled to keep their hot chocolate from spilling all over the rough wool blankets that covered them. Massie fixed her gaze on the passing apple trees and thought about how she'd get back at Becca Wilder.
    It was their second field trip of the year, and despite the chilly air and the bumpy ride, it was going much better than the first.
    “Hey, Kristen,” Britton Daniels shouted toward the back of the wagon. “You're not going to be selling any bad makeup on
this
trip, are you?”
    Britton and her B-list friends giggled.
    Massie saw Kristen clench her jaw muscles.
    “Don't let her get to you,” Massie said. “How were you supposed to know the makeup would make everyone's lips swell up?”
    “Yeah,” Dylan Marvil said. “It's not
your
fault they got rushed to the hospital.” She twirled a piece of long red hair around her index finger.
    “Dylan's right.” Alicia's beautiful almond-shaped eyes looked hazel in the sunlight. “It's their fault for having sensitive skin.”
    Despite the comforting words of her best friends, Kristen refused to let it go.
    “Hey, Medusa,” Kristen fired back. “This time I thought I'd sell you something from my new line of power tools. Maybe an electric saw will help you comb through that lice trap you call your hair.”
    Britton ran her hand across the back of her head. Massie, Alicia, and Dylan roared with laughter.
    “That's enough, girls,” Heidi said. Their nature-loving science teacher was zigzagging her way over to Kristen, clutching onto her students for balance as she passed. When she finally reached her target, Heidi rested her palm on Kristen's shoulder and continued her lesson.
    “We will be at the pumpkin patch in a few minutes. In ancient Greece pumpkins were called
pepons
, which is Greek for ‘large melon.’” The turbulent wagon made her voice shake.
    “That's a nice pair of
pepons
you got there,” Massie whispered to Alicia.
    Alicia was super-sensitive about her big boobs and Massie knew it. But she wasn't about to pass up the opportunity for a good joke.
    Alicia responded by smacking Massie on the arm as hard as she could.
    Dylan laughed out loud, but it was Kristen's cackle that caught their teacher's attention.
    “One more interruption and there will be no pumpkin picking for you today,” Heidi said to Kristen.
    Kristen lifted the wide collar of her turtleneck over her blushing face and hid.
    The horse-drawn cart rolled up to a huge pumpkin patch and Farmer Randy pulled the reins until they came to a complete stop. Heidi started explaining how the pumpkins' bright orange color came from beta-carotene, but the girls had already tuned her out. Most of them were too busy scanning the orchard so they could outpick each other when