Deception Read Online Free Page A

want to deal with that. I have to endure her being a princess at home all the time as it is."
    "You know why you really aren't looking forward to it?" she asked.
    I stared at her.
    "It's because you have never gotten dressed up. You don't even see your potential! You would have so much fun."
    "I doubt that," I said.
    She shook her head. "You would be so surprised. I bet you would love all of the attention too. Like I said at the park, I've always been jealous of your looks."
    "What could you possibly be jealous about?"
    "What isn't there?" she asked. "You're gorgeous. You only need to know what to do with your features. I think you are going to be surprised at how beautiful you are when you make the effort."
    "Well I don't have a date anyway and nobody is interested in me in the slightest, so I guess I won't be able to find out if you're right or not," I said, hoping the subject would be dropped.
    She smiled again. "My cousin is coming into town in about a week and he'll be here for a few months. You can go to your homecoming with him. You'll be stunning and everyone will forget all about Natalie. Aside from that, he's very good looking and all the girls will be jealous of your date as well as your looks."
    "You've got everything all planned, don't you? How long did it take for you to cook this up?" I asked.
    "I'm a very fast thinker!" she exclaimed. "So what do you say?" Her eyes were begging me to say yes.
    I sighed. "Okay, fine. But you're going to have to do all of the work to make me look good."
    "That's the fun part!" she squealed. "Let me measure you and I'll create a dress just for you!"
    "What? Isn't that going to be expensive? Or time consuming or something?"
    She giggled. "It'll be a lot cheaper and besides, I need to design a gown for a class that I'm taking. You're helping me out!"
    "I guess if it will help you out," I offered, standing up to get measured.
    The rest of the evening was fun girly time that I actually enjoyed. I didn't think that I would like being measured or giving my opinions on fabrics and colors; I was usually so busy with getting good grades and going to work that I didn't have time for any of that stuff.
    The next morning, I woke up before Brooke and peeked through her blinds to see what the weather was like, hoping that the sun would stick around. It was fall and the weather was sure to turn cold soon; I wanted to enjoy each warm sunny day that we had left.
    Before I could even tell what the weather was, like a crow flew past the window and cawed really loudly right in front of me.
    "Augh!" I shrieked, heart pounding twice as fast as normal. I jumped away from the window, no longer caring about the weather.
    Brooke was blinking her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily.
    I tried to force my breathing back to normal before I answered. "I was looking out the window and a crow flew by and scared me."
    "A crow?" she asked.
    "Yeah, they've really been freaking me out. Yesterday, a bunch of them were flying around me and it really unnerved me. Now this, it's so weird."
    "Yeah that is really...weird," she said. "Stay away from those things. I've heard that they will attack people."
    "I've heard of them attacking small animals but not people."
    "Oh they will attack people too, so be careful."
    "That's fantastic," I sighed. "Here I was thinking that it was just creepy, but now it's dangerous too."
    "Is anything else weird going on?" she asked.
    "Like what?"
    "Like anything out of the ordinary at all."
    "Things have been spontaneously exploding around me," I said. "On Natalie's birthday, a bunch of light bulbs shattered at home. They burst outside and inside. Then some exploded at Natalie's practice too in the gym, which was right after her smoothie erupted all over her face." I couldn't help giggling at that last part.
    Brooke giggled too. "That's strange. What was going on when the lights started exploding?"
    I thought for a moment. "The first lights blew up when my parents gave Natalie the new