Gifted: Finders Keepers Read Online Free Page B

best-dressed and most envied girl at Meadowbrook Middle School. She had a reputation to uphold. And feeling sorry for yourself was so not cool.
    So throughout the rest of the class, she kept her face fixed in what was a normal expression for her: mildly bored and generally uninterested in anything going on around her. She would not let anyone in this class see how annoyed she was. How they’d hurt her feelings.
    Maybe she shouldn’t think that ‘they’ had done anything – after all, it was only Jenna who had really insulted her. But the rest of them had laughed, so they were just as guilty.
    How dare Jenna suggest that her gift was worthless? Nothing about Amanda Beeson was worthless. As for her gift – she was a bodysnatcher, for crying out loud! Jenna could read minds – big deal. Emily could tell the future – so what? Amanda could become another person! And they all knew it.
    In this very class, she’d taken over three of them at different times. Tracey, Ken, Sarah – they’d all had personal experience of Amanda’s bodysnatching skills. They knew how talented she was, and they should respect her for it. They should have defended her against Jenna’s attack.
    In all honesty, she had to acknowledge (but only to herself) that she didn’t have complete control of her talent. In fact, circumstances often forced her to snatch bodies she didn’t want. Like the time when she felt sorry for Tracey Devon, who used to be so pathetic. Who would want to be in Tracey Devon’s body?
    But Amanda had ended up there, and that was not fun. She still had to feel sorry for someone to become that person, but it was getting easier. She could always find something to pity about a person. After all, they all had the misfortune of not being Amanda Beeson.
    But while she was very sure that most of the girls at Meadowbrook looked up to her, did any of her classmates in this class realize how superior she was? She suspected that they didn’t. They probably agreed with Jenna. None of them thought she’d be any help in a dangerous situation. And that was so not true. Had Emily forgotten how Amanda-as-Tracey had helped her escape from that insane student teacher? And didn’t Ken remember how she’d dealt with one of his voices?
    She remembered that experience all too well. The guy’s name was Rick, he was a teenager who’d died in the 1960s, and he was lonely. He bothered Ken incessantly. And when Amanda took over Ken’s body, Rick talked to her . It didn’t bother her so much though, mainly because she’d fallen in love with Rick.
    Ken didn’t know about that, of course. All he knew was that somehow Amanda had managed to persuade Rick to leave him alone. And he should be grateful to her for it. Not to mention how she’d transformed Tracey’s entire life. That was worth recalling, wasn’t it?
    As far as she was concerned, she’d done a lot of good for a lot of people with her gift. How could they treat her like this?
    Well, they were going to regret it, and soon. Because she was about to make an announcement that would stun them all and make them feel terrible guilt for teasing her.
    She’d planned to tell them earlier in the class, but Madame wouldn’t let her. The teacher had gone on and on about their enemies and the danger they were in and all that boring stuff. But there was one thing she knew for sure about Madame – she was courteous and she was fair. She’d give Amanda her opportunity.
    Sure enough, when Madame finally finished nagging them, she remembered that she had cut Amanda off earlier.
    ‘Amanda, you said you had something on your mind. Would you like to share it with us?’
    Amanda composed herself. She sat up straight and lowered her eyes. And she spoke quietly.
    ‘This is very hard for me to talk about.’
    Madame actually seemed concerned. ‘Go on, Amanda. You’re among friends here.’
    Ha! Amanda thought. But she took a deep breath and spoke solemnly.
    ‘I wanted to let you all know that I’m