Jungle Crossing Read Online Free

shoved Barb. "Well, I'm old enough not to have to sit by the teacher, like some total freak. I'm moving."
    Just then Alfredo called over his shoulder, "So you know Señor Paul?" I watched him flash a bright smile in the wide rearview mirror, but I still didn't trust him, not one little bit.
    Barb leaned forward in her seat and launched into a fifteen-minute explanation about the books Paul gave her about Mexico, about how his family always comes to our house for Thanksgiving and then for Fourth of July, and he has a girl about her age, but she doesn't even like treasure hunting. Blah. Blah. Blah. Alfredo talked about how Paul always visited
his
house after the New Year, and how his little sister loved to explore old ruins and wanted to be an archaeologist someday.
    "Me too!" Barb practically shouted.
    I considered jumping over the back of my seat, but the bus bounced so much that I'd end up falling into the aisle and looking like roadkill.
    "Why do you keep looking at me?" Nando asked.
    "I'm not." I scrunched low in my seat, pulling my knees to my chest, hoping that Nando with his combined score of 3.2 wouldn't try to talk to me again. I'm
so
not trying to look at him, but I can't look out the window the
entire
time. A few minutes later I risked glancing to the back of the bus and noticed that three of the girls had scrunched together. I could hear them talking in fake Spanish accents and bursting into giggles. It reminded me of the time Fiona's Five went to the mall and we spoke in English accents all afternoon. To the loo! Inside joke. If I concentrated really hard, maybe I could transport myself back home, where mini-camp was barely starting. Fiona's mom had probably bought Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
    The bus clunked along a sandy road to an empty beach where palm trees grew at angles out of the sand and hammocks swung between them in the breeze. Barb's coconut sunscreen smelled good here.
    "Okay, everyone," Alfredo said. "First relax, then kayak, then lunch. Okay?"
    As we got off the bus, the other girls ignored me. Next to tall-for-her-age Barb, I'm sure I looked like another fourth-grader. I don't know why Mom won't take me to get tested for hormone deficiency or delayed puberty. I'm like the only one without breasts—here, at home, everywhere. Maybe being devoured by a shark (reason number 18) would be better than returning home a total loser. I scanned the horizon for fins and saw Barb splashing in the water with the blue-haired girl. I should have warned her about jellyfish.
    Two of the girls stood next to each other making little motions with their hands.
    "Jessie! You cheer?" the taller one asked.
    "Yeah. I'm missing a ton of practice this week," Jessie said.
    "Me too."
    "We could totally practice together, C.C." Jessie made a big C motion with her arms, then switched to the other side. "C, C," she said.
    "You're so funny." C.C. giggled.
    Okay. Whatever.
    The Bronze Sun Goddess shared a hammock with the two guys. She looked like she was my age, but just barely, and she
could
be a swimsuit model. The guys both had the right amount of muscles when they took off their shirts. The quiet girls walked along the beach picking up shells, and the two brothers threw pebbles into the water close to Barb and the blue-haired girl.
    I closed my eyes and breathed in the smell of the warm salt air and listened to the waves roll onto the beach. Despite reasons number 1, 9, 18 through 21, 23, and 28, this really looked like a postcard of paradise.
    Too soon, Alfredo gathered us together on the beach. "Okay," he said. "Who does sea kayak before?"
    The brothers raised their hands.
    "Try speaking a little English, why don't you," the blue-blonde said in a low voice, and the cheerleaders giggled.
    Nando squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and muttered something.
    Alfredo showed us how to paddle and pointed to a small red buoy out in the sea that marked the coral reef. While the guides dragged long, flat plastic sea kayaks onto the