The Accident Read Online Free Page A

they hadn’t come in yet.” Hilary paused, then added quietly, “Mrs. Winn was crying the whole time we were talking.”
    Megan shuddered. Her nasty headache persisted. My friends could all have been killed, she told herself, believing it for the first time. They could have died.
    Like poor Juliet.
    Except Juliet wasn’t real. She was just a dream. An awful dream.
    What was almost worse than the dream was the feeling now that she was being watched. She felt eyes on her, following her every move. Her skin itched. It had started when she walked up the school steps, and it stayed with her. She had to keep fighting the urge to glance over her shoulder. When she did look around nervously, no one was paying any attention to her.
    The student body at Philippa Moore was sprawled across the back lawn on the embankment sloping down to the lake. The air was thick and sluggish, making any sort of movement an effort. Too wiped out by the suffocating heat to play volleyball or toss a Frisbee, everyone studied or talked softly while they ate.
    But the disturbed quiet across campus had nothing to do with the heat. It was the direct result of three of their own narrowly escaping death. The students were trying to deal with the grim fact of the accident.
    “I don’t get it,” Justin said. “Jenny’s a good driver, and it wasn’t raining yesterday. No slippery roads. Anybody hear how it happened?”
    Hilary, sitting on the ground with her legs crossed, leaned forward. Her thick, straight blonde hair was cut short and square around her ears in a shining cap, her round face pink-cheeked and healthy looking. “Mrs. Winn told me that when they hit that curve, Jenny aimed the car around it just like she always did. At least she tried to. But nothing happened. Barbie told her mother that the car just wouldn’t turn. It went straight into that utility pole like it had a mind of its own.”
    “Sounds like the steering went,” Justin commented.
    Hilary shrugged. “Maybe. Mrs. Winn said the sheriff is checking out the car.”
    Justin frowned. His sandy hair curled softly across his forehead. He was wearing khaki shorts and a white short-sleeved T-shirt. His warm gray eyes were pensive behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “Jenny could be out of commission for a long time. She’s going to go stir-crazy in that hospital.”
    “Well,” Megan said, “as soon as she can have visitors, we’ll just have to see that she doesn’t get lonely.”
    Justin smiled at her. “If anybody can cheer her up, you can. You’re good at that.”
    “Well, I think it all stinks!” Hilary complained. “School’s almost over, and Jenny won’t get to finish out the year.”
    After a moment or two of somber silence, Hilary sat up straighter and said, “Let’s not talk about this anymore. Too depressing.” She made a face of disgust as she said, “Guess who asked me out this morning?” Hilary could switch moods as easily as she changed a T-shirt.
    “Who?” Justin asked. “Who do we know without a single shred of taste?”
    Hilary crossed her eyes at him. “Donny Richardson. He asked me to a movie. Isn’t that a hoot?”
    “What did you tell him?” Megan asked, knowing perfectly well that short, squat, mustached Donny was definitely not Hilary’s type. He wasn’t tall enough or cute enough. He wasn’t athletic, and he wasn’t popular. Definitely not Hilary Bench’s type.
    “I said, ‘Not in this lifetime.’ The guy has the personality of a hangnail.”
    “Hilary, did you have to be so cruel?” Megan asked. It wasn’t hard to imagine the pain of that kind of rejection. If Justin ever treated her like that, she’d die. “You could have been a little bit nicer.”
    “If you’re polite with guys like Donny, they never give up.”
    “Well,” Justin said, “I think you could have been more tactful.” He grinned. “Although we know that tact isn’t among your limited virtues, Bench. Denny’s not a bad guy, and the girls in this school