Twist My Charm Read Online Free

Sam’s closest, Roberta puts her with me and Larry. Great. Sam and I nod at each other. It’s hard to believe that she was once the best friend I’d ever had. The only other person who came close was Jane Anne in Ohio, who I knew since I was a baby. She stopped talking to me in fifth grade and I never knew why. Then I moved away and didn’t even get to say goodbye. I don’t want that to happen with Sam. I don’t want anyone else in my life to disappear without any explanation.
    Larry looks back and forth at me and Sam saying nothing to each other. “Well, I’ve got two words for this situation!” he says in a booming voice. “Awk. Ward.” Sam and I both let out quiet, nervous laughs. It will be nice if Larry’s jokes keep this from becoming too weird.
    “Cleo told me you were funny, Scab…Larry,” Sam says. I breathe a mini sigh of relief because she stopped herself from calling him “Scabby Larry,” which people have been doing since second grade, when someone supposedly saw him eat one of his scabs. “I guess she was right about something for once.”
    Ouch. Looks like Samantha’s not ready to be friends yet.
    Larry doesn’t seem to notice Sam’s meanness toward me. “Cleo said I was funny?” he says. “I’ve only heard her describe me as having genius smarts and crazy good looks.”
    “I did not!” I shout. “I never said—”
    Before I even finish my sentence, Larry cuts me off. “My trademark sarcasm! Don’t even think about stealing it. Now, who wants to be the leader first?”
    We all look at each other. More silence. Awk. Ward.
    “Cleo, you’re first alphabetically. Why don’t you go?” Larry suggests.
    “
Great
idea,” says Sam. I’m sure she wants to go first because she’s really smart, but it took me a while to realize that she’s also pretty bossy.
    “Hey,” Larry says in a jokey tone. “Remember, sarcasm is mine. Trademarked.”
    “Okay.” Sam laughs, shooting Larry the biggest, warmest smile I’ve seen since she and I were friends. Then she turns to me, frowning. “I don’t think that’s the
best
idea ever, but go for it, Cleo.”
    Now that I’m under the pressure of Sam’s unfriendly attitude, our three-dimensional puzzle tower gets off to a slow start. First I suggest we group the pieces with similar shapes together. Sam sighs, but we do it anyway. Then I change my mind and decide we should divide the pieces by size: small, medium, and large. “Aren’t we supposed to be
building
this tower?” Sam asks, piling up the medium pieces.
    “Not necessarily,” Larry replies. “We’re supposed to be following Cleo’s lead.
That’s
going to be today’s lesson. Learning leadership skills.”
    Sam nods. “Aha! You are a smart one, Scab—uh, Larry! No matter what Cleo said.”
    I’m really happy they’re getting along (Cleo’s trademark sarcasm!) while my brain is working overtime trying to figure out how to start this puzzle. Sam doesn’t want to wait anymore, though. She dives in and creates a base for the tower out of the large pieces. By the time Roberta tells us it’s time for the next leader, Samantha has already taken charge, telling us exactly what to do. But when I start to put a blue L-shaped block on the tower the wrong way, she grabs it from me.
    “I’ll do it,” she says, and places it perfectly. We get a lot of the tower done with Sam as the leader, but it’s not much fun because I’m just quietly doing what she says.
    When Larry is in charge, he asks our opinion of what should go next and we decide together. He places a piece, then I do, and then Sam does. Samantha compliments him on how quickly we’re getting the project done, and it looks like he blushes a little. Even with all the embarrassing things we’ve had to do for the play or in Focus! class, I’ve never seen Larry blush.
    When our tower is over a foot high, Larry picks up the last piece like it’s the Olympic torch. “Today, my friends, we have built not only a