Free The Good Sister by Wendy Corsi Staub

replaying scenes over and over in her head like a horror movie that keeps you tossing and turning long after the final credits.
    Why, oh why, wasn’t Carley suspicious when she found out that she’d been elected Spring Fling princess?
    Because it was the biggest thrill—the best surprise—of your life, that’s why.
    Because you thought things were finally starting to turn around after what happened with Nicki.
    You thought you were going to be popular after all, and maybe have a group of friends, like a normal high school girl, like Mom promised.
    You thought they must have voted for you because you embody all the qualities Sister Thomas Katherine said a Spring Fling princess should have: good citizenship, solid morals, impeccable manners, intelligence, a charitable heart . . .
    To think Carley actually got tears in her eyes—happy tears—when she heard her name over the loudspeaker during the morning announcements. “And now, we have the election results for the royal court at the Spring Fling dance. Representing the freshman class will be Carley Archer . . .”
    Sitting there in homeroom, she gasped aloud.
    That can’t be right! she thought wildly, surrounded, as she was, by over a dozen girls whose names she wouldn’t have been surprised to hear—except maybe Kendra Hyde’s.
    Kendra is what Mom would call “a little rough around the edges.” She wears eyeliner and big earrings and sometimes she smells faintly of cigarette smoke, and she seems much older than she is. Carley heard that her mother died when she was little, and she lives alone with her dad, who isn’t exactly hands-on.
    She isn’t Spring Fling princess material by any stretch, but Carley had written her name on the ballot anyway, the prior Monday morning. At least she’s kind of friendly, unlike snotty front runner Melissa Kovacs.
    But then Carley’s name was announced, and she knew that it had to be real because everyone was congratulating her, and they seemed so sincere . . .
    Stupid. It’s your own fault for being so stupid, so gullible.
    Everywhere she went, people were smiling at her. That’s what she thought, anyway.
    Smiling at you? They were laughing at you. Laughing right in your face, and you made a fool of yourself, telling them how happy and excited you were . . .
    She floated through school that day, even working up the courage to give Johnny, the janitor, a flirtatious grin and hello when she saw him in the basement hallway on her way to the computer tech lab. He had his book and apple and was just about to open the door to the custodian’s storage closet, skirting around several cans of red and black paint that blocked his way, along with a trio of gigantic papier-mâché ladybugs the decorating committee had been working on for Spring Fling.
    Spring Fling! I’m Spring Fling princess!
    “Ready any good books lately?” a newly emboldened Carley asked Johnny.
    He looked surprised—pleasantly so—and nodded. “A bunch. How about you?”
    “Not really. Maybe you could recommend something to me.”
    “I just finished A Farewell to Arms for a lit class,” he said as he flicked on the storage closet light. “Do you like Hemingway?”
    “You’re taking a lit class? Are you . . . I thought . . .”
    “I’m getting my GED at night,” he said, reaching into the closet toward a shelf right beside the door. It was lined with cleaning supplies, but he plucked a pocket knife from among them.
    “What’s your GED?” Carley asked.
    “High school diploma,” Johnny explained, setting to work peeling his apple. “I had to drop out. I work two jobs.”
    “Oh!”
    She stayed there talking to him for another minute as he impressively peeled the apple and tucked the knife back onto the shelf, but then told him she had to hurry to class.
    She wasn’t sure how she felt about Johnny being in school. It meant he wasn’t the kind of guy who reads Hemingway for fun. And maybe it meant he wasn’t quite as old as