Free Avalon High by Meg Cabot Page A

Some things parents are just better off not knowing.
    Like the track thing. I never bothered mentioning to them that I was worried about making it onto the Avalon High School women’s track team. I was glad I hadn’t, too, when it turned out rumors about the speed of certain freshwomen proved to be greatly exaggerated. I made it onto the team at tryouts the next day with ease.
    Liz was psyched, and high-fived me when the coach read off my name. Although later, while we were waiting for Stacy, another girl on the team who turned out to live nearby and had promised to give us a ride home, Liz warned me about the initiation.
    “It’s just this stupid thing Cathy thought up,” she said. Cathy was apparently the team captain, whom I’d met only briefly. “They’ll come in the middle of the night—well, really about ten—and kidnap you, and take you to Storm Brothers and make you eat a Moose Tracks sundae.”
    Since this sounded like the kind of initiation I might enjoy—no cat food or raw animal parts involved—I wasn’t too alarmed.
    But then Liz said they’d probably do it on Saturday.
    “That’s a problem,” I said. “I’m going to Will Wagner’s pool party after the Broadneck game.”
    Liz just stared at me.
    “YOU got invited to Will Wagner’s pool party?” She sounded completely stunned. Stunned enough that I immediately felt uncomfortable about the whole thing.
    “Well,” I said, “yeah. I mean, he invited me.”
    “When?” Liz asked, still sounding stunned.
    “Yesterday,” I said. “I ran into him running in Anne Arundel Park. Well, I was running. He was sitting—”
    “—on that rock?” Liz shook her head. “Oh my God. I’d heard the rumors, of course. But I didn’t think they were true.”
    I glanced at her. “What rumors?”
    “You know,” Liz said. “About him cracking up.”
    “Will?” I asked, startled. “Why do people think he’s cracking up?”
    “Because he’s been going and sitting on that rock in that ravine in that stupid park all summer,” Liz said.“He’s even skipped football practice twice to do it this week. I heard he says he likes to go there to think. Think! Who even does that?”
    I knew right then that Liz would never understand about the floating thing.
    “But anyway,” she went on. “Some people are saying—”
    “What?” I asked more sharply than I meant to.
    “Well, some people say he goes there to get away from his dad.”
    “His dad?” I feigned ignorance, not wanting to let on that Will had already confided in me about this.
    “Yeah. On account of what he did.”
    I stared at Liz, totally confused. “What his dad did?” What was she talking about? Will’s dad hadn’t done anything. Anything except try to force Will to go to the Naval Academy. But he hadn’t succeeded in doing that. Yet. “What did his dad do?”
    “Killed his best friend,” Liz said matter-of-factly. “Some guy Will’s dad has known since basic training, or something. Admiral Wagner transferred him to a combat post overseas a year or so ago, and the guy got killed in a helicopter crash.”
    “But—” I blinked. The truth was, I didn’t know whether to believe Liz or not. She liked to gossip. A lot.
    But she didn’t strike me as a liar.
    “That doesn’t mean Will’s dad killed him,” I said. “He didn’t do it on purpose. It was obviously an accident.”
    “Oh, right,” Liz scoffed. “And I suppose it was just anaccident then that six months later, Admiral Wagner married his dead friend’s wife.”
    Whoa.
    Apparently, I’d said the word out loud, though I don’t remember doing so, since Liz nodded, and went, “Totally. Anyway, now people are saying that Will’s dad transferred his friend to a dangerous post on purpose, because he’d been in love with the guy’s wife for years and years and was just waiting for a way to get rid of her husband before making his move.”
    “Geez,” I said, shocked. Will hadn’t mentioned any of this to me.