Free Secrets of the Sleeper: True Nature Series: Book One by Karen Lynn Bennett Page B

marshmallow-covered chocolate yogurt and licked it clean, ecstasy causing her eyeballs to roll backward.
    I giggled. She was so over the top, I couldn’t stay worried. I pushed that guilty feeling into a corner and ignored it. So, Zander was out and Isaac was in. Moving on. Why did my stomach start to ache?

 
     
    New Friends
     
    I woke Saturday morning exhausted. Another night of dreaming. But I didn’t remember much. Just bits and pieces. Back to the cavemen people. Something about families attacking one another, a woman with seven wolves howling around her, and glowing red eyes. It was just creepy. No wonder I slept poorly.
    I decided to make Dad breakfast for a change, so I hustled into the kitchen in my PJs and took out some bacon and hash browns. I got those started before mixing up the eggs. The tediousness of my actions was soothing and soon erased the eerie feeling from my dreams. It didn’t take long for Dad to smell the food. Waking up to bacon was the best.
    Dad and I spent the day cleaning and sprucing up the place. It was long overdue and we rewarded ourselves with pizza and a movie that night. It felt nice, normal. No school drama, no boy problems, and no strange wolf appearances. For the first time since Mom died, it seemed that our life would, indeed, get better. This was us moving on. It was sad but hopeful. I decided it was a good thing. I thought about Bobby and hoped that he was doing okay. He sure seemed happier at school yesterday.
    I spent the next day completing all my homework and talking to Ruthie on the phone. She filled me in on the latest horrors of having younger brothers and parents who make you do chores for gas money. All I could do was shake my head and listen. She promised chocolate cupcakes for being such a great friend. That was probably the 100th time she’d said that, and no cupcakes had appeared as of yet. Someday, I was going to receive a houseful of them all at the same time, or so I could dream.
    The best part of the weekend was the call I got from Bobby. I don’t know how he got my number, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear his voice. He wanted to thank me for urging him to visit his brother. His brother had just started a different high school and he hated it. He had been super happy to hear from his big brother, and they hung out all weekend. I could have sworn Bobby got choked up talking about it, and it made me all warm inside when I realized I had really helped him.
    It reminded me of my summer at the rec center. Teaching the kids there had really turned my year around. I wish I could have seen Uncle Ira more often. I hadn’t seen him since he got me the job. I was told he was working out of the country for a while.
    Both Saturday and Sunday nights were blissfully nightmare-free. So Monday morning began with plenty of beauty sleep, and Ruthie surprised me with a plate full of chocolate cupcakes topped with fluffy chocolate icing. They didn’t even last to first bell. Isaac and Phoebe caught up with us in the parking lot swearing that they smelled chocolate, so we had to pull out the plate and share. Between the four of us, and Val (Ruthie had texted him to hurry over if he wanted one), they were gone in a jiffy. We walked into class on a chocolate high. It was a great way to start the day.
    Our schedule had been adjusted to make time for an assembly right before lunch. There would be no seventh period. I wondered if I would see Zander at lunch today since we didn’t have English.
    Ruthie and I agreed to meet at my locker and head to the gym together. We arrived just in time to grab a seat near the end of the bleachers. Isaac stood halfway across the floor, surrounded by a swarm of girls, but he was looking in our direction. He pulled away from them to head over, but someone beat him to us. Zander. I knew it was him even before I turned. The entire side of my body sizzled.
    “Hey,” he said.
    Ruthie reached across me to give him a high-five like they were