Reunion Read Free Page A

Kelly said.
    A thick fog, which rolled in from the sea after midnight last night, causing poor visibility and dangerous driving conditions along the area of the coastline known as Big Sur, is said to have contributed to the accident.
    â€œThat doesn’t sound like any earthquake I’ve ever heard of,” Gina declared, the skepticism in her voice plainly evident. “That sounds more like a ghost story.”
    â€œBut it’s true,” Kelly said. “Sometimes we get tremors that are so little, you can’t really feel them. They’re very localized. For instance, two months ago there was a quake that brought down a sizeable portion of a breezeway at our school. And that was it. No other damage was reported anywhere else.”
    Gina looked unimpressed. She didn’t know what I did, which was that that chunk of the school’s roof had caved in not because of any earthquake, but because of a supernatural occurrence brought about during an altercation between me and a recalcitrant ghost.
    â€œMy dog always knows when there’s going to be a quake,” Debbie said. “She won’t come out from under the pool table.”
    â€œWas she under the pool table this morning?” Gina wanted to know.
    â€œWell,” Debbie said. “No….”
    The driver of the other vehicle, a minor whose name has not been made available by the police, was injured in the accident, but was treated and released from Carmel Hospital. It is unknown at this timewhether alcohol played a part in the accident, but police say they will be investigating the matter.
    â€œLook,” Gina said. She bent down and picked something up from the wreckage at her feet. “A sole survivor.”
    She held up a lone bottle of Bud.
    â€œWell,” Kurt said, taking the bottle from her. “That’s something, I guess.”
    The bell above the door to Jimmy’s tinkled, and suddenly my two stepbrothers, followed by two of their surfer friends, streamed in. They’d changed out of their wetsuits and abandoned their boards somewhere. Apparently, they were taking a beef jerky break, since it was toward the canisters of these, sitting on the counter, that they headed upon entering.
    â€œHi, Brad,” Debbie said in this very flirty voice.
    Dopey broke away from the beef jerky long enough to say hi back in an extremely awkward manner—awkward because even though it was Debbie that Dopey was semi-seeing, it was Kelly he really liked.
    What was worse, though, was that since Gina’s arrival, he’d been flirting with her outrageously, too.
    â€œHi, Brad,” Gina said. Her voice wasn’t flirty atall. Gina never flirted. She was very straightforward with boys. It was for this reason that she had not been without a date on a Saturday night since the seventh grade. “Hi, Jake.”
    Sleepy, his mouth full of beef jerky, turned around and blinked at her. I used to think Sleepy had a drug problem, but then I found out that that’s how he always looks.
    â€œHey,” Sleepy said. He swallowed, and then did an extraordinary thing—well, for Sleepy, anyway.
    He smiled.
    This was really too much. I’d lived with these guys for almost two months, now—ever since my mom married their dad, and moved me all the way across the country so that we could all live together and be One Big Happy Family—and during that time, I’d seen Sleepy smile maybe twice. And now here he was drooling all over my best friend.
    It was sick, I tell you. Sick!
    â€œSo,” Sleepy said. “You girls goin’ back down? To the water, I mean?”
    â€œWell,” Kelly said, slowly. “I guess that depends—”
    Gina cut to the chase.
    â€œWhat are you guys doing?” she asked.
    â€œGoin’ back down for about another hour,”Sleepy replied. “Then we’re gonna stop and get some ’za. You in?”
    â€œI could deal,” Gina said. She