Secret Admirer Read Free Page A

window.
    A soft tapping. Then louder.
    A thump.
    She spun around. Her eyes bulged with terror.
    â€œKaty—” she choked out. “Someone’s at the window! Someone’s
watching
us!”

3
 
    S elena caught the fear on Katy’s face as they both turned to the window.
    And heard a clattering crash.
    â€œYou’re right!” Katy cried. “There’s someone outside!”
    Ignoring her pounding heart, Selena hurtled to the window. She peered out into solid blackness.
    â€œWhat is it? Who is it?” Katy said in a voice just above a whisper.
    â€œNo one’s there,” Selena reported, staring down at the small patch of lawn at the side of the house. “I—I think I just panicked. I mean, we’re on the second floor, right? How could anyone—”
    â€œBut what was that crash?” Katy demanded, arms crushed over her chest. She hadn’t moved from the center of the room.
    â€œIt’s really windy. Maybe the wind blew something over,” Selena told her.
    Selena shuddered. The thought of someone peeringthrough her window while she changed was creepy. But it couldn’t be true.
    â€œThere’s no way anyone could see in,” she reassured Katy. “We’re too high up.”
    â€œI guess,” Katy murmured, eyes still on the window.
    â€œLet’s just go to the party.” Selena grabbed her bag and skipped down the wooden stairs. Katy followed close behind.
    Selena pulled open the front door. The wind had picked up. It fluttered her blond curls as she locked the door.
    â€œIt
was
the wind,” Katy cried. “Look!”
    Selena glanced in the direction her friend was pointing. In the side yard, a long, metal ladder lay on the ground below Selena’s bedroom window.
    â€œIt must have blown over,” Katy said.
    â€œBut what was a ladder doing there in the first place?” Selena asked.
    â€œRight under your window,” Katy murmured.
    Selena stared at the ladder in disbelief. Could someone truly have been watching her get dressed? She gazed up at her window and felt a chill run down her back.
    â€œThis is kind of creepy,” Katy whispered. “First someone sends dead roses and that frightening card. Then …” She swallowed hard. “Do you think someone is following you?
Stalking
you?”
    â€œStalking me? Don’t get crazy, Katy,” she scolded.
    She stared at the fallen ladder. It was very windy, and there were no people—or cars—on the street. If someone had been looking through her window, he would have fallen with the ladder. And she would have heard a car driving away.
    â€œThere’s got to be some other explanation,” Selenadecided. “Maybe my mom was fixing something on the house and she forgot to put the ladder away.”
    â€œMaybe,” Katy replied. “But I doubt it.”
    â€œHelp me put it in the garage,” Selena said. She leaned down and picked up one end of the ladder. Katy reached for the other end—then stopped.
    â€œOh, wow!” she cried.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    Katy pointed. “On the bottom rung!”
    Selena squinted at the ladder. And spotted a small orange circle on the bottom rung.
    A sticker of the sun.

4
 
    â€œI still say it’s some kind of joke,” Selena declared as Katy drove toward North Hills.
    Katy snorted. “Then it’s a sick joke. I mean, dead flowers? And climbing a ladder to spy on you?”
    â€œWe don’t know for sure that anyone was on that ladder,” Selena reminded her.
    â€œWell, what about those sun stickers?” Katy persisted. “What kind of a sick joke is that?”
    Selena didn’t answer. She stared out the car window at the large black trees along Old Mill Road.
    She couldn’t wait to get to Mr. Riordan’s house. At the party she could stop thinking about stickers and flowers and ladders. She would concentrate on having fun.
    But Katy