Spirit Seeker Read Free

many funny things I couldn’t stop laughing. The more I laughed, the sillier she got.
    Then Mindy picked up the ceramic statue of alittle girl reading and began waving it around. Paula, always cautious, said quietly, “I don’t think you should do that. That’s expensive. That’s a Lladro.”
    I heard Paula and got nervous and stopped laughing, but Mindy didn’t. Mindy giggled and stared at Paula with hostility. “What’s a Lladro?” she said. “This looks like a silly old statue to me.” She tossed it a few inches into the air and caught it.
    Paula gasped. I did too.
    “Mindy,” I warned, “that’s one of Ms. Donavan’s favorite things. Her mother gave it to her years ago when she became a teacher. She said so.”
    “Are you taking Paula’s side, Holly? I thought we were best friends.” Mindy glared at me with a look that made me cringe. I sank back in my seat.
    But Paula walked to the desk as Mindy tossed the statue and caught it again. “Don’t do that,” she ordered.
    I’d never heard Mindy challenged by anyone, and I sucked in my breath.
    Mindy glared at Paula. “Okay,” she said. “If you’re so crazy about this stupid statue, you take it.” She tossed the statue to Paula.
    Taken by surprise, Paula fumbled for it. But her fingers barely grazed the statue, and it dropped to the floor near her feet, smashing into a dozen pieces.
    Neither Paula nor I could move. We just stared, openmouthed.
    The door to the classroom opened. Somehow, Mindy was in her seat as Ms. Donavan entered the room.
    “Oh, Paula!” Ms. Donavan cried. “How could you?”
    She bent to pick up the pieces, and as she rose, her eyes were damp.
    “I’m sorry,” Paula murmured, and tears rolled down her face too. “It was an accident.”
    The accident wasn’t Paula’s fault, and I knew it wasn’t fair for her to take the blame. My lips parted as I tried to get the courage to speak the truth, but Mindy slowly turned in her seat, her gaze penetrating mine. I wanted to tell what had happened. I desperately wanted to. But I realized that if I did, I’d lose Mindy as a friend, and I’d lose the other friends I’d made because of Mindy. I was scared that nobody would like me.
    “What’s done is done,” Ms. Donavan said, her eyes still on the broken statue. “Run outside, girls. You’ve got about ten more minutes of recess. We’ll work on the banners later.” She stooped to pick up the pieces.
    Outside in the hallway, I felt sick to my stomach. “Paula,” I managed to say, but Mindy grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the playground.
    “She dropped it. You saw her,” Mindy said.
    Paula looked at me, but she didn’t say a word. Neither did I, not then and not later.
    A few weeks later, Paula was no longer in our school. Ms. Donavan told us that Paula’s father had been transferred to another state. She’d leftHouston, but the memory of what I’d done—what I
hadn’t
done—stayed with me. It taunted me through Mindy’s eyes, and I no longer wanted to be her best friend. I knew the difference between right and wrong. I should have stood by the truth and stood up for Paula. I shouldn’t have allowed her to take the blame.
    There was nothing I could do to make amends to Paula, and if the incident still bothered her, I’d never know. But I did know that I had another chance to do the right thing. I could stand up for Cody, if he were innocent.
    But of course Cody was innocent.
    I heard Dad calling for me to come back, so I hurried to their bedroom, where Dad was talking on the phone, repeating his guess to whoever was on the other end of the line.
    He looked in my direction. “Holly? Holly, pay attention. Am I remembering correctly that Cody drives an old, slightly beat-up blue two-door Thunderbird? Is that description right?” Dad asked. I refused to answer him. I hated Dad’s good memory. Even when I went out on a date, he was more a detective than a father.
    Dad turned his back on me, but I heard him