The Trip to Raptor Bluff Read Free Page B

it looks like Brenda and her daughter are the only ones looking at the view.”  One of Abby’s classmates, a strikingly pretty girl named Leanna, caught Abby’s eye from the back of the bus and rose from her seat.  Abby said a quiet curse to herself as Leanna made her way down the aisle.  Leanna was in the same grade as Abby but had only been a student at St. Mary’s since September of the previous school year. 
    “Mind if I join you?” she whispered over Abby’s shoulder.  “I won’t crowd the dog sleeping under the seat.”
    “Not if you are going to try to save my soul.”
    “I won’t,” laughed Leanna.  “You guys think that having a relationship with Jesus means being all religious and stern and everything.  It’s nothing like that.”
    “Um, you are preaching at me in the same sentence where you said you wouldn’t preach at me.”
    “I won’t, I promise,” said Leanna, sliding into the seat next to Abby.  “Tara is sound asleep and her mom, Andrea, is making the rest of us be quiet so we won’t wake her up.  Like anything would wake her up.”  Leanna rolled her eyes as a look of disgust flitted across her face.
    Abby had to laugh.  Tara was known for nodding off in class at least a couple of times a week.
    “Between Tara’s scratching and her sleeping, she drives me crazy.  Not to mention that she looks down on me.  The only reason she’s nice to me is because Andrea and Lucy are best friends, and I’m Lucy’s foster daughter.  If Andrea and Lucy weren’t friends, Tara would totally bully me.”
    “You are probably right about that.  Until you started at Saint Mary’s, Tara was the undisputed fairest in the land.”
    “Oh well,” sang Leanna. “As long as Andrea and Lucy stay friends, I ‘m safe from Tara.  Sucks to be her!”
    “How did you end up living with Lucy?” asked Rick, who was listening to the exchange.  “It’s none of my business I guess, but I’m asking anyway.”
    “Through church,” said Leanna.  “Lucy teaches Bible study and the meetings are at her house.  I’m part of the youth group and that’s how we met.  I told her I was having problems with the dad in my last foster home and she offered to take me in.”
    “Lucy teaches Bible classes?” The look of shock on Rick’s face made both girls laugh.
    “Yeah, I know,” shrugged Leanna.  “She doesn’t come across as a people person, does she?  I was kind of worried at first but things have turned out OK.  She’s actually really good to me, not that we will ever be close.  The only person who she’s close to is Andrea, but that’s because Andrea acts like her slave.”  Leanna shrugged again.  “Like I said, Lucy is really good to me, and her daughter Dakota is a great kid.  I’m lucky that Lucy took me in.  Nobody’s perfect, right?”
    “Shhhh, Leanna,” hissed Abby.  “What if someone hears you?  Your voice carries!”  Abby didn’t trust Leanna.  She had genuinely liked her when they met at the beginning of the school year, but soon realized that Leanna needed to project herself as an authority on just about everything. The girls were still friendly with each other, but Abby found Leanna’s preaching and her know-it-all attitude to be insufferable. Still, she couldn’t help but ask, “You sound pretty disgusted with Tara.  Did you guys have a falling out?”
    “She has everyone fooled,” Leanna whispered.  “I better not say anything else.”  She pressed her lips together but her eyes shouted that she had gossip of monumental proportions.
    Abby decided not to give her the satisfaction of pressing for information.  Instead, she lifted the book that was lying face down in her lap.  “I’m not going to be much better company than Tara is.  I want to watch the scenery and finish this chapter before we stop.”

Chapter 3              Hammer Mountain State Park
     
    Abby was still reading with her head against the window when the