Trouble in Paradise Read Free

closer.
    “I’m going to wait here for a minute,” I said.
    Lesley stopped beside me, but gave me a questioning look.
    “You know … so he can have some privacy.”
    “That’s considerate.”
    “Yeah, considerate … sure.”
    And smart. I didn’t mind getting a bunch of grade sevens mad at me, but Jack was a different kind of animal. He had both a temper and the strength to make that temper count for something.
    “Can I ask you a question?” Lesley asked.
    “Of course.”
    “I know why those kids have come from England, but why are you and your brother here?”
    “Because our parents are stationed here … like I said.”
    “But there are lots of soldiers and sailors stationed in Bermuda as part of the war effort, and as far as I know, none of them brought along their children.”
    “It’s because we have both parents stationed here,” I said. “And because they needed them both here, the deal was that we got to come along.”
    “Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
    That was our cover story, so it was supposed to make sense. It was certainly more believable than the truth: wehad been relocated so that Nazi agents wouldn’t be able to find us and would go on believing we’d been killed in a car crash. That was the story that had been cooked up for us. It had even been an article in The Whitby Reporter ! Funny that it was so much easier to believe than what had really happened—that we’d foiled a Nazi plot to set off a massive explosion at a munitions plant. Sometimes the truth really is a lot stranger than fiction.
    As we stood there and waited, Jack said something and the girl giggled and laughed. She put a hand on his shoulder and then, to my utter shock, gave him a little kiss on the cheek and a hug!
    “Looks like you were wrong. He is taken,” Lesley said.
    The girl released Jack and headed off down the beach.
    “Can we go now?” Lesley asked.
    “Sure … of course.”
    We started back down the path toward Jack.
    “Are you going to introduce me to your brother?” Lesley asked.
    “If you want, I can—” I stopped mid-sentence. Jack wasn’t alone. Two other students, about his size and probably in his grade, suddenly appeared out of nowhere—and one of them pushed Jack! Before I could even think to react, Jack hauled off and punched the guy square in the face. He crumpled to the ground.

CHAPTER TWO
    I RACED DOWN THE PATH. “Jack!” I screamed. “Jack!”
    He didn’t turn around. He kept his eyes on the two boys—one helping the other—running away down the beach.
    “Jack, are you all right?” I yelled as I skidded to a stop beside him.
    “I’m good, but it wasn’t me who got punched. Might be a better question to ask him,” he said, gesturing down the beach. The two boys were still moving away, although the one who hadn’t been hit looked back anxiously over his shoulder.
    “But why did you punch him?”
    “He shoved me. Didn’t you see?”
    Lesley—who I’d completely forgotten about—stopped beside us.
    “Um … this is Lesley,” I said. “And this is my brother, Jack.”
    “I could tell you two were brothers,” she said.
    “He doesn’t look anything like me,” Jack said. “I’m good-looking.”
    She laughed. “Not by the way you look, by the way you act.”
    Now Jack looked confused. “Has George been punching people?”
    “Not punching—also not backing down. Those Brits don’t seem to like either of you,” she said.
    “How did you know that guy was a Brit?” Jack asked.
    “I know everybody in the school, and he’s from away. So why did he shove you to begin with?” she asked.
    “He said something about how I shouldn’t be talking to that girl because she was of a different station … whatever that means.”
    “It means that she’s ruling-class English and you’re a lowly colonial,” Lesley said.
    “I figured it didn’t mean that she wasn’t good enough for me,” Jack said. “I told him to go take a hike and then he shoved me, so I