Read Howl (Howl #1) for Free Online

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    Samar a smiled, thinking back to her kiss with Luke . “It went good, actually . . . really good . After the bite, we both were kind of freaked out, I think. He ended up driving me home right away. He said he wants to go out with me again, though.”
    “Yay!” Emma squealed. “I knew that the two of you were going to hit it off .”
    Samara stared at Emma blankly, unsure if she was genuinely happy for her or fake happy for her. When Emma didn’t meet her eyes, Samara was pretty sure that she knew the answer.
    The first bell rang to let them know that class was starting in five minutes. Samara followed Emma to their homeroom class, whic h was biology with Mrs. Shay.
    As they took their seats next to each other, Samara couldn’t help but overhear the g uys sitting in front of them.
    “I almost hit it with my car last night, dude,” Ethan Miller said. “I thought it was a Siberian Hu sky, but it was way too big.”
    “I believe you, man. I saw two of them last week,” Mark Klein replied. “I didn’t even realize there were so many wolves in this area of Pennsylvania. I never sa w any of them befo re.”
    “Me either. I‘ve never heard of a sighting in Gra ndview before,” Ethan agreed.
    “See,” Samara whispered to Emma. “They probably sa w the same wolf that bit me!”
    Emma shrugged. “They’re total losers. T h ey probably didn’t see any wolf or a Husky. They were probably tripping and saw a bunny or something. ”
    Samara s ulke d. She knew that it was hard to believe that she had been bit, but there was no reason why Emma shouldn’t believe that there were wolves in Grandview. It was almost as though she didn’t want to believe her. Maybe she was still hoping that Samara’s date with Luke really had gone bad.
    Mrs. Shay came into the classroom, interrupting Samara’s thoughts. She was wearing an unflattering brown maxi dress, a cropped pale yellow short-sleeved cardigan sweater, and red heels that clacked against the tiled floor. Mrs. Shay had a habit of never matching her clothes. It was like she put a blindfold over her eyes and randomly pulled clothes out of her closet to wear . Emma always talked about how she would lov e to give Mrs. Shay a makeover and, for once , Samara had to agree.
    “Class, I’m really not here today, if you know what I mean, so I’m going to have you do a lab experiment,” Mrs. Shay said, pacing back and forth. “My niece, Lilly, is missing. Some of you probably know her. Lilly Phillips. Anyway, it’s been really hard on the family, so I’ve been a bit of a wreck.”
    Mrs. Shay whipped out a bottle that contained tiny strips of paper. “Your job is to test the PH level of water and compare it to the PH level of Pepsi and lemon juice. So, one of you should come up here to fill two cups, one with lemon juice and the other with Pepsi. Your lab partner should come get a cup and fill it up wi th water from the back sink.”
    Samara stood up and grabbed a cup. She headed towards the back of the room. She reached for the handle of the sink and immediately pulled away. The faucet had burned her skin. It reminded her of the time she had accidentally banged her arm on the oven tray when she was pulling out a batch of cookies.
    “Um, is everything okay?” Mark, who was standing behind her, asked. When she turned and looked at him, she noticed the puzzled look on his face.
    Sam ara shook her head. “The faucet . . . It bu rned me. It’s scorching hot.”
    Mark stepped forward and turned the faucet on , running his hands under the water . “It doesn’t feel hot to me, ” he replied over his shoulder, wi th a confused look on his face.
    Samara glanced down at her h and. The feeling lingered, but there wasn’t a burn mark.
 
    *
     
    As Samara was filling up her k h aki green tote bag with books that she was going to need for homework at the end of the day, Luke came over to her locker. “Hey, Sa mara. Can we talk for a sec?”
    “Sure,” she replied, looking up