Read Until Today for Free Online

making it up to me. He tried telling Dad to lay off once, but that didn’t go well.
    Missing my brother, I reach for my phone and dial his number. One little joke from him could help me forget this whole rotten day.
    â€œHello?” A strange voice answers.
    â€œHi, is Jared there?”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œJared. Jared Thompson.”
    â€œHold on.” I flinch when the guy at the other end yells for Jared. The least he could do is cover the receiver.
    â€œNope. He’s not around.”
    A girl giggles in the background and somebody turns the music up louder.
    â€œCould you ask him to call Kat?”
    â€œSure, Nat. No problem.” The dial tone sounds before I can correct him.
    It’s doubtful that Jared will get his message.

Chapter Six

    Friday, September 8.
    This week sucks. True, it did get better after that horrible first day of school. It still sucks, though. I’m glad it’s Friday!
    I dropped that stupid French history class. The guidance counsellor swears I signed up for it and I swear I didn’t. I signed up for creative writing instead. That should be cool.
    They changed my schedule around for the writing class so now I have lunch period with Steph and Scott again. I’m starting to think that isn’t so great. All Steph wants to do is talk about guys. I don’t know what she sees in them - they’re nothing but trouble. I’m sick of acting interested in her chatter. Her latest crush is some guy named Mike, who hangs out with a bunch of thugs. Talk about jerk alert! She sits in the cafeteria staring at him with her lame, puppy eyes.
    Steph and I have always been able to talk about anything until lately. All she talks about now is boys, fancy clothes, and makeup. It bugs me that I’m feeling this way. She’s been my best friend forever.
    Scott seems to avoid us a lot. He sometimes sits with a few other guys from his biology class. I caught him looking at me kind of funny a few times. I don’t know what’s up with him. He’s different lately, as if he’s uncomfortable being around us sometimes. He is often irritable and snaps at us. I miss the way things used to be.
    What’s happening to me? Things keep changing that shouldn’t. I don’t understand why good things change, but bad things never go away.
    No word on Taylor. She just dropped off the face of the earth. I hope she’s okay. I just wish somebody could help her. Everybody seems to think Mr. Bradford is so great. Everybody seems to think Greg is so great too, and I’m the only one who knows that’s not true.
    No word from Jared. Who knows if he even got my message? I tried again last night, but nobody picked up. He’s disappeared too.
    It’s too bad Greg won’t disappear that easily!

    â€œKat, are you out here?” Mom yells from the backyard.
    I glance at my watch and realize it’s getting late. Stretching, I try to work the stiffness out of my muscles. I’ve been sitting scrunched up at the small table in the clubhouse too long.
    Mom and Amy must be ready to go. They’re doing a girl’s night out – dinner and a show. Mom is already stressed over her class at school, so Amy has made it her mission to calm her down. That’s something Dad has never been very good at.
    If anybody were to ask me, which will never happen, I’d say that Mom is more stressed about not hearing from Jared. Dad asks every night at the supper table if anybody has heard from his “University Boy.” Mom fidgets, says no, and mentions she’s worried. Dad shrugs it off and says that he must be having fun.
    Carefully replacing my journal behind the milk crates, I leave the clubhouse. Mom is standing at the back door of our house, the cordless phone in her hand.
    â€œSteph wants to talk to you,” she says, giving me the phone.
    â€œThanks.” I walk back to the wooden swing that hangs from an old oak tree along the