My Extra Best Friend Read Online Free Page A

name.”
    When everyone is inside we stop and look around. A bed with a colorful quilt is just inside the doorway, in a little room separate from the rest of the cabin. Stuffed animals sit along it in a neat row. A desk stands next to the bed. Jars of pens and pencils. Pads of paper. Books. A laptop. Watercolor paintings are tacked to the wall above the desk. Trees. Flowers. Birds. One of the birds looks just like the chickadee on the banner outside.
Alex must be an artist, like me,
I say to myself.
    “This is where Alex lives,” Jenna announces.
    “No kidding,” Randi mumbles.
    “The bathroom is through there.” Jenna points to a door across from Alex’s bed.
    “First dibs!” Randi hollers.
    “Second!” Jolene adds quickly.
    “Third!”
    “Fourth!”
    I peek through a doorway into another, bigger room. It’s bare except for five bunk beds—three on one side, two on the other. A window is on each of the side walls, and another screen door leads out the back. All I can see through it are trees.
    “Home sweet home,” Randi says, nabbing a top bunk, then heading into the bathroom. Stacey takes the next one over. Meeka and Jolene grab the bottom bunks underneath Randi and Stacey.
    “Nine campers, ten beds? I’ll take two.” Brooke tosses her sleeping bag onto the top bunk that’s closest to Stacey’s, and parks her suitcase by the bed underneath it.
    She looks around, frowning. “Where’s my dresser? And my closet?”
    “At home,” Jenna replies, claiming a top bunk across the aisle from Brooke and the others.
    Brooke grumbles, squirming off her fat backpackand letting it fall onto her bottom bunk.
    Whump!
    “If there’s no closet, where am I supposed to hide my—” Brooke pauses, making sure Alex is still talking with the other girls as they wait to use the bathroom. “My…you know…my
stuff
?” She glances at her snack-filled backpack.
    Jenna climbs onto her bunk and peers down at Brooke like a grumpy pirate in a crow’s nest. “You were supposed to leave your
stuff
at home.”
    Brooke purses her lips and flicks back her ponytail. “I give you two days, Jenna Drews,” she quips. “Then you’ll be begging me for a share of the—”
    Giggly laughter floats through the open window by Brooke’s bunks. She darts to it, pulls back the colorful curtain, and gawks out.
    “Ohmy
gosh
!” Brooke squeals. “Girls!”
    Jenna rolls her eyes. “
Duh
-mazing,” she sasses.
    “There’re six of them,” Brooke continues. “Older than us.
Killer
cute swimsuits. One of them has gorgeously long hair. Seriously, she could star in her own TV show! I have
got
to meet her.”
    Alex looks over. “They must be our neighbors,” she says. “Hawks.”
    “Hawks?”
Jenna says. “Great.” Only she doesn’t say it in a great way.
    “What’s wrong with Hawks?” I ask, setting my pillow on the bunk that’s under Jenna’s.
    “They have sharp beaks and talons,” Jenna explains. “And I’m not talking about the birds.”
    “They look very friendly to
me,
” Brooke says, pulling Stacey in for a look.
    I start unrolling my sleeping bag.
    Jenna watches me for a moment. “What are you doing? Take a top bunk. That one.” She points to the empty bunk across from us. Then she leans in. “We can whisper after lights-out. Leave the bottom beds for Cee Cee and Liz.”
    I pull my suitcase onto my bed and unzip it. “I’m not used to sleeping so high up,” I say. “George might—I mean
I
might—get altitude sickness.”
    “But how are we going to—”
    Beep! Beep! Beep!
    Jenna suddenly stops talking and pushes a button on her watch. She lifts her chin and zeros in on Alex. “It’s time for our swim test,” she announces, hopping down from her bunk and marching over to our counselor.
    Alex looks at the watch she’s wearing. “I was hoping the other girls would get here first,” she says. “But it
is
getting late.” She looks at Jenna. “You know the way to the beach, right? If you show the