I So Don't Do Mysteries by Barrie Summy Page A

beach. As I
thread through the restaurant, I can see Amber and Junie wolfing down nachos.
    Rob’s sitting still, his eyes on me, his fingers drumming the table.
    Junie asks, all critical, “What were you doing on the tennis courts?”
    Rob stops drumming.
    â€œJust looking,” I answer slowly. I don’t trust Rob. He totally
lied about going to the Wild Animal Park. I have no idea why, but he did. Which makes him a liar with
a wide forehead and too much hair gel.
    â€œWhat was on the ground?” Rob asks.
    I shrug. “Nothing, really. Sand. Dirt. The usual.”
    Amber stops inhaling food. “Did Damon Walker actually talk to you?
The
Damon Walker?”
    I nod. “Here.” I slide the boarding pass across the table. Bribery for her
chauffeuring skills. “You can have his autograph.”
    â€œWow.” With the pad of her index finger, she traces over
Damon’s signature. “Thanks, Sherry. You know, you’re pretty cool,
considering you’re delusional.”
    My breath catches in my throat. “Delusional” is so not an Amber word.
“Delusional” is a Junie word. What exactly did Junie blab to Amber about me?
    Junie concentrates on her napkin, twisting it tighter and tighter. Her gazillion freckles
pop out all 3-D.
    Elbows on the table, and chin propped on the bridge formed by his hands, Rob
watches me. His eyes flick to Junie, then to Amber, then to me again.
    Amber flips her hair back. “Like, about the rhinos.”
    Help. I know I should do something, react somehow. Instead I totally freeze.
    â€œAmber.” Junie glares.
    â€œWhat? Like it’s not whacked to be all worried someone’s
trying to kill the rhinos at the Wild Animal Park?” Then, exaggerating every sound like
I’m suddenly from Russia or somewhere, Amber says, “You need help. Rob says
there’s medication for people like you.”
    Rob says? Double help. Amber blabbed to Rob.
    â€œOuch.” Amber frowns at Junie. “That was my shin. And you
know I bruise easy.” She swings a leg out from under the table and begins rubbing it.
“Sherry, I just wanna say it’s pretty scary how fast you’ve gone
downhill.”
    I’m breathing through my nostrils because I can’t even get my mouth
open. Forget about telling her to shut up.
    Statue still, Rob’s taking in the whole scene.
    Amber straightens her too-tight T-shirt. “Do yourself a favor and lose the
‘I gotta help my mom, the ghost in trouble’ act. You’re the one who needs
help, and soon.”
    â€œAmber, shut up,” Junie says.
    Somehow Amber pairing “lose” with “my mom” is what
finally spurs me to action. I spring to my feet and race like I’m running for my life across the
restaurant, down the steps and onto the beach.
    Bent in half like a pretzel and hands clamped on my knees, I suck in raggedy breaths of
salty night air.
    After a while, I see Junie powering toward me.
    â€œSherry!” She waves her arms above her head.
“Sherry!” She huffs and puffs.
    I straighten. Here it comes: the Big Apology.
    â€œLook.” Junie toes the sand. “I didn’t mean for that to
happen.”
    No duh. Usually when you blab a friend’s important and sensitive secrets, you
don’t mean for her to find out.
    â€œBut we’re, uh, all here together for a week. And we’ll have
more fun if we, uh, get along.” With the back of her hand, Junie wipes sweat off her blotchy
forehead. “I think it’ll work if we just don’t mention the rhinos or, uh, other
stuff.” She pauses. “Okay?”
    My face must show how pathetic I think she sounds, because she rushes into,
“Rob can get us on the movie set tomorrow morning as extras. We’ll get to see Damon
Walker doing his own water-skiing stunt.”
    Tomorrow morning? No. No. No. That’s when the rhino