A Snitch in the Snob Squad Read Online Free PDF Page A

tested the other balls. After picking out the lightest, I tried bowling again.
     This time my ball found its mark—the gutter.
    You know how when you rent a horse to go horseback riding, and all it ever does is head back to the barn? Think of my ball
     as the horse, and the gutter as the barn. By the fifth frame I had a score of zero. Vanessa got lucky once. Her score was
     three.
    When Mom hit her third strike in five frames, I could feel Dad bristle. Then Vanessa shrieked, “Oh, my God!” She whipped her
     head around and whispered into my shoulder, “I know him. Don’t let him see me.”
    I peered around her. Three people were coming toward us. Vanessa thought
she
was in trouble. Two of them,
I
knew.

Chapter 5
    W hen our eyes connected, Prairie called, “Hey, Jenny.” She waved her free hand. The other hand was held by Hugh. He grinned
     at me.
    Prairie hobbled down to our lane, with Hugh in tow. Thank God Kevin wasn’t with them. Kevin and Hugh were sort of friends,
     but only because they shared an interest in computers (not to mention members of the Snob Squad).
    I don’t know why I was shocked to see Prairie and Hugh. I knew Hugh’s favorite sport was bowling. Before the spring fling,
     when Prairie told us she liked Hugh Torkerson and we decided it was our duty to get Hugh to ask her to the dance, Lydia had
     concocted this phony survey—a questionnaire to find out a bunch of stuff about Hugh so that we could devise a plan. One of
     the questions was, “What is your favorite sport?” And Hugh had answered, “Bowling.”
    Basketball is a sport. Baseball is a sport. Even badminton is a sport, sort of. But bowling? There was a reason Hugh was known
     as Tork the Dork.
    “I didn’t know you liked to b-bowl,” Prairie said to me.
    I saw Hugh studying the scoreboard. “It’s my first time,” I said quickly.
    “Mine, too.” Prairie smiled demurely. “Hugh’s going to teach me.” She beamed up at him.
    I couldn’t take my eyes off their intertwined fingers. The closest Kevin’s hand had come to mine was the M&M’s exchange. It
     made me wonder if Prairie had ordered her wedding cake.
    “Hugh and his cousin Bruce are on a team,” Prairie added.
    “In a bowling league,” Bruce said, stepping out from behind Hugh.
    Pummel me with a nine pin. Bruce was probably Vanessa’s age. He must’ve been the one she recognized. Bruce was also as far
     from a nerd as any guy could get. Jet black hair with sky blue eyes, his huge muscles bulged out of his cutoff denim shirt.
     Hugh still had his pocket protector in.
    “Notice anything different about me?” Prairie said.
    I scanned her. She looked radiant. The way she always did around Hugh. Without thinking, I blurted, “You grew a foot?”
    Prairie looked stunned.
    Oh, man. Talk about insensitive. Prairie wears a prosthesis because she was born with a deformed foot. “I, I meant—”
    She cut me off with a giggle. “Jenny,” she said as she kicked my bowling shoe with her prosthesis. She said, “No, silly. Here.”
     She brushed back the hair over her left ear. In the fluorescent light, something sparkled.
    “Prairie!” I jumped up. My hand automatically reached over to touch her earring. It was a half moon; the other half was on
     the other ear. “Is it—are they—real gold?”
    “Fourteen karat,” Hugh said as he puffed out his pocket protector.
    “Hugh gave them to me,” Prairie said.
    “Well, I didn’t think Bugs Bunny did.”
    Prairie laughed. Hugh didn’t get it. “Karats?” I repeated. “Bunny?”
    “Oh,” he snorkled.
    What, I wondered for the trillionth time, did she see in him?
    Prairie said, “It’s an anniversary present.”
    Anniversary? They’d only been together since the dance.
    As if reading my mind, Prairie added, “Our one-week anniversary.”
    Wow, if she got gold after a week, what would she get for the entire month of May?
    I was in awe. I was jealous. Kevin hadn’t gotten up to gift giving, and I didn’t