Alice in Wonderland High Read Online Free PDF Page B

memory span. New gossip erased old mistakes daily, the circle of strife.
    â€œNothing, it’s—” He tilted his head to the side and his voice grew more confident with each word. “It’s cheesy. I’m embarrassed I even thought it.” He stared into his cup, then peered at me from under his eyelashes. “But you can guess if you want.”
    â€œUm . . . ” Strange. Why would he want me to guess an answer he was embarrassed about? Maybe he was trying to stall me before the police arrived. I took a step backward. I knew I should probably make a quick excuse and flee, but he studied me with such intensity, as though he was holding his breath for my answer. So I gave him one. “Every time you pass by the honor-roll board . . . you remember a test you haven’t studied for? You wish you had a marker to draw devil horns on my head?”
    â€œThat’s a good one. Let’s go with that.” He grinned.
    His grin was contagious. Yesterday, his reputation would have scared me off. But now? I was intrigued.

CHAPTER 4
    â€œWant some?” Chess held out the foaming, green liquid to me as we stood in front of the strange, red curtain hiding the secret garden.
    I stood on my tiptoes and peered over the rim. “What is it?”
    â€œIt’s what we give intruders,” he said. “Less abrasive than tying them up.”
    I bit my lip. I was hoping he would forget I didn’t belong here. “Too bad. Being tied up does sound tempting.” My brain caught up with my words. “Wait, that came out wrong.”
    He let out a raspy laugh. “Wrong is one interpretation. But seriously, it’s Whitney’s specialty.” He waved the drink in front of me, some of the foam spilling over his fingertips. “Organic. Has a bit of a bite, though.”
    â€œBy ‘bite’ do you mean ‘poison’?” After all, I hadn’t seen him sip it himself. “Intruders can’t break in if they’re immobilized.”
    â€œPoison? Well, if you’re going down, I am, too.” Chess tipped it to his mouth and chugged a good portion of it. He wiped the green mustache off his lips. “You could wait and see if I’m going to keel over, or try it yourself.”
    â€œExcellent, waiting sounds better than my pre-calc homework. How long does it take to kick in?” I checked my watch in a dramatic show, mostly to stall. I had no desire to ingest his little concoction. I’d learned the hard way about drinking unknown things: they usually disagreed with you sooner or later. A night of puking and embarrassing pictures of me passed out were my souvenirs for that educational experience. Come to think of it, maybe he was trying to get me drunk. The curious part of me didn’t think that would be so bad, getting drunk with a cute guy at the house of the object of my platonic affection. Alcohol might cure my cautious brain.
    But I’d already used up my embarrassing-moment quota for the day.
    He tilted the mug to the side, waving it back and forth. “ Drink me, drink me ,” he sang.
    â€œIf only I could remember that tagline they taught us to combat peer pressure in middle school.”
    Chess snapped his fingers. “Oh! I remember that. I think it was, ‘Peer pressure, the best way to make new friends besides bribing them.’”
    â€œSomething seems off about that quote, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
    â€œYou’re right. ‘Bribing ’ isn’t right. It was ‘kidnapping.’” He smiled. “This stuff’s good for you, I promise. Totally harmless. I was only offering to be nice.” He pulled the mug back and his mouth stretched into a thin line. “I really didn’t mean to pressure you.”
    I grabbed the mug from Chess’s hands and brought it to my nose. I didn’t want him to think I was lame, not when he might be one of the only people