Among the Imposters Read Online Free PDF Page B

looked back at the school, hopelessly. Anyone could easily look out a window and see him, and report him. Maybe they’d just give him more of those meaningless demerits. Or maybe this would make them realize that he really wasn’t Lee Grant, that his papers were forged, that by the laws of the land, he deserved to die.
    Strangely, Luke could see no windows. But the door was opening.
    Luke took off running. He raced as blindly as he had that first day, trying to keep up with Rolly Sturgeon. Luke
     
    was crashing through the undergrowth of a small woods before his mind fully registered that there was a woods. Brambles tore at his arms and legs and chest, and he kept running. He whipped willow branches out of his way. He was so frenzied, he felt like he could run forever.
     
    Then he tripped over a log and fell.
    Silence. Only now that he’d stopped did Luke realize how much noise he’d been making. So stupid. Luke lay facedown in ferns and moss, and waited for someone to grab him and yell and punish him.
    Nothing happened. Over the pounding of his pulse, Luke could hear nothing but birdsong. After what seemed like a very long time, he cautiously raised his head.
    Trees formed a canopy over his head. A flash of movement caught Luke’s eye, but it was only a squirrel jumping from branch to branch. Branches swayed, but only because of the wind.
    Slowly, Luke inched back the way he had come. Finally he crouched, hidden by the underbrush, and spied on the school
    Nobody was in sight.
    Luke peered at the door. It moved out again, and he stiffened, terrified. But then it moved in.
    In, out, in, out—so slow—it was like the school was breathing through the door. Suddenly Luke understood.
    Nobody had pushed the door open. It was the wind, or maybe the change in air pressure as the boys walked past.
    Luke stuck his head out a little further. He could see one whole side of the school building this way. And he
     
    realized for the first time: There were no windows in any. part of the wall. It was solid brick, up and down.
     
    How could that be?
    Luke thought about all of the rooms he’d been in, since coming to Hendricks, and it was true—he couldn’t remember a single window in any of them. Even the room he shared with jackal boy and his minions was windowless. Why hadn’t he ever noticed before?
    And why would someone build so many windowless rooms?
    Suddenly Luke didn’t care. There were no windows, nobody was coming out of the door—he was safe.
    ‘I can read the note now!” he said aloud, and chuckled. It was strangely thrilling to hear his own voice—not timid, not stammering—Luke’s voice, not the pretend-Lee’s.
    ‘I’m going to read it right over there!” he said, speaking just for the pleasure of it. “Finally!”
    He strolled deeper into the woods, and sat down on the very log he’d tripped over before. Slowly, ceremoniously, he slipped the note from Jen’s dad out of his pocket. Now he would know everything he needed to do.
    He unfolded the note, which had grown worn from all the times he’d palmed it, secretly transferring it from the pocket of one pair of pants to another. Then he stared, trying to make sense of Mr. Talbot’s scrawl.
    The note only held two words:
    BLEND IN
     
    Eight
     
    “No!” Luke screamed.
     
    That was it? “Blend in”? What kind of advice was that? Luke needed help. He’d been waiting weeks.
     
    “I was counting on you!” Luke screamed again, past caring who might hear.
    The “B” on “Blend” blurred before his eyes. Desperately, he turned the note over, hoping there was more on the other side. The real message, maybe. But the other side was blank. What he held was just a small, ragged scrap of paper, not much more than lint. Even Mother—who saved everything, who reused envelopes—even she wouldn’t think twice about tossing this useless shred in the trash.
    And this tiny piece of nothing was what Luke had pinned all his hopes on.
    Too furious to see