Butter Read Online Free PDF

her bound-up hair with one hand. The other hand was gesturing wildly, punctuating what ever she was saying with the jab of a single finger. I followed that finger to Jeanie’s face.
Cool! Cat fight!
    Other guys in the cafeteria had also turned to watch. Some, closer to the girls, must have been able to hear, because they began to take sides.
    â€œYou don’t need to take that shit, Jeanie!”
    â€œDamn, Anna! I didn’t know you could cuss like that!”
    â€œAnna can talk dirty like that to me
anytime
.”
    I wrenched my gaze away from the fight to see which asshole was talking about my girl. Asshole was right. Jeremy Strong was leaning back in his little plastic chair, balancing it on two legs. The way he leered at Anna made my skin catch fire. I bet he didn’t even remember how he’d called her “Anna Banana” freshman year, when her first attempt at going blond turned her hair yellow.
    I remembered. The name caught on and stuck to her for about a month. Once, after a particularly messed-up comment from Jeremy about how he’d like to peel the banana and see if she had “highlighted her lowdown,” I’d seen Anna explode into tears and hide in the bathroom for two periods. The insult would have bounced off any of her friends, with their hard shells. But Anna was soft, and she let it sink in. I knew how that felt—how words could physically hurt, and I remember thinking Anna and I had something in common. I had wanted to know her ever since.
    I guess I had Jeremy to thank for that—the master of cruel nicknames. Hell, he gave me mine. But unlike Anna Banana, the name Butter had stuck.
    Jeremy landed his chair back on four legs with a thud and stood up swiftly. I turned to see what had caused the suddenmovement. Anna was marching away from her table, aiming blindly for the cafeteria exit, and Jeremy was moving to intercept her.
    I don’t know what possessed me, but in an instant I was standing too, stumbling toward Anna and Jeremy into the corner of the cafeteria where it was silently understood that I and other less impressive teenagers were not invited. I was moving too quickly—my heart was hammering, my breath catching in my chest—and not quickly enough, because Jeremy was reaching out; he was about to catch her arm.
    â€œAnna!”
    It was like time stopped. I mean, it wasn’t just every single kid in the cafeteria that went quiet, but also the clangs and booms from the kitchen, the soft whir from the soda and snack machines, and the almost imperceptible sound of students packing and unpacking their lunches. It all just stopped dead in response to my booming voice. The Professor was right; I did have some lung power.
    I froze. I had no idea what I had hoped to accomplish by barking out her name like that, but I had to do something! That douche bag was about to
touch
her. Now they were all staring at me, waiting to see what the giant would do next.
    â€œI-I-I-I-”
    â€œSpit it out, dude!” some guy from Jeremy’s table hollered. It didn’t sound cruel; it sounded eager, like he—and everyone else, I guess—was dying to hear what I had to say. What could possibly be so important to make the fat kid talk? It’s not like I didn’t talk; I talked to the Professor, I talked to teachers, Italked to Doc Bean and my mom and the guy who delivered our mail. I guess I just didn’t talk much to the kids at my school. Now those kids were hanging on my every word—or they would be, if I could get a word out.
    â€œI … just wanted to make sure you were okay.” I said it directly to Anna. She shouldn’t have been able to hear me from all the way over on her side of the cafeteria, but the utter silence carried my voice right across the room.
    She stared back in response, her mouth falling open in a little circle of shock.
    I had to keep talking to fill the god-awful silence.
Seriously, what happened