Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    flirtatious compliment, and he suddenly couldn’t keep his eyes off one of the most awkward, isolated
    girls in the school?
    No, there had to be more to this. He was probably just confusing his desperation to raise his math
    grades and lift his dad’s punishment with something that bordered on romantic interest. He didn’t like
    Kate Fallow. He just wanted Kate Fallow to like him so he could swindle her out of her math homework.
    Just like he swindled everyone.
    There it was again. That peculiar tingle of shame.
    “Ha! Suited triplets!” said Chien, laying out his cards. The other players groaned, and it took Carswell
    a moment to scan the hands and determine that, indeed, Chien had taken the round. Usual y he could
    pick out the winning hand in half a glance, but he’d been too distracted.
    As Chien scooped up his winnings, Carswel determined that he probably should have quit while he
    was ahead after all. He was back down to thirty-eight univs won for the day, forty-six behind his goal.
    Boots would not be impressed.
    “Wel done, Chien,” he said. “One more hand?”
    “There won’t be time for it if our dealer goes out to space again,” said Anthony. “What’s wrong with
    you?”
    He cringed, the words reflecting his father’s question from just that morning. “Nothing,” he said,
    shuffling the cards. “Just had something on my mind.”
    “Oh, I see what he was looking at,” Said Carina. “Or should I say who .”
    Chien and Anthony followed Carina’s gesture. “Kate Fallow?” said Anthony, with a curled lip that
    said he highly doubted she was the person who had caught Carswell’s interest.
    Ducking his head, Carswell redistributed a new round of cards, but no one picked them up.
    “He was flirting with her in lit class this morning,” said Carina. “Honestly, Carswell. Do you really
    need to get every girl in the whole school to fall under your spell? Is this some sort of manly conquest
    you’re on or something?”
    Cupping his chin in one hand, Carswell leaned toward Carina with a suggestive smirk. “Why? Are you
    feeling left out?”
    Rol ing her eyes, Carina shoved him away, at the same time that the speakers announced the end of
    lunch hour. A groan rose up from the courtyard, but was hastily fol owed by the sounds of footsteps
    padding back into the buildings, and friends bidding each other good-bye for the whole ninety minutes
    they were about to be separated.
    Carswell gathered up the cards he’d just dealt and slipped them back into his bag, “I’ll tally the
    winnings,” he said, shooing away a fly that was buzzing around the pile of food.
    “How do we know you won’t take a little extra for yourself?” asked Chien, with unhidden distrust.
    Carswell only shrugged. “You can stay and count up your own if you’d prefer, but then we’l both be
    late to class.”
    Chien didn’t argue again. Of course, a lost univ of two was nothing to any of them, so what did it
    matter if Carswell skimmed a little off the top?
    By the time he’d entered the balances into his portscreen and put in a reminder to shuffle the
    money between their accounts when he got home, the courtyard had emptied but for him and the
    seagul s that were creeping in to pick at the scraps of abandoned food. Carswell slipped his portscreen
    back into his bag beside the deck of cards, and heaved it over one shoulder.
    The second announcement blared. The hal s were abandoned as Carswel made his way back to
    second-era history. He would be a couple minutes late for the second time that day, but the teacher
    liked him, so he couldn’t bring himself to be worried about it.
    And then, through the quiet that was laced with the padding of his own footsteps and the hushed
    conversations behind closed classroom doors, he heard a frustrated cry.
    “Stop it! Give it back!” Carswell paused and traced his steps back to the hallway that led just off the
    tech hall.
    Jules Kel er was holding a portscreen over his head,