Chill Read Online Free PDF Page B

your feet when you walk, Mr. Holinground,” barked the teacher.
    At first, like everyone else in the class, I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. I knew that Mr. Sfinkter didn’t notice us outside class, but could we really be that invisible to him?
    The only one who didn’t seem the least bit surprised was Chill. He kept moving.
    â€œPick them up!” Mr. Sfinkter repeated.
    Chill stopped.
    â€œI can’t,” he said.
    â€œYou
can’t
or you
won’t
?”
    â€œI have a bad leg, sir.”
    â€œWhat do you mean by bad?” the teacher asked. “You sprained your ankle, perhaps tripping over that bag you leave lying around the school?”
    â€œIt’s been that way since birth, sir.”
    â€œOh,” Mr. Sfinkter said, making it obvious that he’d just never noticed before now. “Well, I guess God’s punished you enough then, hasn’t he? Take your seat.”
    Chill spun around and returned to his chair without looking at anyone except Sara.She looked at him without pity, without judgment, with just pure understanding. I realized then what Chill saw in her.
    At the end of class, Sara took extra care with her books. Chill rushed out of the class, and I went after him.
    â€œHe didn’t mean anything by it,” I said.
    â€œWhich part?”
    â€œAbout your leg, he really didn’t know.”
    â€œWhat about Sara? And everybody else that he takes enjoyment in belittling, even you? You’re just too...”
    â€œI’m just too what?” I asked.
    Chill shook his head. “I hope he helps you out, Sean. I hope he does all the things that he says he’s going to do. But I can’t turn a blind eye to all the things he’s done.”
    And he walked away.

Chapter Eleven
    All the way home I tried on different excuses for why Mr. Sfinkter did what he did. I needed a reason. I needed to believe that this man wouldn’t be so cruel.
    If he was really as nasty as he appeared, then what were all those people that he mentioned really like? Even the other teachers thought he was great. There had to be something more to him.
    He did it to prepare us for the “real world,” for things to come.
    Once he did what he said he was going to do with my book, it would prove that he did want to help his students and not just put them down to build himself up.
    By the time I got in the door, I’d made that excuse fit quite nicely. It had to fit. If it didn’t, what would that say about everyone he’d told me about who looked up to him and were his close friends? What would it say about me, that I would defend such a person?
    No, I thought. Whatever Mr. Sfinkter is doing, he’s doing it for the best. Preparing us all for the disappointment that’s bound to come in life.
    At home that disappointment was everywhere.
    Dad worked for a construction company and the only time he talked about his job was to bitch about the boss. Mom was a nurse and I always had to listen to her saying how useless most doctors were.
    I hadn’t told either of them about the book. There wasn’t any point.
    I went upstairs when I got home and read until 6:00, until the news came on. Now that I wasn’t hanging out with Chill, it was the only time that I got to see Orchid, so I watched it even more religiously than before.
    I was still thinking about what had happened in class that day when the Crime Stoppers segment came on. It was about a man suspected of flashing women in the west end of the city. The description was of a large heavyset man in his forties with a beard and bushy orange hair. A composite sketch of the suspect appeared on the screen.
    Staring back at me was Mr. Sfinkter. My world came crashing down.
    â€œIt can’t be!” I said out loud. “It can’t be! How could he have fooled so many people? How could I have been so stupid?”
    And then, just before the sketch left the screen, I saw, in