Dead Ends Read Online Free PDF Page B

morning.” She stood and moved to the junk drawer, sifting around for a nail to fix the frame to the wall.
    I swept my arm across the embarrassing display. “We probably have enough for an entire year’s worth of rent. Too bad we’re using cash as wallpaper.”
    Mom slammed the drawer shut and flew toward the table with such speed, I actually jumped out of my seat.
    â€œYou’re right, Dane! Maybe I should start framing
these
instead!” She snatched my detention slip off the table so fast it made a snapping sound in the air. “God knows we have enough of them.” She flung the paper away, and I caught it as it fluttered downward.
    â€œI said I was sorry.” I sounded like a little kid.
    Mom only pressed her lips together and went about hanging her new treasure.
    I watched her for a minute, taking in her blond hair and her pale skin stretched over lean muscles, shaped by years of yoga and Pilates and whatever else she taught over at the gym. She looked strong, like me, but otherwise we were night and day. My brown hair and tan skin reflected all the dark inside, but Mom’s look was a disguise, because underneath she was just as stormy as me sometimes—and just as tough. I didn’t know who I matched on the outside, but inside, I was all Mom.
    I had a sudden urge to hug her or make her laugh, but I knew she wasn’t ready to make nice, so I packed up my bag and silently left for school.
    â€¢ • • X • • •
    I stuck to the sidewalks, taking the usual route. Halfway to school, I heard Billy D. huffing and puffing behind me. His feet caught up to mine at almost the exact spot where I’d put the kid with the Mustang in his place.
    â€œWhy didn’t you wait for me?” he asked.
    â€œWait for you for what?” I picked up my pace.
    â€œTo walk to school.”
    â€œWhen did I say we could walk together?”
    â€œYou didn’t, but … but I thought—”
    â€œYou thought wrong.”
    Billy paused, thinking, then burst out laughing. “
You
thought wrong.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah?”
    â€œYeah. I thought we were walking together; you thought we weren’t. And look, we are! So
you
thought wrong.”
    I opened my mouth but couldn’t think of a retort. How could something that made absolutely no sense be so hard to argue with?
    â€¢ • • X • • •
    Billy followed me all the way to the warden’s office.
    â€œDon’t you have somewhere to be?” I asked him, pulling open the office door and nodding at Mrs. Pruitt.
    We crossed to her desk at the same time, me reaching in mybackpack for my signed detention slip and Billy reaching for Mrs. Pruitt’s candy dish.
    â€œGood morning, Billy D.” She smiled and patted a chair next to her desk.
    â€œMorning.” Billy climbed into the chair and started shoving jelly beans into his mouth. The sight of him looking so at home in the disciplinary office pulled me up short. I froze with the detention slip half extended to Mrs. Pruitt.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” I asked him.
    â€œBilly delivers messages for me before school,” Mrs. Pruitt purred. “And during his lunch hour.”
    I wished she wouldn’t answer for him.
    â€œYou don’t eat lunch?” I asked.
    â€œHe eats in here sometimes,” Mrs. Pruitt said.
    â€œHe can speak for himself. He’s not retarded.”
    Mrs. Pruitt held her breath in shock. When she finally let it out, a string of disconnected words rode the exhale. “Didn’t say—horrible word—detention would be good for—of course not retar—disable—challenged—”
    â€œMrs. Pruitt,” Billy interrupted, either ignoring or totally unaware of her internal struggle. “Dane can’t have detention today. He has to walk me home. He keeps the bad kids away.”
    â€œOur own resident bodyguard, eh?” The