Dread Locks Read Online Free PDF

school used a different textbook, and their curriculum left her about a month behind.”
    I didn’t buy it. Besides, if she was really having trouble in math, she could have asked me. “Do you even remember how to do basic algebra?” I asked Nils. “Isn’t that a little beneath you?”
    “Algebra is the foundation of all higher math,” he said, missing my sarcasm. “It’s not something you forget.”
    “You can stay, Parker,” Tara said, “if you really want to.” “I’m sure you’ll do fine without me,” I answered, walking away from them. “Have fun.”
    Was it jealousy I was feeling? If so, I didn’t know why. Tara wasn’t my girlfriend or anything. Not even close. She was just a friend, and barely that.
    After lunch, Tara and I both had world history with Mr. Usher. Unlike our English class, though, Mr. Usher believed in assigned seats. I was across the room from Tara, so I couldn’t talk to her. As it happened, Ernest Benson was also in Mr. Usher’s class, and his seat was next to hers. It seemed to me they were way too friendly.
    We were endlessly studying the ancient world, and now Mr. Usher was on ancient beliefs in folklore and superstition. “When things went wrong,” Mr. Usher said, “people blamed it on the gods, or fairy folk, or even on their neighbors’ placing curses on them.”
    A few kids laughed, probably thinking, Those dumb ancient people.
    “One of the simplest Greek curses,” Mr. Usher said, “is only one word, accompanied by this gesture.” He held up his hand, palm out, then said, “Na!”
    Some of the kids twittered.
    “Na! means there!” he explained. “That’s all there is to it, but according to Greek folklore, it’s very powerful and effective.”
    I thought it was pretty lame myself, but my mind wasn’t fully engaged in the subject. Now Tara was slouching back in her seat, exactly the way Ernest was, as if they were soul mates. Ernest was very aware of what she was doing.
    I forced my attention back to Mr. Usher. “Now, one of my personal favorite curses,” he said, “is the ancient Chinese curse, May you live in interesting times. Does anyone want to take a shot at explaining why that might be a curse?”
    I raised my hand. I had no idea what I was going to say, but I had to vent some energy or I would scream.
    “Parker?” Mr. Usher said, calling on me, sounding more than a little surprised at my sudden class participation.
    “I think it’s a pretty good curse,” I began unsurely. “Interesting is a very, um, interesting word. Interesting times can set you up for anything—from something like a plague or an earthquake to smaller problems, like any kind of... personal disappointment.”
    Mr. Usher nodded. “Very good.”
    I finally had Tara’s attention. She glanced over at me with a different expression on her face—one I hadn’t seen there before. Could it be that I had impressed her?
     
    The next week flew past. Tara spent more time with Celeste and Nils. She was still working on Ernest, too, although as far as I knew they hadn’t exchanged two words. Tara wasn’t exactly ignoring me, but she wasn’t exactly going out of her way to spend time with me, either. I thought about going over to her house, but that might make me look too needy or pathetic or something. If she wasn’t going to make any effort to see me, I wasn’t going out of my way to see her.
    It was none of my business what she did, I told myself. And anyway, I got the distinct feeling that Tara really didn’t care one bit about Celeste or Nils or even Ernest. It seemed to me that she had some other goal in mind, and that she was taking the necessary steps to achieve it.
    Something terrible is going to happen, she had said. Was she actually planning something terrible? And if so, why had she let me know? Because something wonderful was going to happen, too. Something wonderful to who? To her? To me?
    On Thursday, during snack, I sat by myself in the courtyard, digging