Girl in Reverse (9781442497368) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Good-bye. Good-bye.
    My brother trudges toward the streetcar shelter. There is only one Ralph Firestone in the whole world, but somehow he’s everywhere! He hands me a fortune cookie. “From the Chows’ place.”
    I put it in my pocket. Crumbs go flying when he cracks his. The paper fortune strip falls in a puddle. I do not help him get it. “What are you doing here?” I snap. “Has there ever been a day in your life when you were not bugging me?”
    Ralph shrugs.
    â€œIf I needed a pet I’d get a hamster. If I needed a shadow I’d rent one. What are you doing here?”
    â€œShopping.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAt the Chow House they’ve got a neat gift shop. And I’m also stalking you. Polishing my tracking skills. Remember?”
    â€œReal stalkers never wave at their quarry.”
    He gives me a sidelong glance. “What are you doing here?”
    â€œObserving Chinese people.” I do not add that I already checked the encyclopedia and our world history textbook, which have only distant pictures of people constructing bridges or working in factories with faces no bigger than the head of a pin. The pictures of the Chinese soldiers in the newspaper and newsreels are too scary to face.
    We walk to Cooper’s Drugs a few blocks away. I need a notebook. Ralph needs a mirror—more stalking equipment. We’re safe here. If Dad shows up now, we can talk our way around being at the counter drinking hot chocolate together on Saturday afternoon.
    I shove a napkin at my brother and shudder. “There’s marshmallow globs in your braces and crusty chocolate ick on the corners of your mouth.” He gives me a wide grin. His hair is plastered to his forehead and his ears stick out, pink as petunias.
    The door swings open and in steps a slew of older sorority girls and Patty and Anita. I shrink on the stool, turn to Ralph. “Oh, God. Cupcakes. ” I cock my head. “Let’s go.”
    â€œHey, there’s Anita,” Ralph says, “and Patty and Maureen. What do you mean— cupcakes ?”
    â€œ Sorority girls . Let’s go. ”
    So Ralph does. He goes right over and says in Mr. Chow style, “Hi, Anita. Long time no see.”
    I have no choice but to follow. They give me quick, flashy waves and smiles and squiggle into their corner booth—the Cupcake Corral. Maureen, my former locker partner, smiles, turns to my brother, and says, “Wow, Ralphie, you’re taller!”
    Anita stands, facing me across our deep pit of crippled awkwardness. “Are you gonna get a chocolate Coke?” I say. Why do I care what she orders anymore? I don’t. Her eyes flicker. She moves her head—maybe.
    â€œYour current event about the Red Cross was great.” I hear the whole drugstore—even the cosmetics consultants and pharmacists—gasp at the most pathetic nonsense sentence I have ever uttered. Anita and I both know I quit the Red Cross Club because I didn’t fit in. My face tingles. Even Ralph looks surprised.
    Anita looks down. “Yeah. Sorry you stopped coming to club,” she says, and slides back into her seat. She and Patty and Maureen wiggle their fingers. “See ya.”
    I bump out the door—a cliqueless alien. Ralph goes back to the counter and pays.
    I head to the streetcar, silent. I’m done. Permanently. I can’t trust my mouth and I can’t trust my whole self not to get up and walk out of class or throw Elliot’s clothes in the trash or stalk the Chows.
    Ralph nudges me. “What’s a sorority?”
    â€œUh . . . like Boy Scouts . . . but it’s for high school girls, except it isn’t Girl Scouts either. You can’t join if you want to. You have to be asked . Anita and Patty are grooming themselves so they’ll get in next year. No merit badges either, Ralphie. Just tryouts.”
    â€œTryouts?”
    â€œNumber one: