Rebel McKenzie Read Online Free PDF

squinty, the other drilling through the back of her head—an expression of my mother’s I’d perfected. “First of all, I’m boss. Second of all, his name is Rudy. And third of all, if you lay a fingernail on him ever again, I’ll kick your butt into next Christmas.”
    â€œYeah? You and what army?” the girl sneered. I noticed the plastic barrettes in her skimpy hair matched her ankle socks.
    I moved closer. “When I’m riled I have the strength of a saber-toothed cat attacking a spring hare.”
    She stepped back. “Who are you?”
    â€œRebel McKenzie is my name. Ask me again and I’ll tell you the same.”
    â€œShe’s my aunt!” Rudy piped up.
    â€œYou lie,” Lacey Jane said. “She’s too young to be anybody’s aunt.”
    â€œLynette Parsley is my sister. She’s fourteen years older than me.” I put my hands on my hips. “Where do you live, Miss Mouth?”
    If that girl took the personality quiz in Lynette’s cosmetology book, she’d flunk quicker than a skunk trying to hide in a snowbank.
    â€œRight there!” Rudy said, pointing to a neat gray trailer with dark blue shutters, but no flower beds or birdbaths like a lot of the other trailers. A fence with a gate divided her yard from ours.
    â€œMaybe I should tell your mother,” I said, keeping my voice level with just an edge of threat. “When she finds out you’ve been picking on a little kid, she’ll—”
    Lacey Jane’s face flared red from the chest up, like a thermometer. “My mother won’t do anything! So just forget about it!”
    â€œWhere is your mama?” Rudy put in. “I seen your daddy last night. He came home in a white van.”
    â€œThat’s his work truck,” said Lacey Jane. “He’s the drywall man for Merchant’s Construction. So you’ll go to my school,” she added sourly to me.
    â€œNo. I’m only staying with Lynette for the summer while she goes to beauty school.” I left out the part about being Grounded for Life. “I’m in Frog Level Middle this year.”
    â€œEstate kids go to Red Onion Elementary,” she said. “I’ll be in sixth grade.”
    â€œI’m in second!” Rudy said eagerly. “We’ll ride the same bus!”
    â€œDon’t get any idea of sitting with me, Booger Nose.” More proof this girl would score at the bottom of Lynette’s personality quiz.
    I punched Lacey Jane’s arm. “I told you not to call him names. You don’t listen so hot. Maybe I’ll tell your mother after all—”
    The ligaments in her neck popped out. “Leave my mother out of it! Go away!”
    â€œ You’re the one in our yard,” I said. “Are you always this grouchy?”
    I wondered if Rudy had started the fight by bugging Lacey Jane. She was probably the “somebody” who had mentioned the man with the football lump and the bingo-winning lady. Maybe Rudy pestered her about them. I could see where he might get on a person’s nerves.
    Reaching in the pocket of my shorts, I pulled out a roll of Necco Wafers. Paleontologists work long hours in the field and need a little sumpin’ sumpin’ when we start feeling peckish. So I always carry hard candy. Maybe Lacey Jane had low blood.
    I peeled back the wax paper. The first wafer was chocolate, my favorite flavor. Even though Mama claimed I didn’t have a scrap of manners, I held the roll out to Lacey Jane first. “Want one?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t like the chocolate ones.”
    I thumbed up the next wafer, which was pink. I hated those burny mints.
    â€œOoh, I love the pink ones!” Of course she did. She was a living advertisement for Pepto-Bismol.
    â€œLet’s get out of the sun,” I said.
    Lacey Jane lurched across the yard like she didn’t have any knees.
    â€œDo