Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and afraid I’d end up being rejected by everyone. “I guess. Hey, does Selby have a girlfriend?”
    She blinked and smiled. “Didn’t know you liked guys , Cap.”
    I showed the checkout lady my North High student ID card and waited for Rhapsody to do the same. “Funny. He just threatened me to stay away from a girl, but he didn’t name her.” 
    “It could be anyone,” she said, grabbing a fistful of napkins on the way out. “Football players decide they like someone, they mark her like branding cattle. Even if she’s not his, she’s his .”
    So, it could be Beautiful Girl, or any other female in the school. “Wonderful.”
    “It might be Asia – she’s a bobble head. He used to be with Sasha Anderson.” She sneered. “That girl’s been with everybody , though.”
    I had no idea who Sasha Anderson was, but I planned to stay away from her.
    We walked side-by-side to two vacant seats. I ate two bites of my hamburger before checking underneath the bun for a National Hockey League logo printed on the meat. That’s enough of that. I’d take my chances with the fries.
    After finishing them, I walked over to the trash can and dumped the contents of my tray. Along the far wall, Selby joked with a few other jocks. I wanted to let him know I wouldn’t be bullied, so I stared him down. Selby looked away, as if he was scared of me . That’s when I noticed an inch-long cut in my favorite Oakland Raiders t-shirt from our last family vacation three years ago.
    “What’s wrong?” Rhapsody showed real concern as I held up the bottom of my shirt and examined it.
    “Selby cut my shirt, that’s what.” I’d had enough. There were a few minutes left in lunch, and I didn’t care what I promised Debra. I wasn’t going to let an upperclassman punk me for the next month.
    When the guys around Selby started backing away from me, I paused. What were they seeing? Selby, I think, was 5‘5”, which is short for a linebacker, but still a couple inches taller than me. I thought he’d laugh, but he didn’t.
    “What do you want, Freak?” he asked. His expression screwed with annoyance.
    That was his problem. I didn’t care anymore. My body tensed, and for once I tried to press the anger down and gain control of it, like my psychologist, Susan Lin, said I should learn to do. 
    “I’ll say this once,” I said, fully meaning it. He probably needed me to say it twice – he was a D-student athlete at an alternative school. “Leave me alone.”
    “Yeah,” he said with bravado. “Or what?”
    That’s when it happened, and I didn’t black out.
    Before I could think better of it, I reared my arm back and threw a punch – not at Selby, but right next to his head. Kind of the way gangsters in movies do things just to scare someone into acting the way they wanted him to. That’s what I must’ve been thinking. . .except the wall was solid concrete. I did it so fast that I couldn’t pull the punch if I wanted to.
    I closed my eyes, expecting to hear the crunch of my bones giving against the surface. Instead, I heard a crumble and a bunch of chattering.
    “Did you see what he just did?”
    “. . .the wall. . .”
    When I opened my eyes, I saw Selby, who had fainted at my feet, and a fist-sized hole in the concrete.

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    I play in traffic
     
    There’s no lying this one away.
    Powdered white evidence covered my fingers, like I’d clapped a hundred chalkboard erasers. It smelled like clay and was caked underneath my nails. I guess this is what they mean by a “smoking gun.”
    Maybe juvie or the Black Hole won’t be so bad. Who was I kidding? It’s over. Debra will show up to Welker’s office with a one-way bus ticket. I’m going someplace with corn fields.
    It’s weird to be stared at, but at least the kids in the cafeteria did it in a good way. Even Art Girl noticed me walking out and mouthed, “Hi.” If she was “Selby’s girl,” she wasn’t anymore.
    For the second time in two days,