Rooster Read Online Free PDF Page A

and really, around them at least, he was not a bad kid. That is, he was very well-mannered whenever they had him over for supper, and he was always cordial at the door and polite on the phone.
    â€œWe just wish he had a little more ambition ,” said Mrs. Delaney one night at the dinner table.
    â€œA young man must have drive before he can steer his way to the future,” said Mr. Delaney. “A man who knows, goes. We never hear him talk about what he wants to be when he grows up. Where he wants to go to school.”
    â€œYou never talk to him about anything,” said Jolene in Rooster’s defense. “You have him over here, but you never say anything to him.”
    â€œWhat we’re saying, honey, is that we never hear you talk about him that way.” Mrs. Delaney smiled patiently. “We don’t want to see you held down by anyone, especially now. My goodness. Grade twelve awaits you, and then it’s on to the world!” She beamed at her daughter. “It’s an exciting time for you and for Rooster too, we hope.”
    â€œHe should really think about changing his name,” said Mr. Delaney, as a final thought on the subject before dessert. “I don’t see myself hiring a young man named Rooster to work in my department, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.”
    Jolene shook her head. “I don’t think Rooster will ever change his name. He got it from his father.”
    Rooster walked for about an hour along the path in the ravine. Out of boredom, he smoked one cigarette after another. The dominant thought on his mind was that Jolene would be mad at him for skipping again. She’d been on him a lot for that lately, to the point where it was starting to bother him.
    â€œYou’re starting to sound like your mother, you know,” he’d said to her recently. “Pretty soon you’ll start sounding like your dad. ‘Son, a young man who walks away from learning ends up with sore feet and an empty head. You can’t go if you don’t know.’”
    â€œI don’t care. It’s time to stop skipping so much.”
    â€œSays who?”
    â€œSays anyone with a brain big enough to figure out that skipping school so close to graduation is not a good idea.”
    â€œWell, I think it’s time to skip more . This time next year I won’t be in school. I won’t be able to skip at all.”
    Jolene shook her head. “That’s a really good theory, Rooster.” There were times when she thought a lot like her mother too.
    â€œI think it makes sense.”
    â€œWell, it won’t make much sense if you’re back in school again next year, now will it?”
    She had a point there, and he knew it. He also knew that with Puffs doing so well with his computer business, and Jayson on the verge of becoming an even bigger star athlete or making tons of money on his father’s construction crew, and with Jolene focusing so hard on getting into university, he was the one most likely to be left behind.
    That was the thought that scared him most when he thought of his days ahead: being left behind while his friends went on to make something of themselves. It was also the one he tried hardest not to think about.
    He knew it was a problem that he would have to deal with someday, though.
    He also knew that his meeting with Mrs. Nixon the next morning, whatever it was about, would not solve anything. He did not see himself walking out of her office with a sudden love for learning, or a burning desire to do as well as he possibly could in his remaining classes.
    He had seen her too many times already to believe anything like that was about to happen.

3
    â€œY ou want me to what?”
    Mrs. Nixon, sitting in her comfortable black leather chair, the one Bernie had bought for her two years ago, covered her mouth and pretended to cough. Really, she was smiling and did not want Rooster to see. The two of them