Running Scared Read Online Free PDF Page B

any way, shape, or form. And telling someone that they’re going to kill you—”
    “Big deal.” He shrugged on the bed. “He says it all the time. It’s just an expression, and you know what?” Jon’s eyes squinted up at her.
    “What?”
    “He’d never do it. It’s all just talk because Neider’s afraid of me. He’s not going to kill me.” Jon seemed confident, as if one punch to Todd’s nose made up for all the years of being afraid.
    “When did all this happen?”
    “I don’t know.” Another lift of his shoulder. “It was just before lunch.”
    The phone rang and Kate’s heart squeezed.
    Jon scowled. “Somebody at school probably figured out I was gone.”
    “Wonderful,” she muttered sarcastically, barely able to control her temper. She was angry with him—furious—but it wouldn’t help to start yelling. And she was worried—worried sick. She had to remind herself that she was the adult in this discussion. “I’ll get the phone and you clean this room. Pronto. You’re in big trouble, Jon. Not just with the school, but with me. You can’t go around punching someone’s lights out even if they are giving you a bad time.”
    “So what’m I s’posed to do? Call you? Dial 911? Or go cry to the principal?” he sneered under his breath as Kate hurried out of his room and down the stairs.
    She grabbed the receiver on the fly, just before the answering machine picked up. “Hello?”
    “Mrs. Summers? This is Don McPherson.”
    Her stomach clenched, as it always did when there was trouble with Jon. She listened as the vice principal told her basically the same story that Jon had. “What makes it worse,” McPherson continued, his voice heavy, “is that Jon didn’t stay here. He snuck out. That’s another day’s suspension.” She heard him sigh and riffle through a series of papers—probably her son’s file, which was growing thicker by the minute. “You know, Jon’s had his problems, but he’s always been able to deal with them. Until now. Personally, I think it’s good in a way. He needs to stick up for himself. But he can’t break the rules.”
    “I know. I’ll talk to him.”
    “You can pick up his assignments; they’ll be in the office and we’ll start with a clean slate on Tuesday.”
    She closed her eyes. “It’s…it’s difficult for him.”
    “I know. But then it’s hard for all teenagers today. Lots of pressure. Too much. In Jon’s case it’s amplified.”
    Leaning against the refrigerator, Kate rubbed a temple with her free hand. Jon was a good-hearted, smart kid who most of his classmates thought was some kind of oddity. The parents weren’t much better. Several had warned their children to stay away from “that peculiar Summers boy.” A few others had even said they thought he was a devil worshipper. All because Jon had the ability to see through a window into the future. Sometimes. The window wasn’t always clear. Thank God. In all these years he hadn’t divined that he was adopted, that somewhere far away he had another set of parents.
    “You still want him mainstreamed, don’t you?” McPherson asked, bringing up a subject she detested—that of a special school.
    “Of course.” Kate firmly believed that her son needed to be with kids his own age, even the cruel ones. More than anything, she wanted Jon to fit in. To be responsible. To be happy. Oh, Lord, if she could find a way to make him happy.
    “Well, let’s not throw in the towel just yet. This isn’t a one-sided situation by any means. The other party is just as much at fault. Let’s see what the next few weeks bring. There’s only, what—six or seven weeks of school until Christmas break? We’ll talk then.”
    She let out her breath slowly as she hung up. She and Jon had lived in Hopewell for eleven years, ever since she determined that she wanted him to have some of the same happy memories of farm life that she had. Though Jon had never really fit in with his peers, a handful of