Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

she really just seen that?
    Anthony and Jackie? From the sick feeling in her stomach, she was pretty sure she had. Not that she cared, really.
    Except for the fact that she’d wanted so badly to tell someone what was going on with her. To tell Anthony.
    So another lunch in the art room, she thought as she started down the hall. She shoved away the image of Anthony and Jackie, unwilling to focus on how much it hurt-or why.
    The moment she reached the art room, she was glad she’d come. The smell of the oil paint had her fingers itching.
    She couldn’t wait to get a brush in her hand.
    Shirt first, Rae reminded herself. She’d ruined way too many clothes by getting so excited by her work that she dove right in without bothering to cover up. She snatched her long white shirt, actually an old one of her dad’s, off its hook and hurriedly putit on, then set a fresh canvas on the easel she always used. Ms. O’Banyon wouldn’t care.
    She’d given Rae permission to use any of the supplies she wanted.
    Rae knew she should do some sketches first, think about composition. But she couldn’t. She never could when she felt like this. She was entering the zone, the place where her hand had control of her body, not her brain.
    Green, I need green, she thought. She selected a yellow-green oil and squeezed a blob on her palette, then added a glob of a green so dark, it was almost black. She caught up a brush small enough to give a clean line and thrust it into the dark green oil. She slashed a curve onto the canvas. Another curve. Another.
    And out of those three curves came the suggestion of a face. Her mother’s face.
    Anthony locked eyes on the Lee High running back. You aren’t getting by me. Not in my first game as a
    Sabertooth. Try it and accept the pain.
    Marcus hiked the ball to Ellison. Anthony heard the ball smack into Ellison’s hands. He knew in one second Ellison was going to spin and hand the ball off to McHugh. But that wasn’t any of his business. His job was to be a human wall between the Lee running back and any of the key Sabertooth guys involved in the play.
    The Lee running back feinted right with his hip. Anthony didn’t buy it. He hurled himself to the guy’s left. Their face guards hit with a teeth-jarring impact. And the guy went down-hard. It didn’t look like he’d be getting up anytime soon, so Anthony took off for the goalpost. “I’m open,” he yelled to McHugh, who’d collected a pack behind him.
    McHugh twisted toward Anthony, and the ball came spiraling toward him. You’re mine, baby, Anthony thought as the ball slammed into his hands. He tucked it under one arm, lowered his head, and pounded toward the goal. If he made it, the Sabertooths won the game. It was going to take a freakin’ nuke to stop him.
    He felt an arm loop around one calf. Not nearly enough, he thought. He pumped his legs like pistons, but the arm didn’t release him. You want to come? Fine, Anthony thought. He plunged forward, pulling the guy along with him.
    He could hear people pounding up behind him, but the other guys on his team must have had the situation under control, because no one else touched Anthony.
    A grunt jerked out of him with each stride. His legs were burning. The guy attached to him was getting heavier by the second. Didn’t matter. All he could see now was the goal, like the white posts were standing at the end of a black tunnel. The soundsaround him faded, his grunts going silent, the other players on the field, too.
    His world narrowed down to the two white lines in the darkness. Almost through. Almost through.
    Through. Color and sound exploded back into his world. “Fascinelli!” the crowd was shouting. He could hear the cheerleaders shrieking with joy.
    Anthony spiked the brown ball into the brilliant green grass. Game over. Game won.
    Suddenly his teammates were around him and he was in the air. When they put him down, it was in the locker-room shower-with his uniform still on. “Time for