Shutout Read Online Free PDF Page A

I wrote.
    A couple of minutes later my phone beeped, and Mom replied: “That sux. Ice cream tonite?”
    See, now whereas Dad thinks boring me with some story about how he was a loser is the way to react to something like this, Mom knows exactly what you need when you’re upset.
    â€œTotally,” I texted back.
    â€œGirls only,” she replied. I flipped the phone closed and smiled. I picked up my last summer reading book and tried to read but couldn’t because of the noise. All three boys were now playing Mario Party, and I could hear Conrad bellowing in his best Luigi voice, “Im-a De Best!”
    I plugged my ears with my iPod and read for a while, but a few minutes later Dominic came knocking at my door.
    â€œYeah?” I said, annoyed. Why wouldn’t the kid let me sulk?
    â€œAmanda?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWill you play Operation with me?”
    I took a moment before I answered. I really wanted to tell him to buzz off and go bug somebody else, but then I’d feel guilty and sad instead of just sad. I knew he was up here because Dad and Conrad never let him win at anything, and I always let him win. Well, I didn’t have a choice.
    â€œSure. Come on in,” I sighed.
    He came in, all smiles, with the battered Operation box under his arm. “Great. Dad and Conrad are hogging the video games.”
    â€œYeah, they’ll do that,” I said. We spent the next half hour digging plastic bits out of a two-dimensional guy. I like playing Operation with Dominic because it requires no effort at all to figure out how to let him win without looking like you’re letting him win. Just pick up the water on the knee or whatever and buzz against the side and act mad.
    Dominic was about a thousand dollars ahead of me when he suddenly busted out with “I hate school.”
    â€œHow come?” I asked.
    â€œBecause it’s boring and hard,” he said.
    â€œYeah,” I replied.
    â€œI don’t want to go,” he whined.
    â€œMe neither,” I said.
    â€œSo why don’t we stay home? We can homeschool ourselves! And take field trips and stuff.”
    It was weirdly appealing. Not so much the hanging out with my eight-year-old brother all day, though he had managed to make me forget how upset I was for a few minutes, but the idea of opting out of everything. No high school, no cliques, no popularity, no grade-grubbing, no scary new school,none of it. Just stay home and read and occasionally play soccer. I could see why people did it.
    And yet, still. “I think I might miss Lena,” I said.
    â€œYeah,” he agreed. “You would.”
    I felt okay playing with Dominic, but as soon as Dad called out, “Dom! I’ve got to get dinner started if you want this controller!” he ran out of my room like he was shot out of a gun, and it only took about five seconds for me to start feeling really sorry for myself again.
    Fortunately, Mom got home from work and came up to talk to me. “Hi there,” she said. “I’m really sorry, honey.”
    â€œThanks,” I said.
    â€œDo you want to talk about it?” she asked.
    â€œNot really. I’m sorry. I just— I can’t talk about it without crying, and I’m feeling kind of cried-out.”
    She put her hand on my shoulder, which is something she can only really do when I’m sitting and she’s standing. “Okay. Hot fudge and mini M&M’s after dinner?”
    â€œYeah,” I said, and smiled.
    Later, Dominic had a fit because Mom wouldn’t let him squirt milk from a latex udder into his mouth at the dinner table, and then Dad got in trouble for letting him do it in the first place. I knew I wasn’t the insane one.
    Mom asked, “So, Conrad, how was your day?”
    â€œOkay,” he said, and then he reached into the pocket of his soccer shorts and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. “You have to sign