Snitch Read Online Free PDF Page A

Jonathan hardly ever talked and he cried a lot at night, so naturally Travis decided to give him a hard time.
    I ignored him now.
    â€œI know where you live,” he said.
    â€œBig deal.” If he thought he was going to scare me, he was going to have to think again.
    â€œI’ve seen your sister-in-law and that little baby. Cute kid, Gillick. Guess he takes after his mother’s side of the family.”
    â€œYou stay away from my place,” I said.
    Travis grinned. It made him look like even more of a snake than he was.
    â€œI’m gonna get you,” he said in a low singsong voice, tapping the scar under his eye. It was the same voice he used on Jonathan all the time. “For what you did, I’m gonna get you.”
    He sauntered across the room and took a seat in the circle of chairs. I decided to hang out outside the classroom until some more people got there. Scott was standing just outside the door.
    â€œYou can report him,” he said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œTravis. You can report him for threatening you.”
    Scott had been listening. My life was none of his business, but he had been listening.
    â€œI can handle it,” I said.
    â€œIf he’s hassling you, you can report him. You can get him kicked out of the program.”
    I just stared at him. “Yeah, I guess that’s the way you’d handle it, right, Scott? You’d tell on him. But I’m not like you. I’m not a snitch.”
    I turned around to get away from him—and saw Amy standing right there behind me. She must have heard too. I felt like punching something.
    After circle, Maggie and Scott brought in the dogs. Sully was rambunctious, as usual, but he didn’t growl at me. He was wagging his tail, even when he jumped up on me.
    We ran through the sitting exercise. Then Maggie told us we were moving on to the next step. We were going to teach the dogs how to lie down. Sully didn’t catch on as fast as some of the other dogs, but by the end of the session, I’d got him to lie down twice. Maggie said that was real progress. I felt good for a change. I felt so good that I took a detour downtown on my way home. I went to a pet store and bought some treats for Sully.
    That meant I got home later than I was supposed to.
    Miranda was in the kitchen, working on supper. I thought maybe she’d apologize to me, but she didn’t. Instead she said, “You’re late. I was about to call Andrew at work.”
    â€œI had to make a stop.”
    â€œYou’re supposed to come right home.” I couldn’t believe it. She had accused me of something she knew I hadn’t done, and she still wasn’t apologizing to me. Instead she was mad at me all over again. “Clean up the living room.”
    I didn’t move.
    â€œClean up the living room, Josh,” she said again.
    No way. She wasn’t going to boss me around. I turned and walked out the door. I stayed out as long as I could, which wasn’t that long. Andrew had told me when I went to live with him that I was supposed to be home by 9:00 every night. He said if I wasn’t home, he would call my youth worker. If he did that, I’d be in trouble again.
    The building Andrew lives in has a front entrance and a back entrance. Usually I go in the front way. But I didn’t that night because when I got close to it, I saw that Daryl and a bunch of his friends were hanging around the door, hassling everyone who went in or out. I wasn’t in the mood for that. I decided to go in the back way. It’s a good thing I did because when I got to the back of the building, I saw it. My box. With my name on it and my stuff in it. Sitting right there on the ground next to the dumpster. I grabbed it and carried it upstairs.
    When I got to the apartment, Miranda was sitting at the dining room table, clipping recipes out of a magazine and pasting them into a big binder. Digby was asleep in the bedroom. Miranda