Something Like Spring Read Online Free PDF

I’m sure.” Peter grinned. “Just keep yourself in check until you become their problem permanently.”
    Jason took a strange comfort in knowing he could get kicked out of this placement. There had been other Hubbard kids who hadn’t made the cut. That was good. A few of the foster homes he’d been in had parents who lived for lost causes and were determined not to give up on any child, no matter how bad their situation. Such homes took a lot of creative destruction to escape from.
    “So tell me about Amy and the others,” Jason said, hoping Peter would start with Caesar.
    “Amy gets treated like a princess. Do yourself a favor and never ask her about her past. You don’t want to know. Believe me. But at least this was her first and final placement. She got adopted almost right away. Carrie is a total snob. She’s the first kid the Hubbards adopted, way back when she was Amy’s age. She likes to pretend she’s biological. Practically treated that way too.”
    “Practically?” Jason asked, knowing where the conversation was headed.
    “Yeah, because only Caesar gets the star treatment. He’s blood, if you haven’t figured it out yet. Mrs. Hubbard couldn’t have any kids after she gave birth to him. His ego was probably too big. Tore everything up on the way out.”
    “Gross!”
    Peter laughed shamelessly. “For real. Wait until you get to know him. If he’ll ever talk to you, that is. You can tell what the Hubbards think of their son from what they chose to name him. His bedroom is the biggest in the house, he has his own bathroom, and have you seen his car? Anything he wants is handed to him on a silver platter. I hate him.”
    “Only because you envy him.”
    Peter considered this sullenly and then nodded. “Yeah, fair enough. I’d switch places with him in a heartbeat. When he goes off to college to drink himself to death, maybe I will replace him.”
    “You want his room?” Jason asked.
    Peter glanced over at him, eyes surprisingly cold for someone so young. Then he blinked. “Hey, you ever play World of Warcraft?”
    “Nope.”
    “It’s never too late to learn. You’ll need a computer. Better yet, you can have mine. It’s a good starter machine. I want to upgrade to—”
    Jason half-listened to him rattle on about computers while he considered what he had learned. His new foster home was safe, and he shouldn’t have any trouble with the other kids. Amy was troubled, Peter was bitter, Carrie was a snob, and Caesar was distant—which was probably for the best. Jason thought he could deal with all of that. He just needed to keep his head down, get adopted, and do whatever else Michelle thought would give him a good life. College probably.
    As Jason laid eyes on his new school for the first time, he realized how empty all of this sounded. A fake family and an education he didn’t want or need. What would he do with a degree? For that matter, what would he do with the rest of his life? Jason had been offered so many fresh starts previously—so many blank canvasses—that sometimes they were all he could see in his future; one giant white void. This begged the question of what he wanted to fill that empty space with. The answer that came from inside sounded an awful lot like Amy.
    I don’t want to feel lonely ever again. Do you?
    * * * * *
    “You have something against my car?”
    Jason was shoving his new textbooks around in his locker, pretending to get organized before heading to his next class. That way he could avoid awkward conversations with other students about who he was or what he was doing there. With his head almost totally inside the locker, his ears needed a moment to register the familiarity of that voice.
    Peeking around the locker door, he found himself face-to-face with Caesar.
    “Uh?” Jason managed to say.
    Caesar grabbed the locker door and opened it wider. “Was that a yes or a no?”
    “I like your car,” Jason said, not knowing if he’d ever seen it.
    “Then