Sticks and Stones Read Online Free PDF Page A

milk while she put him through the third degree. Popcorn laid his head on Carlos’s knee with a sigh. I could tell my mother and my dog really liked him. This was important, since he’d be taking me several thousand feet off the ground.
    That night, Sophie’s mother went over to her father’s. Sophie was out too, and didn’t get in until 3 a.m. She had her own key, but Mom sleeps with her ear to the ground. In the middle of the night, their voices in the hall woke me up.
    “I called your friend’s house — youweren’t out with her like you said,” Mom said.
    “You called her?” Sophie’s voice went high.
    “It’s after three. Anything could’ve happened to you.”
    “You don’t run my life. I can take care of myself.”
    “I love you and I want you to be safe.”
    It got quiet and I lay stiff on my bed. Then Sophie said, “My mom doesn’t care about me. Why do you?”
    “Your mom cares. You’re easy to care about, Sophie. Real easy.”
    “If my mom loved me, she wouldn’t be with that creep. She wouldn’t have me all worried and hurting like this!” Sophie yelled.
    “You went over there, didn’t you?” Mom said.
    My mouth fell open and I pulled the pillow over my face. Sophie was going to kill me.
    Just like I thought, Sophie said, “Jujube told you?!”
    I hung onto my pillow. Then Mom said, “Where else would you be? Your friend’s at home. Your boyfriend’s at college. Jujube didn’t have to tell me.”
    Their voices went on for a while. I guess Mom calmed her down. When Sophie came into our room, she decided to let me live. All she’d done at her father’s place was stand close to the house and listen. She was waiting for the sounds of fighting, but hadn’t heard any.
    At 8 a.m., I had to beat her awake with my pillow. “Get up, slug.”
    “Get up?” Sophie groaned. “Why?”
    The why showed up an hour later.
    Carlos and his father drove up in a car that sounded like it’d lost several mufflers. I wondered if the plane was that bad off. Sophie got into the front seat withMr. Rojas. Carlos held the back door open for me. Suddenly, I couldn’t move. All I could think was back seat baby .
    Everyone looked at me, waiting. Then Carlos spoke low, so no one else could hear. “Hey, no hands. Promise.”
    “Sorry,” I muttered, climbing in.
    “No prob.” He climbed in after me and glued himself to his side of the car. Mr. Rojas started the engine and we blasted out of the driveway.
    “Ever been to heaven before?” Carlos yelled, grinning.
    Why did this question make me nervous? I shook my head.
    “It’s O.K. — you get to come back,” he said.
    It was a warm March day, the snow almost gone. We stood on the tarmac, the breeze blowing the hair back from our faces. Carlos wore his jean jacket and a T-shirt asusual. His grin came and went like quick thoughts, and his eyes seemed darker. He had Sophie laughing, forgetting about her mother. Then we saw Mr. Rojas taxi the plane toward us, the sun running off the wings. Something in Carlos seemed to almost lift him off the ground.
    This guy is gorgeous , I thought.
    Mr. Rojas opened the passenger door. “Jujube — you get into the front seat with me.”
    Carlos’s face went blank. Sophie punched him in the shoulder and said, “Stuck with me.”
    It sure is noisy in a small plane. We began to taxi down the runway, the world going by more and more quickly. Then the plane lifted a little, rocked softly in the air, rose a little again. Trees were dropping away, the sky coming down to meet us. Down below, the city shrank to a toy town — there was downtown, the river, and my school. How could such atiny place hold so much trouble?
    We were out of the city now, over brown fields with patches of snow. Mr. Rojas asked me, “Want to try the wheel?”
    From the back seat came loud shrieks. Carlos shouted, “No, Dad, no!”
    “Let me out of here!” howled Sophie.
    The two of them went on dying with terror. Mr. Rojas grinned and pointed