Teenie Read Online Free PDF Page A

shoulder and try to decide between the chicken and the fish. After I order the fish, Cherise leans in close and whispers, “I’ve been waiting all day to show you this.”
    She opens her hand and shows me a debit card. Her name, Cherise Taylor, is on it.
    “Where did you get this?” I ask, checking out the card, looking for something that will show me it’s fake. I don’t even know why I ask, because I know whatever answer she gives is going to piss me off.
    “Someone sent it for me, as a gift. There’s five hundred dollars, and I can get whatever I want.”
    Alarm bells are going off in my head something awful right now. I scream, “What the hell are you thinking? You know this guy is gonna want something in return!!” By the starry look in her eyes, I can tell that she is thinking about giving it. That’sright before she gives me that look that tells me to shut up and keep my voice down.
    “Come on, Teenie, live a little. Seriously, what fun is life if you don’t take risks sometimes?”
    “What you mean? I take risks all the time.” I pull my shoulders back and stick my chest out, trying my best to somehow look bolder.
    “Yeah, right. The riskiest thing you probably do is go a day without flossing.”
    “Uhh, no. I floss once a day.”
    “Exactly.”
    “I was just joking.” I actually floss twice a day.
    “What’re you worrying about anyway? He says I can get anything I want. That means you can get anything
you
want.”
    Hmm, this is true, this is true.
    “I’m going to the mall after school,” she says, which means I am expected to go with her.
    “I don’t wanna get in trouble.”
    “Don’t be such a chicken. We don’t have to pay for nothing, so what’s the problem?”
    “Maybe we should think this through a little.”
    “What’s there to think about?”
    “No one gives you five hundred bucks for nothing.”
    “Here we go,” she says, rolling her eyes. “It’s not that serious, Teenie. Just chill.”
    “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
    “Well, I’m going. You do what you gotta do.”
    For half a second, I actually feel good about myself for standing my ground.
    Then she says, “You know you have to follow up what you wore today with something nice. Can’t disappoint Greg now, can we?”
    “You know I hate you, right?” The way she said it too, with that tone that makes me want to choke her but always makes me tag along. “Let’s not go crazy, okay?”
    “There ain’t nothing to worry about,” she says, smiling at me.
    She doesn’t fight fair.

Chapter 4
    “W hat is the largest inland sea on earth?” I know Garth will get the answer, but it was the only geography question I could come up with.
    “The Caspian Sea,” he yawns.
    As usual, our biology teacher, Mr. Poretsky, is late to class. He’s old, so we don’t really give him a hard time. When he finally does walk into class, it takes him five minutes to get his papers out of his briefcase. He lets us talk until he opens his textbook and puts it on the desk. Once he does that, he’s all business. Even though we start class ten minutes late, in terms of information flow, Mr. Poretsky’s lectures are second to none.
    When he’s running extra late, like today, Garth andI kill time by trying to stump each other with trivia questions.
    “Your turn, Teenie. Let me guess. You’re gonna pick literature, right?”
    “Yup.”
    He clears his throat and says, “Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
    “Please.
The Prophet
, Kahlil Gibran.”
    “Man, this isn’t fair.” Garth is shaking his head. “I’m never going to get you with a literature question. I’ve been saving that one for weeks!”
    “You can’t pick a classic like that, silly. Your turn.”
    “The category is wildlife.”
    “What a surprise, but I got one for you.”
    “We’ll see. Poretsky’s almost done taking his papers out, so hurry up.”
    “Name three species of venomous