The Friendship Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

braces.
    We didn’t say another thing until we were back on the front lawn. Then we stood listening to the darkness a minute. The music still wasn’t there. I felt like an idiot, like somebody had made a fool of me, and I had a feeling it was Gus, but I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t say that. All I said was, “I don’t get it.”
    â€œMe neither.” But Rawnie wasn’t shrugging it off. Her voice had turned soft and dark. “But it was right there, at that big car, before it went away. I know it was. I think it’s got something to do with your stepmother.”
    That shot through me, because I wasn’t thinking of Gus that way. “She’s not my stepmother!”
    â€œWell, what is she, then?”
    â€œI dunno. Anyway, I’m not scared of her!”
    â€œYeah, I know. You’re not scared. We already got that straight.”
    Rawnie had a smooth quiet face that just looked at me and didn’t give anything away. I couldn’t tell if she was teasing me or what.
    I said, “Well, why should I be?”
    We both knew there were about sixteen reasons, but Rawnie didn’t say anything. She just looked up and down the street once, and then she said, “Well, I gotta go. Bye.”
    â€œBye.”
    Then I thought, Jeez, I didn’t talk to her about walking to school with me. But she was already inside her house. And I felt embarrassed to go knock and ask her when I hadn’t even thanked her for—well, for anything.
    And I’d already told Dad a dozen times I had it under control. Hey, I was so brave, I was just going to have to make it through my first day at the new school on my own.
    Good going, Harper. Why did I always have to go and do this kind of dumb stuff? It was like I was trying to be big. As if I wasn’t big enough, almost as tall as my father already.
    Once I was safe in my room I listened to my radio again, but “The Friendship Song” didn’t come on.

CHAPTER THREE
    Next morning, whadaya know, there was Rawnie on the front sidewalk, waiting for me.
    â€œHey, hi!” I was really glad to see her. “Yo,” I added.
    â€œYo, ho, ho,” she said. “I hate Monday.”
    â€œYou sure you don’t want me to drive you, Harper?” Dad called. He was standing inside the front door, watching.
    â€œI’m sure!” I called back, and I managed to almost sound happy because I had Rawnie with me.
    We headed toward school. She didn’t just walk, she did little dance steps the whole way. I’d already noticed she hardly ever stood still. Her feet were always moving, feeling out a tempo, like there was music in the air I couldn’t hear. She had on a short skirt and a neon pink jacket and dangle earrings that swung when she moved. She looked terrific. I had on a baggy sweater and my best jeans, but I felt like a horse next to her.
    I was glad she was with me though, because as soon as we got on the main street there were big kids standing on the corners watching us go past. Guys, mostly. Out-of-school guys with tattoos and wrecked clothes and a lot of attitude. I didn’t look at them as we walked past, so I don’t know for sure who yelled or if it was at Rawnie or me or what, but somebody yelled, “Hey, jailbait!” and “Hey, look at those hooters!” And then there was all sorts of whistling and calling, and they were laughing about something. After we got past them Rawnie looked at me like she was checking on me.
    I said, “ Now I’m scared.” I was too, nearly as scared as I was out in Gus’s backyard in the dark with the weird music going. I didn’t know what the weird music was likely to do to me, but people tell all sorts of stories about what happens to girls in the city who walk in the wrong place at the wrong time.
    Rawnie looked a little surprised and said, “You don’t have to worry about them. All they’re gonna do is