The Outside Groove Read Online Free PDF Page B

sure about that, Case,” Wade said. “Not what I heard from him today. No, he might ask you out. I mean, all I have to do is tell him—”
    â€œDon’t tell him anything. This is not your business.”
    â€œYou know,” my father chimed in, “the guys haven’t exactly been busting down the door.”
    â€œWade,” Mom scolded.
    â€œSorry,” Big Daddy said with a chuckle. “Not my field, romance. Wade and I’ll stick to racing.”
    Although I was tempted to slide out of my chair and storm upstairs to lock myself in my room for the rest of my life—or at least until graduation day—I refused to sink to Wade’s and Big Daddy’s level. I simply took a bite of green beans, even though my appetite was history. When the LaPlante men stopped chuckling and spitting bits of food onto themselves, I said, as calmly as I could with my face burning like a radiator after a long drive, “As a matter of fact, I do have some news.”
    â€œWhat’s that, dear?” Mom said with a sugary, mother-to-daughter smile.
    I smiled back, matching her effort at sincerity. “I got accepted at Cray College.”
    Again, utter silence.
    I looked at Mom first. Her expression conveyed more shock than delight, as if I’d told her I was pregnant and was planning to marry my driver’s ed teacher, something that had happened to a Flu High girl who’d graduated the previous year. “Well, that’s...,” Mom began, “that’s terrific news. Congratulations, sweetheart.”
    â€œThat’s just super,” Big Daddy said in such an awkward tone that I almost took the whole thing back, thinking that maybe we could try this all over again at breakfast. He attempted a proud smile, but I could see, in the way the lines around his eyes scrunched into a barely detectable wince, that he was calculating.
    â€œWhere’s Cray College?” Wade said.
    â€œIt’s west of here,” I said. “Way west.”
    â€œIs it expensive?” he continued, ever the tactful conversationalist.
    â€œI’ve applied for financial aid.”
    â€œWell, good. ” My brother took a healthy drink of milk, as if toasting my financial-aid prospects. “Because money is definitely tight around here.”
    â€œLet me worry about that,” Big Daddy said. “I don’t want to hear another word about money until after we meet with Church. Meantime, there’s plenty of other work to do on this racing team that’s got nothing to do with new equipment. Like, for starters, getting your crew to learn how to make a simple sway-bar adjustment for a car running tight.”
    And, suddenly, as if I’d interrupted the racing conversation to tell them how many redtailed hawks I’d seen that day, their talk shifted back to the upcoming Demon’s Run season. No questions about what I was planning to study at Cray, about when school would start, about whether I’d have a dorm roommate—nothing. I looked at Mom again, but she was busy sliding another helping of string beans onto Wade’s plate. I felt like I was already gone.
    I thought of Uncle Harvey and how he’d gazed toward the river, like he was seeing my future materializing over the hills. My hands began to shake. “Oh, and one more thing,” I interrupted, tapping Wade’s shoulder, even though it was difficult to touch him without ripping his arm off for what he’d done to Samantha Houle and about a dozen other girls.
    He and Big Daddy shot me an identical annoyed look, red eyebrows crinkling into arches over their bulging LaPlante-male eyes.
    â€œI’ve decided to start racing,” I said, the words seeming to jump into the conversation by their own power.
    No one moved, let alone spoke, for about twenty seconds. “What do you mean?” Big Daddy finally said. “Like, sprinting? But cross-country’s your sport.