The Star Group Read Online Free PDF Page A

come you never talked to me all year?”
    Shrugs are safe. “I don't know, I guess I didn't want to bother you.”
    She finished the last of her orange and wiped her hands on the grass.
    “I thought you didn't like me,” she said. “I thought you thought I was stuck up.”
    I shook my head violently. “Not at all, you're not the least bit stuck up. You're – you're nice.”
    “You don't even know me.”
    “Well, I heard you're nice, from kids who do know you.”
    “Have you been asking about me?”
    “No.” I felt brave, the tube was opening, the sun was visible. “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I just – well, I just was wondering is all. What you were like.”
    She mocked me, for fun. “You never talked to me in four years. How do I know you're not stuck up?”
    I managed a smile that didn't look like something stitched on.
    “Except for you, everyone in our class thinks I'm totally cool. If not for my lousy grades, I would be giving the valedictorian speech today.”
    “Your lousy clothes are also a problem,” she said bluntly.
    That took me aback. “What's wrong with my clothes?”
    “They look secondhand.”
    The ones I was wearing were—my family didn't have a lot of money. “I'm not interested in such superficial stuff.”
    “Bullshit. You need a new haircut as well. You look like your father cuts your hair.”
    I looked her in the eye; it was make it or break it time. “My father does cut my hair. But if you don't like it, you're more than welcome to cut it next time.”
    Gale considered, her green eyes large. Her skin was flushed with blood. She looked so alive right then, as if she had just been born.
    “I could get into that,” she said, and reached over and ran her hand through my hair. “Where do you live, Danny?”
    She could call me Danny if she wanted, there was nothing wrong with the name. My mother's bingo partners called me Danny. Her fingers seemed to caress every erogenous zone in my body with that one quick pass.
    “On Lucinda,” I said, “You know where It is?”
    “Yeah.” A pause, she took her hand back. “Do you know where I live?”
    I did, as a matter of fact, nice place to drive by late at night and dream about.
    “No,” I said.
    “I live on Birch, near the fire station.”
    “Oh. I know where that is. Nice street.”
    She dug a sandwich out of her bag. “Do you like tuna fish?”
    “Yeah.” I hated it.
    “I hate it.” She offered me her sandwich, “Do you want it?”
    “I just ate.”
    “Lunch just started. When did you eat?”
    “In history class. If you had been there, instead of ditching, you would have seen.”
    She was amused. “You know what I like about you, Danny?”
    “What?” Revelation time, the sky could open.
    “You are so full of it.”
    I had hoped for better. “You know what I like about you?”
    “Yeah.” She was quick.
    I frowned. “What?”
    “My ass.”
    I struggled. “Why do you say that?”
    She was cocky. “I caught you looking at it once.”
    I was the apple she had yet to take from her bag. I don't know how I spoke.
    “Well, you do have a nice ass.”
    She was interested. “Do you like anything else about me?”
    I managed to stay cool. “Your breasts.”
    Sly smile from Goddess Gale. “You can only imagine.”
    From terror to boldness. “I have, believe me.”
    She hit me; I loved being beaten by her. “Don't give me that crap that you've been dreaming about me for four years. I won't believe you.”
    It was going pretty well, I realized. I tried to sound sincere.
    “That's true, you're not an obsession or anything like that. But I have wanted to get to know you better.”
    “Then why didn't you just talk to me?”
    I shrugged. “Because you're pretty and popular and I'm just a nerd with a large brain and small muscles.”
    She stared at me, all innocence. “I thought you were going to say that you had a large something else. That you would try to impress me, you know.”
    She was a smooth operator, she