What We Knew Read Online Free PDF

Katie and she rolled across the grass.
    “I hate you both,” she hissed.
    “If you’re nice to me,” Lisa said, “I’ll let you in on a secret.”
    Katie sat up and folded her arms over her chest. Lisa glanced around like she was up to something illegal. “You know that story about the guy who lives in the woods? Banana Man?”
    Katie’s eyes bulged. “You guys know about Banana Man?” she asked.
    Lisa slung her arm over her sister’s shoulder. “You think you and your little friends made him up? He’s real, girly-girl. We found his house. You want to see it?”
    Katie pulled back. “Are you crazy?”
    I ducked a Frisbee headed for my face. “Yes, she is,” I said.
    Scrunching up her nose, Katie whispered, “He’s a prevert.”
    “It’s ‘pervert.’” I corrected, walking toward the bike path. “But yeah.”
    “Did you see him?” Katie whispered.
    Just as I was about to shake my head, Lisa nodded.
    “He’s super creepy looking, with rotten teeth and slits for eyes and an ugly purple birthmark on his forehead,” she said with wide eyes.
    Katie made a questioning face. “Like Larry’s?”
    Lisa nodded. “Exactly like Larry’s”
    When we got back to their house, all the shades were pulled down to keep the sun out because their mom was sleeping. Katie took the phone in the bathroom to call her friends— My sister saw Banana Man! —and Lisa and I crept down the hall to her bedroom. My hair was a wreck. Lisa dug the eye out of the bottom of her bag and set it on her nightstand. It rolled toward the edge. Propping it against her alarm clock, she commanded it to stay.
    “You’re not seriously going to leave that there?” I asked.
    Lisa smiled. “It’s my … what do you call things that protect people?”
    “A talisman.”
    “Yeah. One of those.”
    I shouldn’t have been surprised. Lisa’s room was one big collage of “found objects.” Orange pylons and pink flamingos, street signs and random letters from marquees. My favorite was the collection of wigs she’d liberated from the theater department. While we were fixing our makeup, an engine hummed past the window. The garage door creaked. The screen door slapped against its frame.
    “Lisa!”
    Larry was home. Lisa barely tolerated her stepfather, but he was always nice to me. He wasn’t a bad guy—just a little strict. Stricter than her mom. Mrs. Grant let Lisa get away with a lot—way more than my mom.
    “Hey, Trace.” Larry waved from the counter where he was going through the mail. I call Lisa’s mom Mom, but I never know what to call Lisa’s stepfather. After ten years Lisa still calls him Larry. Katie calls him Dad. My mom needs to find someone new, too, but I hope she never remarries, at least not until I’m old enough to move out.
    Larry tossed a magazine to Lisa, then crept up behind Katie and took a huge bite out of her ice cream sandwich. “You guys have fun at the pool?” he asked.
    Frowning at her nearly empty wrapper, Katie said, “It was okay.”
    Larry cocked his head as she headed for the trash. “Is that Lisa’s old bathing suit?”
    Lisa told Katie to go change and then dug a grape Popsicle from the freezer. I wanted a Popsicle, too, but I just stood there awkwardly. Larry rolled his eyes at me— My stepdaughter has no manners —then marched to the fridge and asked me what flavor.
    “Last one,” Lisa said, squeezing past Larry and the freezer to get to Katie. With the rolled-up magazine, she swatted her sister’s backside. “Didn’t I tell you to change?” she said. “Do it. Now.”
    Larry crushed the empty Popsicle box and frowned. “Someone’s in a mood,” he said.
    “Someone doesn’t appreciate being called a tramp,” Lisa said.
    Larry’s face reddened.
    “What’s for dinner?” Katie asked. “Can we have tacos?”
    My cue to leave. The last thing I wanted was an invitation, not with Lisa this way. “I better go,” I said. “My mother left me a list. If it’s not done, she