Brothers, Boyfriends & Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie

Author:April Lurie [Lurie, April]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-89173-1
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2007-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

The rest of the weekend was one miserable lecture after another. Friday night's topic, over a bowl of broiled tofu and steaming bulgur wheat, was how teenagers need to choose friends wisely. On Saturday morning when I cranked up my favorite Grateful Dead tune, my mother stormed into my room, flipped off the stereo, and gave me an earful about “these rock groups who promote drugs, sex, and suicide.” After arguing with her that the Grateful Dead was actually a peace-loving, melodic band, I was informed that all good music died with Elvis, and was then handed the Lundquists' New House Rules, number one being: No strange boys allowed over when parents are not home.

As you can imagine, it was very tempting to spill the beans about Matt, their fine upstanding young son, sneaking around with Roberto “Bobby the Bull” Bocceli's daughter, but a promise is a promise, and I was not about to break mine. Besides, I had to admit, I liked Bettina, and Matt was way less of a jerk when they were together.

Anyway, by Sunday afternoon I was actually looking forward to smacking around a tennis ball, even if it was with Bert and Walt. The only downside was that Poly Prep, the snooty high school where Walt insisted we play because his family owned a permit, had a dress code: standard, all-white tennis gear. Since I usually played tennis in a ratty old T-shirt and cutoffs, I had to borrow my mother's hideous white skirt—the kind with the bloomers underneath—along with her collared Izod shirt, with the little alligator on the breast pocket.

“You know,” I said, glancing in Brandi's full-length mirror and cringing, “I still don't understand why we couldn't just have played tennis at the park like we al ways do. Then we wouldn't have to wear these pathetic clothes.”

She was sitting at her vanity applying mascara and paused for a moment to roll her eyes to the ceiling. Unlike me, Brandi had gone against her principles and used some of the money Mr. Luciano had given her to buy a Chris Evert tennis outfit. She even had matching socks with pom-poms. “Look, April, will you stop being so negative? I already told you. The courts at Poly Prep are really nice. Besides, Walt did this as a special favor, just for us. Remember, we're his guests.”

I wanted to remind Brandi that I was actually doing this as a favor for her, but at this point I figured it would be an exercise in futility.

“Anyway,” she said, applying a few more strokes of mascara, “before we go, I wanted to give you the heads-up about Bert.”

I narrowed my eyes at her reflection. “Bert? What do you mean?”

“Well …” She spun around. “I was talking to Walt on the phone last night, and he told me that ever since the dance Bert's had this mad crush on you.”

“Brandi! Oh my God! I don't believe this.”

“Come on, April, you got to admit, Bert's a nice guy. I know he's kind of short, and okay, not really that cute, but he's got a great personality.

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