Caged Warrior (9781423186595) by Sitomer Alan Lawrence

Author:Sitomer, Alan Lawrence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Pr
Published: 2014-04-25T04:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

The next day I stepped out of the Emergency Exit Only door at the back of school, paying no attention to the sign that warned an alarm would sound if anyone opened the thing during school hours.

That alarm hadn’t worked in years.

Once outside I thought about how much I preferred snow to cold, icy rain. Especially when the wind whips it sideways and it stings your skin like needles. Storms, when they hammer Detroit, pound with no mercy, and I could tell a big one was coming.

I pulled my hoodie tight, put my hands on the top silver rail, and got ready to jump over Fenkell’s back fence.

“So now you’re ditching my class?”

I turned but didn’t answer.

“Mrs. Notley’s been here three times these past two weeks,” Mr. Freedman said. “There’s still another visit.”

“I ain’t going to that school.”

Mr. Freedman jammed his ungloved hands in his coat pockets to fight off the chill. “Brains trumps brawn in this world, son. And really, what’s the income expectancy of a professional, um”—he looked at my swollen cheek—“skateboarder, anyway?”

“Very high,” I told him. “When you make it to the top.”

“You could break your neck,” he answered. “Or should I say, ‘have your neck broken for you’?”

Though I would have preferred to keep it entirely secret, almost all of the other students at Fenkell knew exactly what I did on Saturday nights. And kids talk. Fact is, with each new victory, the reputation of Bam Bam—only people who didn’t really know me called me that—was growing into a local legend.

Funny, though, how no one actually has the power to stop underground cage fighting even though everyone knows it’s going on. After all, it is illegal. But so is drug dealing, pimping, dogfighting, and so on. It’s like all this stuff exists, and though pretty much the entire community is aware of it, no one does anything about it.

Maybe they just can’t? Who’s gonna stop it anyway, the cops? Hell, they don’t rule these streets; they only hope to contain the chaos. It’s gotten so bad ’round my ’hood that they don’t even send in ambulances to help injured people without a police escort.

Even if someone is dying. A person could be lying there bleeding in the middle of the street, and unless there is a free cop car in the area, an ambulance won’t even be dispatched if it’s after the sun has set.

Naw, ’round here only one crew makes the laws of the land: the Priests. They rule without rival.

“Whereas becoming a doctor...” Mr. Freedman continued, stamping his feet to keep warm. “With your knowledge of the human body, maybe you could heal people instead of hurt them.”

I put my hands back on the top of the silver railing and got ready to jump the fence.

“I gotta go.”

Time was ticking and gettin’ to Loco’z early wouldn’t hurt none. Nothing breaks routine.

“Let me ask you, son,” Mr. Freedman said as he placed his hand on top of my arm as if he was going to stop me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.