Maxi's Secrets by Lynn Plourde

Author:Lynn Plourde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2016-07-25T10:16:07+00:00

CHAPTER 27

THE NEXT MORNING I walked down the hall to meet the Beast of the East at my locker (which I think was on the south side of the building—so maybe I could be the Mouth of the South and Rory and I could become comic book characters).

But before I ever got there . . .

BAM!

Shoved inside someone else’s locker!

SLAM!

Everything dark!

Just as dark as my locker, except stinkier. BO stinkier. Hadn’t this kid heard about deodorant?

I jiggled the back of the lock—no luck. I didn’t want to make a scene, but asphyxiation would come sooner in this locker, much sooner.

To scream or not to scream? That was the question. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I heard a knock a couple of lockers away, then another knock on the locker next to me, and then on the locker I was in, and then on the locker after me. Yikes, my chance to escape was escaping! So I said loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to sound like an announcement over the intercom, “Hey! Pssssst! This one.”

There was a pause in the knocking. Nothing happened, so I tried again, “This one here,” as I knocked ever so lightly on the inside of the locker.

Rattle! The door opened. I gulped in fresh air, like you would before going underwater for a deep dive, in case the locker was gonna slam shut again. But it didn’t, and there was . . .

My hero?

The Beast of the East.

He yanked me out and shut the locker.

“Your locker?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Stinks like you.”

“I said nope.”

“Then whose?”

“Ain’t sayin’.”

“One of your buddies? Got a thug to do your dirty work?”

“Shut up, Minny. You weren’t at your locker so I figured it happened again. You’re an easy target.”

“Yeah, this is getting to be a bad habit. I really do need to learn how to jimmy open lockers.”

“Then you figure it out,” said Rory. “I don’t share my secrets with pipsqueaks. Pipsqueaks who insult me.”

He stomped off.

I slunk off.

Maybe it was time to shut up. I hoped that was possible, since my smart-aleck mouth seemed to have a life of its own.

At lunchtime, I headed straight to Abby’s table, determined to shut my mouth. Just watch, listen, and get to know everyone better. Even if they teased me about last Friday’s lunch disaster, I’d shut up. Even if Mrs. Russell started in with her she-rules-kids-drool attitude, I’d shut up. It was time to start learning how to fit in—if that was even possible.

NOT.

POSSIBLE.

I hadn’t even sat down when I knew I’d never fit in.

NEVER.

There was a booster seat on the empty chair next to Abby.

A booster seat for a toddler . . . waiting for me.

I glared at the booster seat.

Everyone was laughing.

“So you think this is funny?” It was hard to talk between gritted teeth.

“What’s funny?” asked Abby.

“No need to pull your innocent act, Ab—”

Mrs. Russell interrupted. “Timminy’s wish came true already, to be taller.”

Brian chuckled. “Yeah, Abby, feel beside you. There’s a booster seat for Timminy.”

Abby’s arm reached out.

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