Sometimes We Tell the Truth by Kim Zarins

Author:Kim Zarins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

FRYE’S TALE

“Please!” Reeve begs, and with a sigh Mr. Bailey hands back the clipboard. There’s something naked about the way Reeve clutches it to his chest and faces forward, just to be alone for a moment.

Distracted by Reeve and still worried about my role in the prank, I’ve forgotten all about Mace by the time Mr. Bailey draws Frye’s name. But Frye hasn’t forgotten, not by a long shot.

“I am so ready.” He narrows his eyes and launches right into his story, like he can’t take down Mace fast enough.

So Mace used to work at McDonald’s. You could see him there in the back, all zitty and scaly faced, with his eyebrow flakes falling on the fries, and when people noticed, he said it was just salt.

“Frye, this isn’t appropriate,” Mr. Bailey warns in that feeble-teacher way of his.

“No worries,” Mace says with that deep voice. “My turn will be next. He’ll pay.”

“I’ll pay?” Frye shakes his head like he can’t believe it. “Dude, you owe me forty bucks.”

So, eventually, after a health inspection, Mace was personally declared an infestation and fired.

After Mace’s first and only attempt at honest labor, he went into a life of crime. Turns out if he got into people’s faces, they were so freaked out by the skin peeling off him and the zits that they were all too willing to pay Mace to go away. So he made a small business of getting lunch money from kids. Later on he learned to see weaknesses and exploit them. He’d find rich geeks and pretend they were trying to steal Cannon’s business, and the geeks would pay Mace to make the accusation go away. Cannon tolerated him and occasionally gave him real jobs, mostly ones to suit Mace’s increasingly violent, scheming nature.

To branch out, Mace looked for loner girls and picked on their dress code violations. Their skirts were too short? Midriffs were showing? Mace was right on them, asking if they wanted to pay him to keep his mouth shut. They were so creeped out, they paid. Not that he wanted to be paid in money, but most of the girls didn’t let him get physical.

“Ew!” Briony shrieks, and there’s a whoosh of angry whispers from the girls.

Frye’s smile is wicked. It’s kind of bizarre, because Frye is the school moocher, and he’s received piles of cash from Franklin and others all the time, and he’s cool with it. But being conned out of forty bucks brings out all Frye’s fury.

Mace sits back with his arms crossed and waits. Deadpan, scaly, and pimply, he looks terrifying. I wonder if Frye is just being vindictive, or if Mace really did become a sort of blackmailer and henchman or worked with Cannon. Mace’s sister probably did help Cannon meet some people, but I’ve never seen Cannon and Mace hang out.

So, one day, Mace sees a new guy at school, but this one doesn’t look like an easy target. Maybe it was the knowing look on his face,

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