The Santa Hoax by Francis Gideon

Author:Francis Gideon [Gideon, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult
ISBN: 978-1-63477-427-7
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2016-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

“SO WHAT does your mom do, again?” Maria asked after she opened the door to her house. “Josie told me she made cookies for you guys one night, but that she had this crazy mad-scientist vibe to her. I mean that in the best way, of course.”

“Of course,” Julian said, kicking off his shoes and adding them to the small pile of sneakers. The Morales house was pretty much the same as it had been before, but the smell of cigarettes was covered up by lavender. It took Julian stepping inside and handing his coat off to Maria to realize the lavender scent was her. She smiled as she stepped close to him, then dipped inside the closet to hang his jacket up.

“Are we alone?” Julian asked, realizing how quiet it was. A faint trill of music sounded from upstairs, but there was no chatter, no pounding of feet against carpet. “Where’s Josie?”

“With Davis! I still can’t believe it. And our parents aren’t gonna be home for a while. So it’s just us.” Maria grinned again, still somewhat awkwardly. She gestured toward the kitchen as if to offer food. When Julian shook his head, they headed toward the stairs.

“So you didn’t really answer me. Is your mom like Marie Curie or something?”

“She’s working on her PhD,” Julian answered. “So she’s at the school a lot. Sometimes in the lab.”

“Ah, okay. That’s pretty cool. No wonder you do really well in bio, right?”

“She’s more into plant biology than human. At least I think. It all kind of blurs together. She doesn’t really help with my homework, though.”

“Who does?”

“My dad. But he’s busy a lot now.”

Maria made another noise of recognition. At the top of the stairs, she turned down a long hallway and walked to a room with the door half cracked open. Music spilled out of the doorway, and Julian knew right away it was his playlist.

“I’m so glad you like it,” he said, gesturing toward the air. “The music, I mean.”

“Oh, yeah! Totally. I said that, right?”

“Yeah, but my phone got taken away in class. The battery died when it was with Mr. Singer, so I didn’t really get a chance to reply. I’m glad, though, really.” Julian swayed on the balls of his feet, his hands deep in his pockets. The phone was at the bottom of his pocket, and thankfully, he had avoided having a heart-to-heart with Mr. Singer when he collected the phone.

“Eek. That was my fault, wasn’t it?”

“No. It doesn’t matter, since Mr. Singer just lectured me on the importance of paying attention. Nothing too bad.”

“Lucky.” Maria paused once inside her bedroom. There were posters on the wall of Scarface and The Dark Knight Rises, which somehow looked as if they didn’t belong to her. Maybe Markus, her brother, Julian figured. Along one side was a small twin bed with pink sheets, and then another twin bed with dark blue ones on the other side.

“I’m in the boy bed,” Maria said. “That’s my side of the room, at least.

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