The Tornado by Jake Burt

Author:Jake Burt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Bell rolled his macaroni and cheese around with his fork, lumping it into little sticky towers on his plate. A green bean stuck in the top of each tower made pretty solid flagpoles. His mom had told him to eat his food three times already but had given up when she looked down at the playground of potato salad on her own plate. Eventually, she pushed it away entirely.

“All right, Bell, so let’s talk,” she said, her pinkie finding its way up to her teeth. It wasn’t that there was anything stuck between them. His mom just picked at them when she was worried.

“Hmmm,” Bell replied, moving a boulder of potato onto a green bean catapult.

“You think I don’t know when something is up? I asked you how school was, and you went pale. Neither of us is leaving this table until I get some answers. Is it Parker?”

Bell nodded, and his mom exhaled sharply.

“God, I am so sick of this. Sick for you. Is it time to talk again about homeschool, baby?”

Bell cringed. “No, Mom!” he said loudly, and then, softer, “It’s not like that.”

“Why? What did he do?”

“He … he invited me over.”

The clank as Mrs. Kirby’s fork hit her plate was so loud it made Bell flinch.

“He…”

“Invited me over,” Bell repeated. “To help with his Spring Festival float.”

“Why?”

Bell shoved a forkful of macaroni into his mouth so he wouldn’t have to answer right away. It was gummy and hard to swallow, but he wrangled it down.

After a sip of milk, Bell managed, “Tam told him I’m good at designing things.”

It wasn’t a lie, even though it felt like one. Still, it beat admitting that he’d helped Parker humiliate Daelynn, which was the first answer his brain screamed.

His mom wiped her lips with a paper towel, then twisted it in her hands.

“And you want to go down there?”

Bell nodded. “Parker’s been…”

He was going to say “nicer,” but he remembered Timmy’s disbelief. So he went with, “Less mean lately.”

“And you’re okay with letting him use you for the float?”

Bell pouted. “Maybe he’s trying to make up for…”

His mom lifted both eyebrows and tilted her head. Bell sighed.

“Yeah, okay. But Tam is going to be there. It could be all right.”

“Well,” Mrs. Kirby said, “if you think Parker’s turned over a new leaf, and you think you’re ready for this, then I guess I have just one more question.”

Bell smiled. “Fire away.”

“What time do we need to be there?”

Bell’s smile disappeared faster than mac ’n’ cheese in a garbage disposal.

“What? Wait, no, Mom. No ‘we.’”

Mrs. Kirby laughed. “Joseph Bell Kirby, do you honestly expect me to let you go alone to the house of the boy who has tortured you for the last three years? You’re the most brilliant eleven-year-old I know, but I’m not sure you’ve thought this one all the way through.”

“If you’re there, Mom, Parker will just—”

“Just keep his hands to himself? Just respect my son? Just be on his best behavior? Yes, I think I’m okay with all of that.

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