Dive Smack by Demetra Brodsky

Author:Demetra Brodsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

TWENTY

Getting Paid: Receiving a higher score for a dive than it may be worth.

I CAN’T get out of school fast enough. If running were an option, I’d hightail my ass to my truck and squeal out of the parking lot straight to Uncle Phil’s. But seeing as there’s an inch of snow on the ground and more than a few people still cleaning off their cars, I slow my roll. Pretending to be the Theo everyone expects. A springboard diver under full control.

And then I see Iris, leaning against my truck in a puffy white parka. She stops biting the lid on her disposable cup to smile at me when she sees us coming and some of the weight on my back lifts for real. Until I remember the way I ditched her at the county clerk’s office.

Chip elbows me. “Looks like your plans for a lobotomy just changed. Good luck with that next round of lead-ups.” He gives Iris an upward nod with a grin and treks to his car.

“What are you doing out here in the snow? You’re not stalking me or anything since the field trip, are you?”

I give her a crooked grin, trying to save face. I haven’t exactly let Iris in on anything that’s been going on with me, even after she saved my life on Monarch Night, because guy-that’s-losing-his-gourd isn’t really the message I want to send this early in the game.

“I’ve never stalked anyone before. I might be. Do you have somewhere you need to be right now? You two were coming in fast and furious for a minute there.”

“I was heading over to my Uncle Phil’s to interview him for the project, but it can wait.”

It’s not a total lie. If it weren’t for the family history project, I probably wouldn’t be remembering so much in the first place.

“I was hoping you and I could go somewhere private and talk.”

My guilt returns. “About the project or why I hauled ass out of the county clerk’s office?”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”

“Yeah. I guess they are. You never miss a trick, do you?”

“Not if I can help it.”

I give the edge of her fur-trimmed hood a tug. “I take it you knew about today’s weather too. Was that in the cards?”

“They’ve been predicting this squall for a week,” Iris says. “Don’t tell me you don’t read the Monarch Monthly?”

“Uh.” The back of my neck starts to get warm. “I should. I mean, plan to. It’s sort of a juggling act just to keep up with homework when we’re in season.”

“Don’t worry. You’re not alone. We’re not alone, actually.” She throws an informative glance over her shoulder and I scan the parking lot.

More than a few gaping looks are being cast our way. This was bound to happen. When Iris and I showed up together at the bonfire on Monarch Night the expressions on everyone’s faces—priceless—like I plucked her straight out of the flooded town beneath the water. Nothing like shocking the shit out of your friends while they’re buzzing.

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