EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk by Sally Warner

Author:Sally Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

That’s what Corey and I are doing right now. “BLAM-O!” Corey shouts, sinking his sneaker into a crumpled, faded red kickball.

“Take that,” I say, blasting another one with the side of my foot.

Our kickballs hit the fence with splats and drop to the pavement, and we scoop them up so we can do it again. It’s not as much fun with two people as it would be if there were three, but is Kevin playing with us? Oh, no. He is over by the picnic tables with Jared and Stanley.

Kevin, Jared, and Stanley are crouching, almost squatting, on the concrete slab. It looks like they are either pretending to skate or pretending to be airplanes, like Alfie said to me that time.

They look kinda dumb, in my opinion—not that kicking squashy balls against a fence takes a whole lot of brains. I’m not gonna lie.

“Hey,” Jared yells, catching me watching them. “Come here! I wanna tell you guys something.”

“How much he hates us, probably,” Corey mutters, turning his back on Jared, Stanley, and Kevin, and giving his floppy kickball another slam against the clattering chain-link fence.

“Yeah,” I agree, but I take another peek at the picnic table area. Now Kevin is waving us over there, too. “Maybe we should go,” I say to Corey, who is now walking around with the kickball draped over his head, arms out in front of him like he’s Frankenstein. “Kevin wants us, too.”

“Okay, but just wait,” Corey warns, tossing off his kickball hat and catching it with one hand. “Kevin will say something mean, just so Jared will think he’s so tough and everything.”

“He won’t,” I say, picking up my kickball as we get ready for the long walk to the picnic tables. “He might just stand there and say nothing after Jared says something mean to us. Or Stanley does. But I don’t think Kevin has completely turned on us yet.”

“Hey,” Jared says when we get there.

He leaves out the “loser” this time, but I can still hear it.

“Hi, guys,” Kevin says, smiling like nothing is wrong. As if he just happened to be hanging out with Jared and Stanley, not with us. He bends his knees, then jumps three inches off the concrete slab onto the grass like he’s performing a skate trick on an invisible board.

“You think that’s good? Watch this,” Stanley says to Kevin, glaring at him through smudged glasses. I can tell he’s mad because he’s not Jared’s only friend anymore. Stanley climbs up onto the picnic table bench, crouches, then springs onto the slab, arms out and legs bent, like he just landed a perfect 360-flip or something.

Virtual skating!

“Awesome,” Corey says, but I can tell he’s trying not to laugh—and so can Kevin, probably. Kevin shrugs and turns away.

Jared sees all this, and he scowls. He grabs my sleeve and hauls me in close to him. “I barely even know Kevin and he’s hanging out with me and not you,” he whispers. “Loser,” he finishes, pushing me away. I can smell peanut butter on his breath.

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