Outburst by Patrick Jones

Author:Patrick Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

9

“Hey, moo cow, wake up!” Jada felt her chair shake at the same time. Calvin’s voice was booming at her in a mocking tone. She’d heard him insult other people yesterday like some dog marking his ground. You push my buttons, fool, Jada thought, I’ll knock you out.

“You wanna make sure you’re awake to eat lunch, moo cow.”

Yesterday had been his first day at Rondo. He was an older, tall white twig with a face full of zits and whiskers. If you don’t shut up, Jada thought, today’s gonna be your last on Earth.

Calvin started making mooing sounds. Jada rubbed her eyes and looked around the room. She’d been late for school, and the rule at Rondo was if you were late for school, you couldn’t just walk into a class and disrupt it. Instead, you went in this small unused classroom.

“Where’s Mr. Aaron?” Jada mumbled to herself. She wasn’t going to say a word to Calvin, not give him the satisfaction of showing she cared about a nasty word he said.

Calvin continued to moo, then stopped. “Wrong animal. You snore like a pig.”

As Calvin started to oink, Jada yawned. She’d overslept, but that wasn’t her fault. She’d sat on the front porch of the Markhams’ until two waiting for Alicia, who never showed.

“Eat like a cow, snore like a pig, but I wonder do you suck like—”

Jada slapped the words out of Calvin’s mouth. When she raised her hand again, he laughed and smiled like a kid who got the present he wanted for Christmas. Instead, she grabbed her bag and ran toward the exit. The school secretary shouted at her, but Jada didn’t stop. Out of shape and out of breath, Jada got as far as the end of the parking lot before stopping. She slammed her book bag against the ground over and over. The force of it jarred her body, sending shock waves of pain from head to toe and tears bursting from her eyes.

“Jada!” It was Mr. Aaron, a few feet away and growing closer. Jada turned her back to him. She dropped the bag and used the sleeve of her hoodie to wipe her eyes clean.

“Jada.” Softer now, almost a whisper as he stood behind her. Jada kept her head down and let her arms drop to her side. Hug me, please just hug me, she thought.

“What’s wrong?” Mr. Aaron asked. No hug, but a hand on her shoulder. Good enough.

Jada paused. At Central, the worst thing was to snitch. Somebody did something do you, chances are you deserved it. You didn’t tell on ’em; you got back at ’em. That was code of the school, the streets, and her home. And that had landed her at Rondo with the other rejects and at the Markhams’ with the other unwanted kids. “I can’t say.”

“Jada, whatever you tell me, I won’t tell anyone,” Mr. Aaron said. Jada hated when adults lied, even if they did it for good reasons. She’d been around enough to know there were lots of things kids told adults that adults were required to share because of the law.

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