Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude and Other Commandments I Have Broken by Rosemary Graham

Author:Rosemary Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Apparently Ryan had undergone a radical personal style makeover and, for some reason, had decided to test it out on me. And why not? I mean, who better to try out your new playa moves on than the girl everyone knows is a Total Sex Fiend? Right?

“So, what else you takin’ this semester?”

Seeing as escape seemed impossible, I started babbling to protect myself from any more moves. I told Ryan my whole schedule, trying to maintain a light, friendly, and totally un-sex-fiendish tone.

“Dat’s cool, dat’s cool,” he said, splaying his fingers a bit for emphasis.

“And I’m going to check out The Bee.” I don’t know why I told him that part, except it was like I couldn’t stop talking.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Remember when those editors came to our class at the end of last year?”

“Yeah . . . yeah.” Ryan nodded. “You know, I was thinking ’bout that, too. Givin’ it some real thought. When’s it meet?”

“Mondays and Wednesdays, seventh period.”

He nodded. “Yeah? Today’s Wednesday. Where’s it at?”

“The trailer next to Mr. Rundle’s.”

“Yeah? Cool. I’ma think ’bout th—dat. Check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.”

The suggestion? Before I could say anything back, I practically bumped into Mr. Baker, who was standing just inside the doorway to his room wearing a red-white-and-blue-striped bow tie, holding a clipboard with a seating chart. Mr. Baker was famous at EBH for wearing bow ties and running one of the strictest classrooms.

“Good morning. May I have your names, please?”

“Stans—”

Mr. Baker held a hand up to interrupt Ryan.

“Ladies first. Ladies first.” He turned to me. “Miss?”

“Wilcox. I’m Kelsey Wilcox.”

Mr. Baker looked down at his seating chart. “Wilcox, Wilcox . . . There you are. You’re in the front row here, next to Miss Alteri.” He nodded over to an empty desk, next to which sat Kiki Alteri.

Kiki Alteri was S-Man’s girlfriend, and she and I had stood around together, waiting and watching at various skating competitions all last year. We’d even ridden BART—that’s our subway—home together a couple of times when the guys’ events had gone on past dark.

You’d think she’d never seen me before in her life by the way she looked at me when I sat down next to her. Or didn’t look at me is more like it. She sort of stole a little glance and then pretended to be totally absorbed in doodling on her notebook.

“Hi, Kiki.”

She did one of those totally fake, oh-I-didn’t-recognize-you “hiiiiieeee”s back.

“How was your summer?” I asked.

“Fine.” She gave me half a smile and went on doodling.

I fingered my phone. If Mr. Baker had just let me sit at the back, I could be text messaging Amy for moral support. Instead, I had to sit there smiling, pretending I cared about his introductory lecture on the philosophical roots of the American Revolution and pretending I didn’t care about people like Kiki, who did everything she could to avoid looking at me, or people like Ryan, who wouldn’t stop looking.

The big test came at lunchtime, when I had to cross the courtyard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.