Pack of Dorks by Beth Vrabel Read Free Book Online

whipped in my seat toward Becky. Surely this would be the end of the pretending-not-to-like-me thing. I mean, who else would she work with?
    But Becky was smiling wide with her huge bubble teeth right into Tom’s stupid snorty face. Just ahead of Tom, Henry turned in his seat. If I wanted to know what my how-could-you face looked like just then, I could see it in Henry’s. He slowly turned back around and swatted Jeffery Daniels on the shoulder until he turned around and agreed to be Henry’s partner. When I turned back in my seat, my eyes burning, there was April, an inch from my desk.
    “Partners?” she said, holding out a hand for me to shake. Then she pulled back, sneezed in her hand, and held it out again. The cuffs of her sleeve were crusty.
    This is what my life has come to—being research partners with a nose picker.
    Just then Sam turned in his seat. “Sorry, April,” he said. “Lucy’s going to be my partner.” He smile-grimaced again. Very softly, he added, “I dare you.”
    My smile felt so slow, like my face forgot how to do it quickly. I nodded.
    April wandered away, plopping down next to Sheldon. They would be a good pair. Sheldon already was squirming in his seat, blubbering facts about Apatosaurus. Sheldon’s weird obsession with dinosaurs goes all the way back to kindergarten. I mean, even in fourth grade, his shoelaces were covered in fake dinosaur tracks and today he was wearing a sweatshirt with a T-Rex. It looked like one of those iron-on things. I hoped for their sakes that Ms. Drake was including extinct species in her bucket.
    When Ms. Drake came to our desks, Sam smiled at me and said, “You pick.”
    For some reason, I was a little nervous. Becky and Tom had gotten leopards, which seemed like a really cool animal. Other pairs had mountain lions, polar bears, seals, penguins, and owls. Sheldon was trying to convince April that their pick of elephants could mean mammoths.
    “What if I pick something lame, like earthworms?” I stalled. Ms. Drake was glaring at Amanda, who was yelling at her partner Lily for picking squirrels from the bucket. Of course, Amanda is pretty much angry all the time. It’s sort of her defining characteristic.
    “Well,” Sam said, “the diorama would be easy. I can make awesome play dough worms.”
    I smiled—twice in one day!—and reached in the bucket.
    Don’t be donkey! Don’t be donkey!
    “Wolves,” I read, too loudly in my non-worm, non-donkey relief. “We’re researching wolves!”
    Across the room, Tom let out a howl. Henry barked. Becky giggled.
    Stupid wolves.

Chapter Six

    “So then, Tom said that it’s perfect you have wolves because you’re such a dog. And Sam is so pathetic that you’re the only person he could pick for a partner, even though no one likes you. And then I said—”
    “Becky, I’ve got to go.”
    And cry. These after-school I’m-still-your-friend-in-secret calls were not exactly the highlight of my day. I stared at myself in the mirror hanging from the back of my bedroom door. My hair was scraggly and matted. Like a dog.
    “But I said that you have some friends,” Becky stammered. “I stood up for you. I think if Tom gets a new girlfriend, he’ll stop being so busy hating you all the time. And then we can be friends at school again.”
    I took three really long breaths out of my nose. I noticed Mom doing that a lot when Molly cries and Dad doesn’t seem to hear her. But the breaths just made me make strange puffy noises into the phone.
    “Lucy?” Becky asked.
    “I’m here,” I said. “I just . . . I don’t like this, Becky. Why can’t you be friends with me everywhere?”
    “I told you,” Becky said. “I am your friend, but I want to know what they’re saying about you. Don’t you want to know, too?”
    “Are you sure it isn’t because you think they wouldn’t be your friend if you like me, too?” I blurted it out, my heart hammering.
    Becky was silent for a long time. I heard her making