Among the Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix Read Free Book Online

God or ghosts or even his own intelligence, but he knew: He couldn’t risk going to the woods today.
    Luke walked on, pretending to be casually.dawdling.
    “Get to class,” the monitor growled.
    Luke nodded, and stepped into the next classroom he passed. He felt as disappointed as if he’d discovered bars on the door. What was he—a coward?
    Luke remembered all the mind games he’d played with himself trying to get up the nerve to go to Jen’s house that first time. He’d waited weeks, always telling himself he was just waiting for the right moment. He had been a coward then.
    But he wasn’t being a coward now. Sinking into a seat, as anonymous as every other boy in the room, he actually felt brave, clever, crafty.
    Probably he’d just gotten lucky the day before. If he wanted to be able to go the woods again and again and again, without getting caught, he’d have to be smart about it. He’d have to pay attention to everything. Maybe he’d even have to figure out why the hall monitor the night
     
    before had been so panicky Before he went back again, he’d have to know it was safe.
     
    Luke looked around the room. Up front, the teacher was drawing complicated-looking mathematical formulas on the chalkboard. Luke couldn’t have solved any of them if his life depended on it. But for once, instead of sinking into despair and staring down at the desk in front of him, Luke got the nerve to peer around at the other boys. A few were watching the teacher. A few were taking notes—er, no, they were drawing pictures of naked girls. Some were blatantly sleeping, their mouths slack-jawed. And some were sitting off to the side, their arms clutched around their legs, rocking.
    Luke stared. He didn’t have much to go on, since he’d only known six people before in his entire life, but that rocking certainly didn’t seem like normal behavior.
    Eventually the bell rang, and he stumbled into another class. It was the same there: some boys acting normal, some boys rocking endlessly.
    Why hadn’t he noticed anything like that before?
    He knew why. Every other time he’d looked directly at any of the other boys, he’d glanced quickly, then looked away, for fear that they might actually look back.
    You could miss a lot, doing that.
    Walking through the hall to his next class, Luke tried an experiment: He stared directly into the eyes of every single boy who went past him.
    It was terrifying—even worse than running blindly across a lawn. Luke’s stomach seized up, and he thought he might actually throw up his breakfast oatmeaL He thought his legs might crumple under him, in fear.
    But it was also interesting.
    Most of the other boys he passed looked away as soon as Luke made eye contact. Some of them seemed to have a sort of sixth sense that warned them off from letting Luke look at them in the first place. Only two or three stared boldly back, their eyes locked on Luke’s just as Luke’s were locked on theirs.
    Remember them, Luke ordered himself. But it took all his willpower just to keep himself from looking away.
    When he finally arrived in a classroom doorway, Luke was shaking all over.
     
    I gave something away, just then, he thought. Now they’ll know.
     
    But he didn’t know who “they” were.
     
    Twelve
     
    Luke made himself wait an entire week before he went back to the woods. But in that time, no matter how closely he paid attention to everything, the mysteries only seemed to multiply.
     
    For example, by the end of the week, Luke was even more baffled by the lack of windows than ever before. Because he’d discovered: There wasn’t a single window in the entire place.
    To learn that, Luke had to make himself figure out the floor plan of the entire school. He had to be sure that he peeked into every classroom, every sleeping room, every office. One morning at breakfast, he even pretended to get turned around and plowed straight into the kitchen. Two cooks screamed, and Luke was given a stern lecture