Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat Read Free Book Online Page B

getting worked up over it. But that didn’t mean I wanted to go first, either.
    Mr. Eli lifted a book from his desk and walked over to James. He flipped to the correct page and laid it down. “We’ve been studying The Canterbury Tales ,” he said in a low voice. “I won’t make you memorize since you’re just starting with us, but maybe you’d like to start us off today by reading from the book?”
    James’s face went slightly green. “Uh . . .” He licked his lips and squirmed under Mr. Eli’s gaze. I knew that squirm, that heart-racing discomfort.
    “I’ll go.” I jumped to my feet, knocking the desk with my hip so it scraped loudly across the floor. Everyone who had been watching James turned to gape at me.
    “Miss Emerson?” Mr. Eli looked at me with surprise. Reesa looked at me with surprise. The part of me that hadn’t gone totally insane looked at me with surprise. “Thank you for volunteering,” said Mr. Eli.
    I swallowed and began before my brain could fully process what I’d done, what I was about to do.
    “‘Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote, the droghte of March hath perced to the roote . . .’” My voice quavered, but the strange words spilled out in the proper order. I had put the poem to music in my head, a trick I always used to memorize things. Separating it now from that melody was like reading backward, but it kept my mind off the fact that everyone was watching me. Closing my eyes helped, too.
    When I finished, there was a polite smattering of applause and I took my seat. Or rather, I fell into my seat as my knees gave out. Reesa was still staring at me like an alien had possessed my body. “What was that about?” she whispered.
    I shrugged as Mr. Eli called on her next. She hopped up and launched into the poem. I let my eyes flutter over to where James sat. He was staring back at me, a curious eyebrow raised. I lookedback at the front of the classroom and didn’t budge for the rest of the class.
    “Glad that’s over,” Reesa said after the bell rang. She linked her arm with mine and looked back over her shoulder as we left class. I followed her line of sight and saw James standing in front of Mr. Eli’s desk, teetering back on his heels, now with his thumbs hooked through his front belt loops instead of shoved into his back pockets. “He’s hot,” she said.
    “Who?” I said.
    “Sir James. Me thinketh he’s divine.”
    My throat felt dry. “You think?”
    “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Tall, dreamy. And quiet. You know what they say about the quiet ones.”
    “Um, they don’t talk a lot?”
    “Actually, I have no idea what they say about the quiet ones. But it must be good.” She laughed at herself. “They have a secret. They’re hiding something, like—”
    “Bodies? The quiet ones are serial killers?”
    Reesa put a hand on her hip. “Don’t talk about my future boyfriend like that. I was referring to a secret passion. Quiet on the outside, crazy and sexy on the inside. Something like that.” She gave a meaningful wink. “I’ll let you know when I find out.”
    She sauntered off with an exaggerated sway of her hips, putting her dibs on James Wickerton. I didn’t like it. The guy surelythought I was an idiot, and I’d rather my best friend didn’t date someone who thought I was an idiot. But, to be honest, what really bothered me was that she hadn’t even mentioned his eyes. How could she not have noticed how they were icy blue and warm at the same time?
    Because he hadn’t looked at her.

SEVEN
    I didn’t see James for the rest of the day. But Lennie was suddenly everywhere. Grinning, leering, sneering, materializing out of nowhere—like my own personal Cheshire cat. Sometimes he was surrounded by his friends, the moving boys from Saturday morning. But fortunately, Lennie was the only one who seemed to remember me.
    Reesa noticed one of his more blatant stares when we passed him in the hall on the way to chemistry. “Who’s