Don't Care High by Gordon Korman Read Free Book Online

said Sheldon reasonably. “It’s our duty to find out what kind of guy he is.”
    Paul’s first impulse was to refuse flat out. Then he remembered Steve, the late show hero. It was not by refusing flat out that Steve had acquired the medal, not to mention the leading lady. What would Steve do? Refuse? Never. Then again, Steve didn’t know Mike Otis.
    â€œBut we can’t follow him. He has a car, remember?”
    â€œThat’s to our advantage,” Sheldon argued. “Have you ever seen the traffic in this part of town by three-thirty in the afternoon?”
    Still muttering his complaints, Paul followed Sheldon to the bench near the narrow roadway that snaked in and around the high brick walls of the school and opened into the tiny, cramped parking lot nestled under the 22nd Street ramp. The two sat with studied nonchalance, waiting for their prey to drive out. It was ten minutes to four when the car appeared, a shiny black — 
    â€œWhat
is
that?” Paul gasped in awe.
    â€œWow!” breathed Sheldon. “He just gets cooler every day! Look at that car!”
    The car looked like a German staff car from World War II, with a jet-black paint job that was lustrous and flawless. It seemed a little larger than a staff car, however, and just a little… different. Paul had always taken a keen interest in cars, but he was positive he’d never seen anything exactly like this before. Just when he was coming close to finding a category for it, he’d notice something that didn’t fit, like the front grill, which was a work of art in itself; or the hood ornament, which seemed to depict the birth of Venus. Perhaps the main reason why the whole thing looked so alien was the fact that the man himself was hunched behind the steering wheel, a pair of mirrored sunglasses giving him the appearance of a World War I flying ace.
    â€œAmazing!” exclaimed Sheldon without reservation.
    He and Paul started on their way as the black behemoth eased into traffic. A woman in a red VW Rabbit, spying Mike in her rearview mirror, stuck her head out the window and gawked at the leviathan behind her, twice the size of her own vehicle.
    Sheldon and Paul walked down the street, pacing themselves with the slow-moving traffic.
    â€œShel, I used to be into cars. I had books upon books upon books. I know every kind of car that ever existed, and that isn’t one of them. Shel, what is that thing?”
    â€œA masterpiece,” said Sheldon. “Let’s cross. He’s turning left.”
    They had no trouble following the car. As Sheldon had predicted, traffic was slow and plodding. They lost sight of Mike only once, but a mad dash through a moving fleet of taxis got them caught up. About half a mile from the school, the great black automobile wheeled out of the line of traffic and disappeared down the tunnel of an underground parking garage.
    Sheldon and Paul jogged up.
    â€œNo problem,” said Sheldon. “We’ll just wait for him to come out, and follow him home.”
    They found a newsstand a discreet distance away. Sheldon bought a paper, and they both hid behind it, keeping their eyes trained on the two exits. People came and went, but not Mike. After twenty minutes, they abandoned their position and circled the perimeter of the garage. There were no other doors.
    â€œStrange,” Sheldon commented.
    â€œMaybe he’s doing something with the car inside the garage,” Paul suggested. “Like… uh… I don’t know. Trying to figure out what the blasted thing is. Oh, let’s just get out of here! We’ve seen him stare for twenty minutes at a locker; who knows how long he could spend with a whole garage? We could be here till midnight!”
    â€œYeah, I guess you’re right,” Sheldon admitted grudgingly. “But I know a place not far from here where they serve a slice of pizza that’s not to be