Get Even by Gretchen McNeil Read Free Book Online

massive bite. “Don’t care.”
    Peanut tucked her long, straight hair behind each ear. “Whatever. But I don’t want to hear you bitch when Mr. Cunningham casts you in a male part again.”
    Olivia started. She’d forgotten that Mr. Cunningham would be announcing the play in fourth period.
    “Better a man,” Jezebel said, her low voice more masculine than usual, “than no part at all.”
    “Ladies!” A gleam of braces and a whiff of strong and probably needless aftershave were the only harbingers of the skinny sophomore who spun onto the bench between Peanut and Jezebel. He slipped an arm around both of them. “How are my first, fourth, and twelfth favorite juniors?”
    “Hey, Ed.” Olivia couldn’t keep her eyes from lingering on his bulging backpack as she wondered what contraband he was peddling today.
    “Twelfth?” Peanut pouted. “Which of us is twelfth?”
    Jezebel refused to look at him. “Ed the Head. What ladies’ room did you crawl out of?”
    Ed ignored her. “I’ve got a new shipment of junk food.” He glanced at Olivia and pumped his eyebrows. “Including those salted caramel chocolate balls someone is addicted to.”
    Olivia gave Ed the Head a look that said, “Shut up before I pull your tongue out.” The last thing she wanted was for Jezebel and Peanut to find out about her junk food addiction. She’d never hear the end of Peanut’s lectures against processed food and Jezebel’s warnings that someday Olivia would get fat from all the crap she ate.
    “Or if you lovelies are all maintaining your girlish figures,” he said, changing the subject, “I’ve also got a new batch of homework. Fresh off the nerd press. If you don’t have the cashola, I also accept”—he leaned into Jezebel—“sexual favors.”
    “Ew?” Olivia said.
    Jezebel elbowed him in the ribs. “Do you have any mind bleach to wipe that image from my brain?”
    Ed the Head grinned broadly, flashing his full mouth of steel. “It’s called tequila. And I’m all out. Sold the last of it to your mom.”
    Before Jezebel could formulate a response, Amber bounced onto the bench next to her. “What is that?” She sniffed the air, then wrinkled her nose like she’d entered a raw sewage treatment plant. “It smells like . . . dweeb.”
    “That’s Mr. Dweeb to you.” Ed the Head straightened his shoulders. “Don’t you know it’s the age of the geek?”
    Amber’s gaze was cold as ice. “Why are you here?”
    A formidable shadow fell across the lunch table. “Yeah, why are you here?”
    Ed the Head leaped to his feet as Rex, Kyle, and Tyler ringed the bench.
    “Rex! Dude. Buddy.” Ed the Head twittered nervously.
    Rex folded his arms across his chest. “You have ten seconds.”
    “Er, right.” Ed the Head eyed Kyle and Tyler. “I’ve been looking for you guys all weekend.” He held out his hand expectantly. “Pony up.”
    Without a word, Kyle and Tyler reached for their wallets. Each fished out several bills and reluctantly slapped them into Ed the Head’s palm.
    Rex turned to Kyle. “What the fuck is going on?”
    Ed the Head shoved the bills into his pocket and started to back away from the table. “Just a little bookmaking. I was running ten to one odds on DGM going balls out in response to our fearless leader’s assembly Friday. Kyle, Tyler, and several of your dutiful ’Maine Men bet against it. Oopsie.”
    Rex balled up his fists and started after the retreating bookie. “You little shit.”
    Olivia had seen enough. She stepped in front of him and laid her hand on his chest. “Let him go, Rex.”
    Ed the Head saluted. “I am considerably out of here.”
    It took a few seconds for Rex to wrest his gaze away from the rapidly departing figure of Ed the Head, but eventually his eyes strayed to Olivia’s hand.
    “Fine,” he said softly. His body relaxed like a rubber band gone limp. “You know as well as I do, Liv, that I’d do anything you want.”
    Olivia snatched her hand away.