Hate List by Jennifer Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

know what you’re talking about, Sister Death. Maybe you’re having a hallucination. Maybe you got some bad X or something.
     Maybe the devil did it.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” I pushed the earbuds back into my ears and settled back to my C-shape, closing my eyes. I wasn’t
     going to give her the satisfaction of fighting back.
    Just as the bus turned into the Garvin driveway, I felt another shove against my shoulder, only this time there was a mighty
     yank on the cord of my earbuds and they were ripped out of my ears so hard the whole MP3 player flew out of my hand and skittered
     across the bus floor, settling under the seat ahead of mine. I picked it up. The green light on the side of it had blinked
     off and the screen was blank. I flipped the switch to turn it off and then on again, but… nothing. It was dead.
    “God! What is your problem?” I asked, my voice getting loud.
    Again, Ellen was snickering her man face off, and so were a couple other cronies sitting behind them. And again Christy was
     giving me this fake wide-eyed look.
    The bus doors opened and we all stood up. That’s some sort of kid instinct, I think. You could be in the middle of just about
     anything and if the bus doors opened, you stood up. It was one of the constants of life. You are born, you die, you stand
     up when the bus doors open.
    Christy and I stood up within inches of each other. I could smell pancake syrup on her. She sneered at me, giving me a slow
     top-to-bottom look.
    “In a hurry to get to a funeral? Maybe dump Nick for a nice cold corpse? Oh wait. Nick
is
a corpse.”
    I held eye contact with her, refusing to back down. After all these years she still hadn’t tired of the same old stupid jokes.
     Still hadn’t grown out of them. Mom had told me once that if I kept ignoring Christy, eventually it would get boring for her.
     But on days like today, ignoring her was easier said than done. I was so over this rivalry thing, but no way was I going to
     let her get away with breaking my stuff.
    I pushed past her into the aisle, which had started moving. “Whatever your problem is…” I said. I held up my MP3 player. “You’re
     going to pay for this.”
    “Oooh, I’m shaking in my boots,” she said.
    Someone else added, “She might cast a spell on you, Christy,” and they all laughed.
    I moved down the aisle and stepped down onto the sidewalk, cut behind the bus and jogged to the bleachers where Stacey, Duce,
     and David were hanging out as usual.
    I climbed up to meet them, out of breath and furious.
    “Hey,” Stacey said. “What’s up? You look pissed.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “Look what that bitch Christy Bruter did to my MP3 player.”
    “Oh, man,” David said, taking it out of my hands. He pushed a few buttons, tried to switch it on and off a few times. “You
     could get it fixed or something.”
    “I don’t want to get it fixed,” I said. “I want to kill her. God, I could just rip her stupid head off. She’ll regret this.
     I’m totally going to get her back for this.”
    “Just blow her off,” Stacey said. “She’s such a cow. Nobody actually likes her.”
    A black Camaro roared into the parking lot and rolled up next to the football field. I recognized the car as Jeremy’s and
     my heart sped up. For a second I forgot about the MP3 player.
    The passenger side door opened and Nick stepped out. He had on the heavy black jacket he’d been wearing lately, and it was
     zipped up to his chin against the cool wind.
    I skipped up to the top of the bleachers and yelled out to him.
    “Nick!” I called, waving.
    He caught my motion, tipped his chin upward slightly, and shifted his course in my direction. He moved slowly, methodically
     toward me. I bounded down the bleachers and across the lawn to him.
    “Hey, baby!” I said, reaching him and wrapping myself around him. He sort of dodged me, but leaned down and kissed me, then
     turned me and slung his arm across my shoulders just like