How to Break a Heart by Kiera Stewart Read Free Book Online Page B

“This is the first newsworthy thing that’s happened since we started school here. We could write an investigative series of articles! This could be our big break! Just think!”
    And I
do
think. I think about Sirina and me onstage. The two of us smiling beatifically and waving to an adoring audience. Our long hair cascading down our backs. Our dresses, glittery. Our two hands together, accepting the Golden Plume.
    “Should we talk to Abe?” I ask her.
    “Mabry, Abe is the chief of the rumor mill. He’s already talking about escaped murderers. No, remember what Mrs. Neidelman says. Facts first. Always start with the official sources.”
    I look over her shoulder. With only his loud voice, Officer Dirk is breaking apart the small clusters of people who are, undoubtedly, talking about the window-breaking incident. Or the murderer on school grounds. “Well, there’s our official source now,” I say.
    We both move swiftly in his direction, dodging the crowds. “Officer Dirk,” she says, “can you tell us what happened? It’s for
The Vindicator
.”
    But the warning bell rings, so he just glares at us, as if the bell’s spoken for him.
    “I take it that was a no,” I say as we turn and walk in the other direction.
    “Well, okay, definitely bad timing, but this is so exciting!” she says before she dashes down the hall toward her first-period class.

    “I heard it was Ms. Roach’s pen pal from prison,” Jordan says at lunch. “He got out of jail and decided to come surprise her at school. He asked her to marry him but she said no, so he broke the window and ran.”
    Sirina snorts. “Where did you hear that?”
    “Madison told me,” she says. “I think she heard it from Allie.”
    Sirina shakes her head, “Never mind. These are just crazy rumors.”
    “How do you know?” Jordan asks. “Maybe it’s true. Hey, I should ask my neighbor. Her uncle works at the prison.”
    Amelia jumps in. “I heard that the guy might have been part of the Russian mafia—”
    “No way!”
    Jordan and Amelia continue to compare details, and Sirina turns to me. “So I went down to the part of the hall where it happened…”
    She keeps talking, but my eyes bounce around the cafetorium, desperately seeking Nick. He’s nowhere in sight. In his usual spot, about five tables over, Abe and Patrick are facing each other, crouching slightly, their hands held at sharp karate angles.
    “BOYS!” Mrs. Hurst yells at them. “You will sit down and enjoy your lunch! No fighting in the cafetorium!”
    “Hey, Mabry,” Sirina says, tapping at my hand. “Would you
please
stop staring at your kung fu fighter and start listening to me?”
    “I’m not staring at him. He’s not even over there. I don’t know where he is, which is crazy. When is he ever not with Abe and Patrick?”
    “God, I hope that Thad can cure you of him,” she says. “But right now,
I’m
your best friend, and I’m right next to you, and I need you to focus. We’ve got to get to the real story to even be in the running for the YoJo.”
    “Okay, you’re right, I’m sorry,” I say.
    “I was telling you the hall was closed—the hall where the window incident happened. It’s all coned off. Mr. Jenkins said it was a safety issue, but this is so crazy.”
    Then our conversation is interrupted by “Oh. My. Darling.
Clementine
.” It’s Amelia. She’s been trying to make that expression a thing since sixth grade, but despite the fact that she uses it—and abbreviations of it—a million times a day, it hasn’t really caught on.
    We both turn. Amelia is staring up at Madison Buckner, who has stopped by our table to deliver some news.
    “Are you serious?” Jordan says to Madison.
    “What?” I ask.
    Amelia answers. “Madison just said that she heard that the person who broke the window was that sub who always wears the man-clogs—remember him? Mr. Frick? Yeah, guess where he’s been for the last three months. An asylum!
O.M.D.C.
”
    At that,