I'd Rather Not Be Dead by Andrea Brokaw Read Free Book Online

the paper at him and
stomping out into the hallway.
    “Drew?” Tanya Stewart scampers
behind me. Tiny, blonde, blue-eyed, and never seen without a cross
around her neck, Tanya's not someone I'm used to paying attention
to. She pushes at the bridge of her discount store glasses, nearly
dropping her books in the process. “I could help you.”
    She pales when TOM's disdainful
glower hits her, but swallows and continues. “I'd really like to
help you. Please?”
    “With calculus or with finding
God?” TOM asks. Tanya always dresses in clothes any preacher would
approve of and never smears a trace of sinful make-up on her skin.
Over all, she reminds me of one of those church-run homeless
shelters. Sure, they'll give you a bed and a decent meal, but
they'll make you listen to their gospel in payment.
    “Either,” Tanya whispers, her
voice nearly lost in the din.
    “Well, I'm good on both.” TOM
shoves by her would-be savior and walks quickly away.
    Tanya shoulders droop and she
lets out a long sigh.
    “No saving some folks,” Ricky
Woodman says behind her, making her jump, though she doesn't do
anything as horrible as curse. Ricky's the head of the Campus
Crusaders, a ultra-conservative group bent on annoying me as much
as possible.
    “I don't believe that,” Tanya
says. My mouth almost gapes. I don't think I've ever seen Tanya
openly disagree with anyone before, let alone with Fort Jesus VIP
Ricky Woodman. And she's doing it in defense of me?
    Ricky shrugs, not caring what
she thinks. “You should. It's true and she's a prime example of
unsavable.”
    A day later, he's spouting
completely different lines while he harasses people between first
and second period. He beams at TOM. “Sign the pledge?”
    She glowers at him and makes a
wordless grumble of annoyance. She knows the spiel already, having
overheard it twice while she searched her locker for a missing
notebook. It's put her in a pissy mood, even though she spent the
night in my bed and I spent it on the cot in the nurse's office. If
you ask me, I'm the one with a reason to be in a foul mood.
    “Come on,” Ricky wheedles,
waving a clipboard in her face.
    TOM narrows tired eyes at the
wannabe evangelist. “I could take this harassment to the Supreme
Court, you know. You're not allowed to shove your religion at me in
school.”
    Ricky reaches behind his head to
scratch at the back of his neck and his face goes slack in what
might be honest bewilderment. “But there's nothing religious. It's
just a vow to respect yourself enough to retain your
virginity.”
    “You're a moron,” she informs
him. He doesn't appear bothered by the information.
    “Virginity's not a bad word!”
Ricky follows her as the other me starts to walk away from him. He
taps the clipboard against the back of his free hand in time to
their matched steps. “Come on. Sign the pledge. Everyone's doing
it!”
    TOM stops in order to glare more
effectively. “A. No they're not.” She holds up one finger, then
another. “B. You're too late.” A third digit goes up. “And C.
No.”
    Ricky pulls out a booklet from
his back pocket and waves it around. “Your virginity can be born
again!”
    TOM and I both laugh. And so
does Cooper Finnegan.
    Ricky blinks, looking to where
Copper Finnegan stands watching us in ratty jeans and a Pine Ridge
football t-shirt. “Jesus forgives those who ask it,” Ricky says
with the eerie overtone of someone who believes what they're saying
just a little too much.
    The other me rolls her eyes and
moves on, not acknowledging that Cooper Finnegan just saved her
from Ricky's pathetic hounding.
    “Of course, he does.” Cooper
Finnegan gives him an easy smile. “But the fact a sin can be
forgiven doesn't mean the history of it was erased.”
    Ricky thinks about that and I
expect him to refute it with a quote, but Cooper Finnegan starts to
walk away without waiting for him to find one. “Hey, Finn! Sign the
pledge?”
    “Nope.”
    The curt answer surprises