It's Only Temporary by Sally Warner Read Free Book Online Page A

“it’s not exactly like you
need
extra carbohydrates and fat, Amanda. Just look at you.”
    Amanda kept chewing, but Skye could tell she was embarrassed.

    Pip cleared his throat. “Hey, Del Vecchio, do you know how much sugar is in that yogurt you’re carrying around?”
    â€œIt’s fat-free, stupid,” Melissa said, cradling the little container to her chest as if protecting it from Pip’s sarcasm. Aaron Petterson and Taylor Shusterman – the other bad ballerina – came up behind her, curious to see whatwas happening, with Danko, Cord, and Kee slouching close behind. Kee looked apprehensive, which made Skye like him a little bit more.
    â€œYeah, but how much
sugar
?” Pip asked, not backing down.
    Aaron started prancing around, flapping his hands.
“How much sugar? How much sugar?”
he said, doing his version of a sissy voice, and a bunch of kids sitting nearby started laughing.
    â€œEveryone knows yogurt is good for you,
Philip
,” Taylor said with a sniff, coming to Melissa’s defense. She tugged at her pink top, which was cropped as high as the belly-button police at Amelia Ear hart would allow.
    â€œPipsqueak. Pansy,” Aaron said to Pip –
again.
It was kind of like his refrain.

    â€œHe is not a pansy,” Amanda peeped in her helium voice, having finally swallowed her bite of sandwich. “And anyway, it’s really bad to call people names like that. It’s prob’ly even against the law. It’s like a hate crime, practically!”
    â€œOh,” Aaron said, looking mean and happy at the sametime. “The pipsqueak pansy’s fat little friend is sticking up for him! And what makes you the expert about whether or not Pip is a – ?” Aaron mouthed the insult and waggled his hands in the air again.
    â€œShut up,” Amanda and Pip said in unison.
    â€œAnd Amanda’s not fat,” Skye heard herself say. Maddy nudged her ribs.
    â€œC’mon,” Danko said to Aaron, bored. “Let’s book. Who cares who’s gay?”
    â€œI’m not gay!”
Pip shouted, and for some reason, his voice rang out loud and clear above the surrounding din as if he were making an announcement over the intercom. Nearly every head turned, and kids pointed and laughed.
    Aaron smirked.
“Now
we can book,” he announced happily.
    â€œI’m ruined,” Pip muttered twenty minutes later in art class as they worked on their self-portraits. “Everyone heard me say it. I hate those guys!”
    â€œI didn’t hear,” Matteo whispered, trying to make him feel better. “I was eating outside. I heard about it later, though,” he confessed. “I said, ‘Dude, no way.’”
    â€œThanks, I
guess
,” Pip told him. His freckles seemed to be standing out more than usual on his face, which was pale, Skye noticed.
    â€œWell, he called me fat,” Amanda said, “but
I
don’tcare. I’m not ruined. I hate him, too, though.”
    â€œExcuse me, people,” Ms. O’Hare called out, looking up from the art book she was studying. “But I don’t think self-portraits call for a whole lot of chitchat. I’ll be coming around in five minutes for individual critiques, so please get to work.”

    Skye bent over her assignment – which was a lot more interesting than what they’d been doing in art activities lately. In art activities, they’d been toiling away on posters for the food drive, and on a banner for November’s Homecoming game, and on posters for the dance, which was called “The Turkey Trot,” for some crazy reason, and on the special Homecoming newspaper, which promised to be dull beyond belief.
    â€œGuess what?” Amanda whispered. “My mom says I can give a costume party the Saturday before Halloween, and all the art activity kids can come. Maddy, too, if she wants,” she told Skye. “But