Jumping the Scratch by Sarah Weeks Read Free Book Online Page B

doing?” I said. “You can’t sit here.”
    â€œIt’s a free country,” she said, leaning back and crossing her arms, “I can sit anywhere I want.”
    I began to sweat. It didn’t take a genius to know this was not going to go unnoticed.
    â€œOh, I get it now,” Larry said loudly, hanging over the back of his seat and pointing at us. “Look, everybody. Rear-end got himself a girlfriend to stick up for him. Are you going to smooch her? Come on, Rear-end, give her a big wet smooch right on the mouth, why don’t ya?”
    Everybody turned around to look and laugh.
    â€œMove,” I whispered fiercely.
    But Audrey grabbed two handfuls of stiff skirt, jammed it under her legs, put one foot up on the back of the seat in front of her, and didn’t budge.
    I guess hearing everybody laughing like that was enough to make Larry feel that he’d evened the score. He quit razzing me and went back to talking with his friends.
    A couple of minutes later we crossed over therailroad tracks. As the bus lurched, Audrey fell against me.
    â€œWatch it,” I said, pushing her off and pressing up against the side of the bus as far away from her as possible.
    â€œJeez Louise. What are you so touchy about? I don’t bite, you know.”
    I wasn’t about to tell her that besides being afraid to walk up my own driveway or close my eyes at night, I also had a hard time being touched.
    â€œJust watch it, okay?” I told her.
    When we got to school, Miss Miller was all dressed up with her lips painted even redder than usual. She had a pink silk scarf with red hearts tied around her neck, and as she walked around the room, the ends fluttered like the little triangular colored flags you see at used-car lots. She wore high heels. Those shoes didn’t just make Miss Miller taller; they made her walk in a whole new way. I was slumped over my desk, staring at the pattern in one of the linoleum floor tiles, when Arthur arrived.
    â€œJames!” Miss Miller’s voice cut clean through me like piano wire through a stick of cold butter. “Sit up like a gentleman. Where are your manners?We’ve got company!”
    She rushed over to him, her scarf flapping, her high heels clicking on the polished floor. Blushing, he reached out and shook hands with her. He was tall and thin, with a long neck and a giant Adam’s apple that slid up and down above his collar like an elevator when he swallowed. His hair was reddish brown and curly, and he wore tiny round wire glasses that looked so much like part of his face, he might have been born wearing them.
    â€œWe’re just thrilled that you could come!” she gushed. “I can’t begin to tell you how honored we are to have you as our guest.”
    Arthur smiled and said something back, but it was too soft for me to hear. Miss Miller took his coat and hung it in her special closet. Then her red mouth started going again, telling Arthur how excited she was and squeezing his arm the whole time she was talking. His cheeks were getting pink, as if the pressure of her fingers were rerouting all the blood up into his face. The more she talked, the pinker he got. Finally she stopped to catch her breath, and I realized I’d been holding mine the whole time. Even in those high-heeled shoes of hers, she was quite a bit shorter than he was, butthe way she was looking up at him, it seemed like any second she might leap up and swallow him whole.
    â€œIt’s very nice to meet you all,” Arthur said, turning his attention and his pink face to us. “And I’m grateful to the PTA for helping to bring me here to Pine Tree Elementary.”
    His voice was soft and scratchy, and he seemed kind of nervous. I’d have been nervous too, standing that close to Miss Miller. I leaned back in my chair and slid my thumbs over my ears. Open closed, open closed. Word slaw. I must have shut my eyes.
    â€œ James Reardon!