Midnight Mystery: 4 (Winnie the Horse Gentler) by Dandi Daley Mackall Read Free Book Online Page A

have been surprised. Summer has rotten things to say to and about everybody. But this felt worse, maybe because of the race slam, or maybe because Barker never had a rotten thing to say about anybody, not even Summer. I hurried inside, hoping Barker would hurry too, and that he hadn’t heard what Summer had said. If Barker hadn’t been there, I might have gone straight over and gotten in Summer’s face. Didn’t think they liked to paint their faces? I felt like painting her face.
    Barker went ahead to class, but I made a side trip to the bathroom. While I was in a stall, I heard Summer walk in with Sal. I could pick her voice out of a lineup of the world’s snottiest females.
    “Tell me the truth, Sal,” Summer whined. “Do I look fat in these jeans?”
    Summer Spidell couldn’t have looked fat if she’d wanted to.
    “Those jeans are tight!” Sal exclaimed. “As in, they rock, Summer!”
    They must have been standing by the mirrors, only a few feet away from my stall.
    “I still can’t get over it!” Summer sniveled. “Is it even possible to gain three pounds in two weeks? Maybe there’s something wrong with me.”
    Talk about the understatement of all time!
    “Has anybody said anything to you?” Summer insisted. “It’s my stupid grandmother’s fault. She baked cakes and cookies.”
    Sal laughed. “You can’t even notice, Summer!”
    I heard the bathroom door open and Summer mutter as they left, “I hope you’re right.”
    I hustled to English and slid in next to Barker. If our teacher, Ms. Brumby, said anything noteworthy during class, I didn’t note it. All I could think about was Dad. I imagined him in the car on the way to the airport, at the ticket counter, at the gate. In my next two classes I pictured Dad flying through gray clouds on his way to Chicago.
    My last class before lunch was life science. Pat Haven had been our substitute teacher since the first day of class. I hoped the regular teacher never came back from wherever he went to “find himself,” as our principal had told us.
    Pat leaned on her desk. She looked like a cowgirl in her denim skirt and red-checked shirt. “Guess what! I’m about to give you the best assignment you ever got!”
    Groans broke out at the word assignment.
    Pat grinned. “You’re going to the circus!”
    Summer objected. “No way!”
    “You’ll each write a report on a circus animal,” Pat continued. “Colonel Coolidge’s circus is one of the few that treat animals with respect. Why, he rescued most of those critters from other circuses or zoos. Plus, he’s graciously giving us promo tickets! So you get in free Thursday or Friday, when the show moves to Ashland!”
    “Cool!” exclaimed Kaylee, a pretty girl who looked like she’d been born in China, but spoke better English than I did.
    “Sounds good to me,” Grant said.
    “No it doesn’t!” Summer griped. “Not if it’s the same Podunk circus I saw in Loudonville.”
    Catman’s great-grandfather’s circus was not Podunk. I glanced over at Barker. He was staring at his desk, and I knew he’d heard Summer on the steps. I couldn’t stand that she’d gotten to him. Eddy Barker is about the nicest person I’ve ever met.
    I should have said something. I should have stood up for Barker, for Catman, for the circus. I opened my mouth and could feel my throat close off, daring me to try to get words out. So I didn’t even try.

    At lunch, Barker didn’t talk much more than Catman. M joined us. I don’t know what M stands for. He’s in my English class, always wears black, and rarely speaks, except for the time he blew everybody away in a class debate we had on abortion. Most of the time he makes Catman look talkative.
    “Barker?” I asked while he and I ate our sandwiches and Catman and M gobbled cafeteria macaroni with barbeque on day-old buns. “What do you think of Jimmy Green Dinglehopper?”
    “He’s something,” Barker admitted. “He’s thrown me a couple of curves