Rooster by Don Trembath Read Free Book Online

much.’”
    â€œDolores said what she always says whenever your name comes up. ‘Get rid of him. You don’t need that worry in your life. Let him see what it’s really like out there.’”
    Rooster moved toward the refrigerator. “Dolores is a hag, Mom. You should really stop talking to her. And I’m not failing every course. I’m passing English.”
    â€œShe’s not a hag. She’s my friend and she’s right.”
    â€œShe’s a hag.” He opened the fridge door. “Where’s that leftover pizza from last night?”
    From his post by the window, with the most recent edition of Baseball Today spread out before him, Irving cleared his throat and patted his thick stomach. “It’s right down here, young fella. I had it for lunch about two, three hours ago.”
    Rooster’s shoulders sagged. “All of it?”
    â€œEvery bit. Those boys down there at Little Tony’s know how to put one together. Make yourself a sandwich if you want. There’s cold cuts there in the meat drawer. Bread’s right behind you on the counter.”
    â€œI don’t want a sandwich,” said Rooster, still staring into the fridge. “I wanted pizza.”
    â€œWell, there’s cheese in there. Put a little of that on a piece of bread. Put it in the microwave for a minute. There you go. Poor man’s pizza. Good as gold. You can slice some onion on it too, if you want. Put a little ham on the top.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you have the poor man’s pizza and leave the real pizza for me?”
    â€œIt’s not that good,” said Irving, turning the page of his paper. “It’s good in a pinch, but it’s not as good as the real thing.”
    Rooster shook his head. It was not the first time that all the good leftovers had disappeared before he returned home from school. “How come I’m always the guy in a pinch? I worked hard at school all day. I should be coming home to a real pizza.”
    â€œExcuse me?” said his mom, getting back into the action.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDid you say you worked hard at school all day?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAre you kidding me?”
    â€œHey, I work hard.” He closed the fridge door.
    â€œNot according to your teacher you don’t. She said you haven’t done much at all lately.”
    â€œFirst of all, she’s not my teacher, all right. She’s that young counselor you don’t like, Mrs. Nixon. Second, I’m in her office today and I have to start explaining what a democracy is to her because she doesn’t know.”
    â€œWhat counselor that I don’t like?”
    â€œThe young one. She wears all those fancy clothes all the time? You were in to see her last semester about that book report I did, and you walked out saying she was too young to be a counselor. You didn’t think she was old enough to know anything. You said that to her face, as a matter of fact.”
    â€œIt was her I was talking to today?”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œI didn’t know it was her I was talking to.”
    â€œSee? She always makes everything sound ten times worse than it really is, remember? You said that yourself last year.”
    â€œAnd she’s got you involved with this bowling team?”
    â€œThat’s her big idea. She thinks I have to prove myself. That I have to show I’m worth graduating.”
    â€œAre there other kids involved in this?”
    â€œNo. I’m the only kid in the whole school who has to do it. But get this — the other two kids she was thinking of asking were Ainsley Miller and Mackenzie Ashcroff.”
    â€œWho are they?”
    â€œThe two smartest kids in the school, by far. So does that not mean that she thinks I can do what they can do? She has me up there with, like, Einstein and whoever, but she tells you I’m flunking out. Why? Because she wanted you to say yes to