Rules by Cynthia Lord Read Free Book Online Page A

my long mirror off my door and propped it at an angle against one corner of the living room, so I could work at my desk and still see David reflected in the mirror.
    Every few words I make, I glance out my bedroom doorway to the mirror. David stands at the TV, the remote in his hand. He loves rewinding the trains backward up the tracks and speeding them ahead to almost crashing, over and over.
    I turn another sketchbook page and choose among the words written along the edge.
Sure. You bet! Excellent! Perfect. Frustrating. Pretty
. and
Dazzling!
to jazz up and stretch the words Jason has in bigger directions, and
Joke.
so he can be sarcastic if he wants.
    I peek toward the mirror. The TV train steams ahead, billowing smoke, toward the shed. “Watch out!” David repeats, a perfect imitation of the narrator’s voice.
    But at the last second possible before the smash, David hits PAUSE . Jumping in front of the frozen TV picture, he waves the remote in circles, like it’s a magic wand.
    Watch Out!!!
    On the next page is my half-finished portrait of Jason. I pick up a pencil and add the details I couldn’t add in the waiting room: eyelashes, thick eyebrows, and the outline of his thin lips. Part of me wishes I could tear this picture out of my sketchbook and crumple it into a tight ball so I don’t hear his mother’s scolding in my head when I see it, but the rest of me is bothered that it’s —
    Incomplete.
Too much like a
Secret.
    “Are you busy?” a girl’s voice asks.
    I drop my pencil and flash a look from my unmade bed to the folded clothes piled on my bureau. Cinnamon and Nutmeg crane their necks to wheek at Mom and the girl from next door standing in my doorway.
    “I saw Kristi coming up the walk,” Mom says, smiling. “Catherine, I have one more call to make. Could you keep an eye on David for a few more minutes? Then I’ll take over, I promise.”
    Before I can get out “no,” I see Mom’s legs in the mirror, hurrying back toward her office. David pushes REWIND , and Thomas speeds backward again.
    “Come in!” I offer my chair, but Kristi sits on the edge of my desk, crossing her feet at the ankles.
    “Are you busy?” she asks.
    “No!” Seeing her up close, I know Kristi will be popular. Not only for her straight brown hair, parted off-center, shining down to her elbows. Or because she looks just right, even wearing frayed jean shorts and a T-shirt. Kristi radiates “cool,” and I know it as sure as I know David’ll stop that speeding train at the last-last second.
    Part of me feels sorry, because she doesn’t look like a flashlights-and-Morse-code kid, but the other part of me is excited.
    “I’m glad Mrs. Bowman sold you her house,” I say. “Well, I guess, technically, the realtor sold it, but I’m glad your family bought it, because I’ve always thought it would be great if a kid lived next door. Mrs. Bowman was nice, but she was really, really old.” I clamp my teeth together to keep anything else dumb from escaping my mouth.
    Kristi drags a strand of her hair between her fingers. “I’m glad, too. I was scared I’d have to start school next year without knowing anyone .”
    My lips spread to a smile imagining Melissa’s surprise as I introduce Kristi into our group. “This is my friend Kristi,” I’ll say. “We hung out together all summer.”
    I glance out my doorway to the living room. Where’s David?
    “Ryan said there’s a bus stop at the end of the street?”
    I lick my bottom lip to keep from grimacing. “At the corner.”
    “That’s great.” Kristi continues to twist her strand of hair. “I used to walk three blocks to catch the bus — even when it was freezing or raining. Mom’d say, ‘Take the umbrella,’ as though anyone carries an umbrella!”
    David insists on bringing his bright red umbrella to school even when it’s only cloudy. “My mom’s like that, too.”
    Leaving out isn’t the same as lying.
    “She always says, ‘Well, at least wear