Rules by Cynthia Lord Read Free Book Online Page B

your hood!’” I continue, “Like I’d want hood hair.”
    Kristi smiles, letting the twisted strand fall back to her arm. “Ryan said he lets kids wait in his house when it’s raining, since he can see the bus come from there.”
    But only if you’re invited. I peek out the doorway into the empty living room. Part of me would like to tell Kristi the truth, but I don’t want our conversation to become about David.
    At the bus stop I always tell him, “You have your umbrella,” grabbing the back of his jacket to keep him from following Ryan’s friends up the steps. “Going inside is for kids without umbrellas.” I would be honest, but David doesn’t understand invited and not invited. He thinks everything is for everyone.
    “Ryan’s nice,” Kristi says. “Don’t you think so?”
    Nice as a cockroach. “Want some sherbet?” I ask.
    When you want to get out of answering something, distract the questioner with another question.
    “What kind?” Kristi asks.
    “Raspberry.”
    David rushes through my doorway, his eyes wide with panic, an audiocassette in his hand. “Fix it?”
    The tape has pulled out of the cassette, hanging in a long, delicate loop.
    At first I’m relieved that’s all that’s wrong until my guinea pigs start to squeal.
    With the cassette over one ear, and his hand shielding the other, David yells, “Quiet, pigs!”
    Kristi shoots a worried glance from David to the guinea pigs to me.
    I pry the cassette from David’s fingers, knowing it’ll be faster to deal with the tape than the tears filling his eyes. “Don’t worry. This’ll only take a minute.”
    I spin the cassette around and around on my finger, wishing I had two more hands: one to give the guinea pigs hay to quiet them, another to cover David’s mouth as he shrieks. I spin the cassette so fast my finger keeps slipping out of the tiny hole.
    When the tape lies flat and tight, I slide Frog and Toad Together into my cassette player and push PLAY . Arnold Lobel’s deep voice joins the guinea pig squeals, and David’s face lights up like Christmas morning, Halloween night, and his birthday, all rolled into one big grin. “You fixed it!”
    “Go find Mom,” I say, pressing the cassette into his hand, “and tell her I’m done babysitting.” Before I close the door, I peek into the living room to be sure David’s heading toward Mom’s office. He disappears down the hallway, swinging his arms.
    “That must be hard,” Kristi says. “Even regular little brothers are a pain.”
    “Regular” snarls in my stomach. I grab my sticky notes and write “DAD! Buy a new tape player!” and stick it on the back of my door to remember to tell him — again.
    To quiet my guinea pigs, I pull strings of timothy hay from the little bale I keep under the cage. Nutmeg yips as Cinnamon steals her hay.
    “They’re so cute,” Kristi says. “Can I hold them?”
    “Sure.” I toss her a towel. “Better put that on your lap, in case they pee.” I slide one hand under Nutmeg’s chest and cup her back legs with my other.
    Cinnamon wheeks until I set her next to Nutmeg on Kristi’s lap, and the squealing turns to happy-pig cooing:
    Nutmeg, I thought I’d never see you again! Say, what are you eating?
    Towel, medium rare, with a hint of fabric softener. Care for a bite?
    Don’t mind if I do!
    My door bursts open. “No toys in the fish tank,” David announces.
    “I’ll be right back,” I say to Kristi between my clenched teeth.
    “No problem,” she says, stroking Nutmeg’s neck.
    I close my door behind me so Kristi won’t see me run. “Why?” I sprint ahead of David. “Why today?”
    “Because.”
    A tiny cowboy stands bowlegged on the gravel at the bottom of the fish tank, one hand poised to grab his pistol, the other holding the end of a lasso hovering in a loop above his head. A goldfish swims right through the hole.
    Git back here, ya pesky varmint!
    Plunging my hand into the water, fish swoosh past my fingers. I