Skinnybones by Barbara Park Read Free Book Online Page A

muttered.
    My mother got up from the table and stepped over me to get to the refrigerator.
    “Juice?” she asked.
    I nodded. What was
wrong
with these people? Didn’t they notice that I was lying on the floor?
    Mom bent down and put my bowl in front of me. “You’d better hurry and eat,” she said. “You have to get ready for your game soon.”
    Okay. Fine. I didn’t know what little game they were playing here, but I could play right along.
    Leaving the cereal on the floor, I pulled myself into my chair. I made a big deal of it, grunting and groaning all the way.
    “I think I’d like to eat up here,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Could someone please get me my cornflakes and juice?”
    My parents glanced down at the bowl on the floor.
    “You should have brought it up here with you, son,” said Dad. “Your mother and I are eating right now.”
    For the next few seconds, I sat there tapping my fingers on the table. Then, even slower than before, I leaned down until my hands were touching the floor again. The chair flipped over on me as I dropped back down. But Mom and Dad still didn’t react.
    This called for drastic action. Something so outrageous they couldn’t ignore it. That’s when I started eating right out of the bowl. Without a
spoon
, I mean. Like Fluffy.
    My mother looked down and dropped a napkin on my head.
    That did it!
    “Hey! What kind of parents are you, anyway?” I hollered. “Your pathetic little son is lying on the floor, eating like an animal, and all you can do is drop a napkin on his head? Don’t you even want to know what happened to me?”
    “We already know,” said my mother.
    “You mean you already know that in the middle of the night, Fluffy jumped up on my bed … and the big oaf went to sleep on my legs … and she cut offthe circulation to my entire lower body … which is why my feet and legs are asleep and I can’t stand up? You already know all
that?”
    “No, Alex,” said Mom. “We know that you’re trying to get out of going to your game today. Brian’s parents called this morning and said that most of your class will be there. So we figured you’d be pulling some kind of stunt to get to stay home.”
    I rolled over.
    “Oh.”
    After that, I just lay there. For a really long time, I mean. I just lay there staring up at the ceiling.
    Finally, I rolled back on my stomach again and silently pulled myself back out of the kitchen. Sometimes, when you’re caught doing something stupid, it’s less humiliating if you just ease out of it gracefully.
    When I got back to my room, I stood up and put on my uniform.
    My pants fell down again.
    This was going to be the worst day of my life.

chapter nine
LOSERS PLAY BALL … FILM AT ELEVEN
    I put on a belt and headed over to the baseball field. The Little League uses the same field as the middle school. It’s not far from my house. But this time, as I turned the corner, I froze dead in my tracks.
    The bleachers were packed! And when I say packed, I mean packed solid!
    My skin broke out in a cold sweat. No! This couldn’t be happening! Why would all those people show up at a dumb Little League game? It didn’t make sense. Even if my entire class showed up, the bleachers wouldn’t come close to being filled. There had to be a mistake somewhere. The middle school was having some kind of function, I bet.
    That’s when it hit me.
    Wait! Hold it! It’s June, Alex! June! June, as in Graduation Day!
    Of course! The eighth-grade class was graduating. And there had been a mix-up in the schedules. Someone had forgotten to tell the Little League.
    I looked up to the sky and folded my hands. “Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you! This is a wonderful thing you’ve done here! A wonderful, Godly, zippy, wonderful thing!”
    Relieved, I sat down on the curb to wait for my parents. They’d be coming along soon, and I wanted to be the first one to break the good news.
    As I was waiting there, a truck from Channel Six