SVH09-Racing Hearts by Francine Pascal Read Free Book Online Page A

eyes opened wide. He'd seen the suit many times in the school store and had always longed to have one just like it. But coming up with the thirty dollars it cost was next to impossible for him.
    Mr. Cooper took it from Rosemary and handed it to Roger. "From everyone at Sweet Valley to you."
    "Thank you," Roger said. "I don't know what to say."
    "Just say you're going to break four minutes next Saturday afternoon. We're counting on you."
    With the blue running outfit now in his hands, Roger couldn't muster up the nerve to tell Mr. Cooper he wouldn't be there. "Th-thank you," Roger said, rising from his seat. "I--I really have to get to class now."
    Feeling a bit like a little boy with a new Christmas present, Roger walked out into the deserted hallway and entered the first bathroom he could find. Shedding his faded fatigues and ragged T-shirt, he tried on the new sweats. They couldn't have fit any better if they had been custom-made, and with the bright red Sweet Valley High emblem, he truly felt like a winner. He ached to savor the feeling as long as he could.
    Even champions couldn't escape the mediocrity of the Sweet Valley High cafeteria food. As Roger passed through the lunch line later that morning, he halfheartedly grabbed a plate of the day's entree, beef goulash.
    Jessica and Lila were already sitting at a table as he moved through the line.
    "Now there's a class-A bod," Lila said, admiring the back of the lean, tall boy dressed in a blue running suit.
    "You can't even see his face from here," Jessica pointed out. "But I can see even in those baggy sweats that everything's in the right place."
    "Wonder who he is?" Lila asked, then gasped as he turned around and headed for the cashier. "Good grief, it's Roger!"
    "So he finally traded in his ditchdigging outfit for some real clothes," Jessica added.
    In his new outfit Roger fit in well with the rest of the Sweet Valley students. He didn't look different at all.
    "Hey, look what I've been missing out on," Lila said admiringly. "You know, that guy is kind of cute when you think about it. I was only kidding around with him after the race, but you might have a point, Jess, about the value of hanging out with him for a while."
    "The same guy you've been calling a nerd for months?" Jessica said with amusement.
    "That was before," Lila proclaimed. "It's like Liz is always saying. I'm too quick to judge people by their appearances. I should have known that underneath those grungy clothes was a guy worth knowing." She rose from her chair.
    "Hey, where are you going?" Jessica asked.
    Lila winked. "Be back in a flash."
    She reached Roger just as he was paying for his lunch. "Where are you going with that tray?" she asked.
    Scanning the room quickly, Roger spotted Olivia sitting at a corner table in the back of the room. "Over there," he said, pointing in that general direction.
    "No, you're not," Lila announced with finality. "You're coming with me."
    Delighted by the prospect, Roger followed her to her table. Jessica, seeing the two of them approach, was doing all she could to suppress her astonishment at the entire chain of events. She still couldn't believe Lila was seriously interested in Roger.
    But from the look of awe in Lila's eyes, it appeared she was. "I saved this seat for you," she told him, taking his tray and setting it down for him. "I'm sure you know how proud everyone is of you."
    "Thank you, Lila," he said. "You realize that
    if it hadn't been for you, I probably wouldn't have run today."
    "I'm so glad you had the good sense to listen."
    "We knew you had it in you from the way you run around campus all the time." Jessica decided to add her two cents' worth just in case Lila was playing for keeps.
    "Practice makes perfect," he said weakly, reaching for the roll on his plate.
    "Oooh, let me do that," Lila said, taking the pat of butter and his knife away from him.
    This is getting crazier by the minute, Jessica thought. Lila must have been more desperate for a boy