The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten Read Free Book Online

less tentative now. “Let’s bring out the big guns!” He put his arm around his brother. Again, he felt the little heart thumping much too fast. “Only the prime numbers will do in a situation like this. Seventeen is cool, as is thirty-nine, and neither of us much likes going near the two hundreds, right?” Sweetie shook his head. He couldn’t count to the two hundreds, didn’t much know what they were, but if his brother said that they didn’t like them, then they didn’t like them. “Okay, so let’s both of us think about the real beauty in the bunch, one of our favorite truly superior prime numbers. Let’s think about the number
eleven
! Got it? The one and the one? You love eleven. See it?”
    Sweetie nodded enthusiastically now.
    “Even better, let’s load it up and go for broke. Let’sdo
one hundred and eleven
! That’s a one and a one and a one.”
    “Wow, yeah! That’s an eleven with a friend. Yeah! One, one, one, it’s very pretty. I love one hundred eleven a lot! I can see all those ones.”
    Adam felt Sweetie relax into him, felt his heart slow. It was different with him. Sweetie just liked to pick a number and think about it, but it had to be “pretty.” Adam had tried to teach Dad and Brenda about the numbers. But they couldn’t do it—didn’t get it or maybe didn’t believe.
    But Adam did.
    His brother got lost in all those ones for a while.
    “Better, Sweetie?”
    His brother sighed and melted into him. “I’m all better now. You fixed it.”
    At least he could do this. At least there was this.
    “I’m glad, Sweetie,” Adam whispered, and he hugged the little body even tighter. “I’m glad.”

CHAPTER 8
    Adam and the climbers sat panting in their chairs for a full five minutes before the rest of Group got there and a full minute and a half before Chuck arrived.
    “Hey, my stair-climbing superheroes, how’s it going?” he asked as he shuffled through the door. “Are there more of you this week?”
    It was true. Green Lantern and Iron Man had joined Wonder Woman, Robyn, Wolverine and Batman in their accidental fitness quest. Snooki had threatened to as well, but couldn’t that day because she was squeezing in an extra tanning appointment before the meeting.
    Chuck took off his faded corduroy jacket and carefully draped it across the back of his chair. He laid down his repurposed file folders just so on the empty chair beside him and painstakingly sorted through them looking forlast week’s notes. Chuck did this with a nuclear absorption while the rest of Group dribbled in.
    Adam, meanwhile, tried to settle into inconspicuous gazing at the ravishing Robyn. She had on a new school jacket. It fit better. Still the same skirt, though, and still heart-thumpingly too short. He was numb with emotion.
    “You okay, Dark Knight?” Chuck took off his aviators and squinted at Adam.
    Robyn glanced at Chuck and then resumed examining the floor.
    “Me? Yeah, sure. I mean, still out of shape, but I’m good. Well, you know, for being whack and all.”
    “Cool.” Chuck shook his head. “You guys are something else.”
    Chuck was cool. Adam promised himself that he would talk about Robyn at their next one-on-one.
Robyn
. She still hadn’t looked up. He was getting
uncomfortable
again. Just looking at her across the semicircle made him hotter than a match. He counted the ceiling tiles, thought about Sister Mary-Margaret and then returned to the task at hand.
    Chuck’s continuing preoccupation with his notes gave Adam just enough time to sort out his thoughts and start figuring out what to say during Group. He needed some kind of edge. Maybe it
was
time to talk about the letters. His mom had received yet another one yesterday afternoon. How many was that? They were starting to infiltrate the house somehow. Adam knew it was bad even as she turned her back to him and ripped it up. She couldn’t hide the color draining from her hands while she shoved the pieces deep into the garbage