Read Online Astray by Amy Christine Parker - Free Book Online

it. She doesn’t reach out to him, but I can tell that she wants to. Instead she rearranges herself until she’s sitting cross-legged. “I’m not trying to take your beliefs away from you. Really. All I’m asking is that you consider
why
you believe them.” Her eyes rest on me. “Questions aren’t bad, in fact they’re necessary when you’re trying to figure out just exactly what you stand for.”
    Brian shakes his head and Heather and Julie grab each other’s hands and hold tight. I watch as the hand-holding catches on. In less than a minute everyone is holding hands, one long chain of defiance. Will offers his hand to me and I don’t know what to do. Mrs. Ward is watching me intensely. I feel like whatever I choose to do means something—means too much. The thing is, I think I agree with Mrs. Ward, but I’ve isolated myself from the Community so much already. Does it make sense to do it now, especially after what happened outside?
    I reach out and take Will’s hand. Mrs. Ward sighs and then opens her mouth to say something more, but doesn’t get the chance because the library door opens up and an older lady rushes in with a clipboard.
    “Lunch,” she says. She’s a sturdy lady with rough hands and a ruddy face. Her hair is pulled up under a hairnet.“Principal Geddy said it would be better if the kids ate in here.” She eyeballs us. “But just this once. I can’t be expected to pull together a special lunch for this lot every day and still get the rest of the school fed.” The irritation and outright revulsion in her voice as she talks about us startles me even after everything that’s happened. She gives Mrs. Ward a stern look. “I won’t be responsible for any mess that’s made. I’ll send one of our ladies back in half an hour to collect what’s left.”
    “Thank you, Marianne, we’ll do our best to be tidy.” Mrs. Ward smiles patiently at her. Even though she’s got a nice smile and a kind face, it doesn’t soften Marianne any. I wonder if it’s starting to bug Mrs. Ward that no one’s responding the way she wants them to.
    A cart is rolled in by another cranky-looking lady in a hairnet. It’s piled high with plastic-wrapped sandwiches, bottled water, and apples. Mrs. Ward asks Julie and Will to pass it all out, and soon we’re settled back down on the floor, our backs leaning up against the bookshelves, our meals in our laps. I’m not sure why we don’t sit at the tables. Mrs. Ward just seems to prefer the floor, I guess. She stretches out her legs across the aisle until her boots are resting close to my sneakers. She’s watching me and chewing her sandwich slowly. She blushes when she realizes that I’ve caught her studying me. Every move I make is being dissected now, not just by her, but by everyone, even me. It ruins my appetite, so I put my food aside, stand up, and start walking along the rows of books.
    I land in a row that seems to be all fiction. We only had a few shelves of books in the clubhouse, and I’d read all of those enough times that I’d memorized entire chapters. I put a finger on one of the spines and slowly pull it out. It’s slightly tacky along the front and back cover, like it’s been handled often. Still, I flip it open and start looking at the first page or two. It’s by someone named Stephen King. There’s a picture of him on the back. He looks like Mr. Brown from the Community. The resemblance is almost eerie.
    “Do you like to read?” Mrs. Ward is beside me.
    “Yeah,” I say quietly. I flip the pages idly, forcing myself to be casual about it.
    “Well, why not take that one home today?” Mrs. Ward smiles at me, takes the book before I can decide either way, and walks it up to the front of the library and around the back of the long table there. She hands it to the lady sitting behind it.
    “Mrs. Connors, are the kids in the system yet? Lyla would like to check out this book.”
    I want to disagree. It was one thing to consider it on