Read Online Astray by Amy Christine Parker - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Amy Christine Parker
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the shelf, but now I can feel the other kids staring at my back and the prospect of reading isn’t as appealing as before.
Mrs. Connors shakes her head. “By tomorrow they will be.” She stares at her computer and types something. “She can check it out under my name for now.”
She types some more and then hands the book back to me. She gives me the dreaded pity look that I hate. “Takeas long as you like. Since it’s in my name, it won’t have to come back in the usual two weeks. But see that you take good care of it. No reading in the bathtub.”
I take the book and hug it tightly to my chest. My face is on fire. “Um, thanks. I promise I’ll be careful.”
Her face brightens. “I hope you enjoy it.”
Mrs. Ward grins at both of us. I guess I’ve just given her her first breakthrough of the day. Behind me someone coughs and I hug the book even tighter. I have the strong urge to rush to my book bag and stuff the book inside it, but I stop myself. I don’t belong to the Community anymore and yet I can’t help feeling like I’m forcing myself to balance on a very thin beam all the time, trying not to lean too far in either direction: Mrs. Ward’s or theirs.
I turn to go back to my spot on the floor. I tilt the book out in front of me so that I can see the title.
The Stand
. I don’t know what it means, but I’m suddenly dying to find out. It feels like this book could hold secrets about what I’ve been missing, about what Pioneer’s been keeping from us. It makes no sense, but I feel it anyway. I want to go through every row, stack book after book on this first one, and then sit down and read them all. There’s so much to discover. And this is only one tiny corner of such a large world.
Principal Geddy comes back to the media center just as we’re tossing the remains of our lunches into large trash cans. His eyes dart around the floor and after a minute he stoops down and picks up a smallish crumb, sighs. Afew kids are still huddled against the bookshelves, their uneaten sandwiches beside them. Principal Geddy’s face tightens and his mouth opens and closes, but ultimately he doesn’t say anything. Maybe he’s afraid to, afraid to have any of us react to his reprimand the way we did to the fire alarm. It makes for a weird sort of tension between him and us. It makes me wish someone would fake a hysterical fit just to get it out of the way, to stop him from wondering when it might happen and what he should do when it does.
Mrs. Ward passes out a series of tests. We’re supposed to answer all of the questions on them to the best of our ability. They want to see what we already know so that they can put us in the right classes. I read over the questions. The English part is easy. I’m smiling by the time I finish it, but the history bits are … confusing. I recognize the dates of some of the historical stuff, but the possible answers we’re supposed to choose from don’t make sense. All of them are just wrong. And the math is like looking at another language entirely. After struggling through a few questions, I just randomly pick answers and hope for the best. Pioneer always chose what we studied. Some of us concentrated on the arts, others on math and science. By the looks of things, his lessons were very different than what the Outsiders were learning. I wonder if anyone else is realizing the same thing. I glance up at the others, but they’re intent on their papers. Will is tapping his pencil on the side of his head like maybe somehow he can hammerthe correct answers into it. I see very few pencils actually touch paper.
By the time we complete all of the tests—or at least pretend to—the school day is over and my head is pounding. As soon as the last bell for the day chimes, the hallway outside the library fills with students. A few students knock on the library’s glass window and make faces at us as they pass. Others walk by without looking in at all. A very few smile shyly. I try
Mrs. Connors shakes her head. “By tomorrow they will be.” She stares at her computer and types something. “She can check it out under my name for now.”
She types some more and then hands the book back to me. She gives me the dreaded pity look that I hate. “Takeas long as you like. Since it’s in my name, it won’t have to come back in the usual two weeks. But see that you take good care of it. No reading in the bathtub.”
I take the book and hug it tightly to my chest. My face is on fire. “Um, thanks. I promise I’ll be careful.”
Her face brightens. “I hope you enjoy it.”
Mrs. Ward grins at both of us. I guess I’ve just given her her first breakthrough of the day. Behind me someone coughs and I hug the book even tighter. I have the strong urge to rush to my book bag and stuff the book inside it, but I stop myself. I don’t belong to the Community anymore and yet I can’t help feeling like I’m forcing myself to balance on a very thin beam all the time, trying not to lean too far in either direction: Mrs. Ward’s or theirs.
I turn to go back to my spot on the floor. I tilt the book out in front of me so that I can see the title.
The Stand
. I don’t know what it means, but I’m suddenly dying to find out. It feels like this book could hold secrets about what I’ve been missing, about what Pioneer’s been keeping from us. It makes no sense, but I feel it anyway. I want to go through every row, stack book after book on this first one, and then sit down and read them all. There’s so much to discover. And this is only one tiny corner of such a large world.
Principal Geddy comes back to the media center just as we’re tossing the remains of our lunches into large trash cans. His eyes dart around the floor and after a minute he stoops down and picks up a smallish crumb, sighs. Afew kids are still huddled against the bookshelves, their uneaten sandwiches beside them. Principal Geddy’s face tightens and his mouth opens and closes, but ultimately he doesn’t say anything. Maybe he’s afraid to, afraid to have any of us react to his reprimand the way we did to the fire alarm. It makes for a weird sort of tension between him and us. It makes me wish someone would fake a hysterical fit just to get it out of the way, to stop him from wondering when it might happen and what he should do when it does.
Mrs. Ward passes out a series of tests. We’re supposed to answer all of the questions on them to the best of our ability. They want to see what we already know so that they can put us in the right classes. I read over the questions. The English part is easy. I’m smiling by the time I finish it, but the history bits are … confusing. I recognize the dates of some of the historical stuff, but the possible answers we’re supposed to choose from don’t make sense. All of them are just wrong. And the math is like looking at another language entirely. After struggling through a few questions, I just randomly pick answers and hope for the best. Pioneer always chose what we studied. Some of us concentrated on the arts, others on math and science. By the looks of things, his lessons were very different than what the Outsiders were learning. I wonder if anyone else is realizing the same thing. I glance up at the others, but they’re intent on their papers. Will is tapping his pencil on the side of his head like maybe somehow he can hammerthe correct answers into it. I see very few pencils actually touch paper.
By the time we complete all of the tests—or at least pretend to—the school day is over and my head is pounding. As soon as the last bell for the day chimes, the hallway outside the library fills with students. A few students knock on the library’s glass window and make faces at us as they pass. Others walk by without looking in at all. A very few smile shyly. I try
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