Read Online Broken by Dean Murray - Free Book Online Page A

learning about our mortgage problems I probably would
have had a nervous breakdown. As it was, I was essentially
worthless all weekend.
    I tried to warn mom about the animals that'd
mauled the kids from school, but she told me she was already aware
of the incident and left before I could draw her into a discussion
of what we should do about the bank.
    I saw her for maybe a total of three hours
during the entire two days. Even I knew it was wasted effort. If
mom somehow beat the odds, it still wasn't going to result in the
kind of money we'd need to save our house. Not in the next two or
three weeks at least.
    It felt like my whole world had just
disappeared down a drain. I didn't suffer any real panic attacks,
but more or less spent both days in a kind of despondency that
wasn't much better than a full-blown attack.
    By the time Monday morning arrived I had
vague memories of doing homework and not much else. The only
positive from the whole weekend was the way my dream from Friday
stayed with me. As I got ready for school I idly wondered if it
would be possible to recreate the grotto in real life. Obviously
not with the impossible, glowing water, but with the incredible,
lush vegetation and the secluded pool. Then again, I'd seen mom
pull off some pretty crazy tricks with her camera, maybe there
would be some way to simulate glowing water, some kind of
photography trick I'd never heard of.
    I walked downstairs as the eastern sky was
just starting to change colors.
    Mom was already gone. The message board was
conspicuously empty, so she was either still frustrated with me,
angry at our hopeless situation, or wrapped back up in her quest to
become a renowned photographer.
    Britney picked me up on schedule and I
somehow made it through my first two classes. Mrs. Sorenson was
still out to prove to everyone I was an idiot, and Heathcliff was
still a psychopath despite Mr. Whethers' best efforts to explain
the character's motivation.
    Math was actually the high point of the
morning. Mrs. Campbell was smart enough to put Britney off in a
corner surrounded by the kind of kids she'd never even consider
talking to under normal circumstances.
    Not having Britney distract me all hour would
have been a blessing by itself, but things got even better when
Mrs. Campbell complimented me on the homework I handed in.
    "Most excellently done Ms. Paige. Albert said
you seemed to pick up the concepts quite quickly. I've noticed
you've been working on the older material during class, which I
very much approve of, but you may want to listen today. We're
starting a new section, and it should be fairly straightforward for
you to pick up."
    I shouldn't have been surprised when she
turned out to be right. The new chapter was on probability, which
had absolutely nothing to do with the stuff they'd been working on
the week before. I quickly decided I didn't like the new stuff as
much as what I'd been studying on my own, but it was relatively
easy, and almost before I knew it class had ended and it was time
to go to lunch.
    My doubts about whether or not everyone would
be back in school today after three nights of partying, were
quickly resolved as Britney and I tried to fight through the
ridiculous foot traffic on our way to our lockers.
    By the time we made it to the lunch room, I
was heartily sick of dodging jocks with shoulders the size of an
ox. Why on earth did every single one of them think it was
necessary to mock fight, throw balls back and forth to each other,
or otherwise make a spectacle of themselves?
    My mood was further soured as we arrived to
find an unmistakable circle of bystanders signaling an impending
fight. My first instinct was to go find a teacher before the two
idiots hurt each other, but while I was still looking around to see
if there was an adult in the room, Britney grabbed my arm and
pulled me towards the circle.
    It wasn't until we got closer that I realized
there was something wrong with the circle of kids surrounding