Read Online Deviant by Adrian McKinty - Free Book Online Page A

furious. “You! Let him go,” he said to Todd.
    Todd released Danny’s arms.
    â€œNow, you. What’s your name?” the teacher asked Danny.
    â€œDanny Lopez,” Danny said. “I’m new.”
    â€œWhat’s going on here, Danny?” the teacher asked.
    â€œNothing. We were playing,” Danny muttered.
    â€œYeah, we were just playing,” Rebecca said in thatannoying singsong voice that would have gotten her a slap in the face if she’d been at Grover Cleveland.
    â€œCome on, Danny, let’s go,” Tony said, and led him away from the others.
    They exited through the rear gate, and when they were clear of the school and halfway up Alameda she stopped and looked at him.
    â€œAre you OK?” she asked.
    Danny kept walking and she ran to catch up. “Are you OK?” she asked again.
    â€œI’m fine.”
    â€œDon’t worry about those guys. Hector and Charlie think they’re tough, but they’re not.”
    â€œHector and Charlie are the ones from our class?”
    â€œYeah. Todd’s from 8B and Rebecca’s from 8A. Tom’s been keeping an eye on them, don’t worry … we’re on top of it. We think there’s about a dozen of them altogether. They’ve got a secret club. It’s so lame. We think Charlie’s running it.”
    â€œCharlie’s the blond one?”
    â€œYeah. He thinks he’s so handsome. I guess he is, in a cartoony kind of way, like Fred from
Scooby-Doo
or something.”
    â€œThey’re in a secret club?”
    â€œYeah, can you imagine? Lame City. You can see them on the playground acting all dorky. They have their own sign language.
Sign language
… I mean, like, how sad can you get? We’re miles ahead of them.”
    â€œHow many are in
your
secret group?” Danny said, with a slight mocking edge to his voice.
    â€œNot as many as them, but we’re more exclusive. There’s me and Tom, and Olivia Quintera and Cooper Reid and you, and I think Carol Brennan left. She and Tom fell out or something. I don’t know about her.”
    â€œBut haven’t I screwed it up for you guys now? Now they’ve got the pager; they’ll be able to read
your
texts. Your whole communication system is ruined.”
    Tony laughed. “No, they won’t be able to do anything. I’ll call Tom tonight and he’ll sync a different encryption system and when they try to read our texts tomorrow they’ll just get junk. Might even be funny to watch them.”
    Tony smiled and gave him a little punch on the shoulder.
    She wanted Danny to laugh, but he didn’t feel like laughing. This was all a bit much for him to take in—secret societies with different ways of communicating, bullies, reading programs, silence, scripts, gloves, and all this on his first day. His head was pounding and he felt humiliated. He’d been roughed up in front of two girls.
    He blinked hard. Oh no. He actually felt like he was going to cry.
    All he wanted to do was get away. From school, from Tony, from Colorado.
    She was talking. Her lips were moving, but the drumming in his head was so loud he didn’t hear what she was saying.
    He rubbed his eyes, took a deep breath. This was not the time to ride the pity pony. He couldn’t run away—they bothtook the same route home—he had to keep it together until he got to the house. Then he could go to his room, close the door …
    Tony continued with her explanation of whatever it was she was explaining. “There’s only six of us, and we’re all in 9B. We don’t have anyone in grade eight or seven, but their club is mostly grades seven and eight. Olivia thinks—”
    â€œWho’s Olivia?”
    â€œShe was sitting behind you.”
    â€œI didn’t notice her. I was afraid to look back.”
    Tony laughed, and her laugh made him feel a little better. “Oh, you can look back. Miss