Read Online Fruit by Brian Francis - Free Book Online Page B

stoppers on my skates, so I’d grab onto the railing to slow myself down before getting off the rink. But that day, I missed the railing and went flying into the lobby. Everybody was screaming and jumping out of the way. I was going that fast. I ended up running into the vending machine. I bounced back, landed on my butt, and broke my right arm. Mr. Moffat had to drive me home. He kept asking me if I was all right and I said “Yep, I’m okay,” but as soon as I walked through my front door, I started bawling. I had to go to the emergency room and get a cast.
    I didn’t get invited to Todd’s ninth birthday party.
    I even used to be friends with Craig Brown, which isreally weird when I think about it, since he’s the leader of the Athlete Group at Clarkedale. In grade 6 , my parents took Craig and I to the Brigden Fair. It happens in a small town of the same name every Thanksgiving. There’s a midway and candy floss stands and cows with runny noses and competitions to see who grew the biggest gourd.
    Craig and I went on the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Scrambler and the giant swings. Later, he bought a chocolate sucker shaped like a boob and I bought a bag of beer nuts, which Craig said were made with real beer. We had a great time, even though I stepped in horse crap on the way out and my mom made us drive home with the windows open.
    That was two years ago. Now, Craig acts like he doesn’t know me.
    I guess things started to change in grade 7. The year started out the same, with everyone hanging around each other. But then, halfway through, we started taking sex ed and by the time June came around, everyone was divided off into groups.
    Every group at Clarkedale has a leader. Craig is the leader of the Athlete Group, the most popular group. All of the Athlete Group boys play on the school sports teams. The Athlete Group call each other by their last names and yell things like:
    “Thompson! Over here!” and
    “You’re a doofus, Wilkie,” and
    “Shake it off, Lewis. Don’t let him get to you.”
    All of them are thin, even though they’re always eating. Sometimes, I think they eat more than me, whichmakes me angry because that’s not fair. But most of the boys in the Athlete Group are dumb and don’t get good grades. They’re not very good dressers, either. I try to stay clear of them at all times, especially Craig. I’m afraid of their touchdowns and last names and loud voices.
    Eddy Vanderberg is the leader of the Short Group. The Short Group is made up of boys who haven’t reached puberty. Most of them are smaller than the girls in my class. The Short Group plays King’s Court at recess. Eddy Vanderberg always yells out the rules to everyone, as if no one’s ever played the game before.
    “No spiking! No dribbling!”
    I think it makes Eddy feel taller to yell.
    Most of the Short Group members are dumb, like the Athlete Group boys. Eddy gets pretty good grades, but he doesn’t want anyone to know. I think he thinks he wouldn’t be the cool leader anymore if people found out he was really a nerd. The truth is, everyone knows that Eddy is a nerd, so he’s not fooling anyone.
    Sean Dilworth is the leader of the Geek Group. The members of the Geek Group are good at math and science. They stand around at recess, in the far corner of the school yard, talking about science fiction movies and passing around Fangoria magazines.
    “Check out this one!” they say, pointing to pictures of zombies or people with knives sticking out of their heads. “That’s totally putrid!”
    Margaret Stone is the leader of the Goody-Goody Group. That group is kind of like a girl Geek Group, even though you’d never catch them looking at Fangoria magazines. Instead, the Goody-Goody girls go to C.G.I.T. meetings in church basements and trade stickers that they keep in photo albums.
    “Mmm, smell this one,” I’ll hear them say. “Peach.”
    “This one’s fuzzy. Touch it.”
    The Goody-Goody Group also make friendship pins