Read Online Marked (The Pack) by Suzanne Cox - Free Book Online Page A

could I hate you?”
    I spun around to see Brynna had come in through the kitchen door. “You don’t like me, not much difference.”
    “And you don’t like me, so we’re even.”
    I shrugged. “Like you said, I don’t know you well enough to like or dislike you.” Okay, so I’d lied on that one.
    Myles stepped between us on the way to the microwave to collect the now boiled tea. “Enough already. We want to go to Channing’s party next Friday, but it will be easier for us to get out of eating with the family if all three of us go.”
    Brynna frowned at him. “You want to go, or she wants to?”
    Myles passed the tea off to me. “We both want to. So what do you think? It might be a good idea if you and I were there.”
    Brynna studied him for a few seconds while I stirred the tea and watched the two of them. Why was it a good idea for them to be there? I began to get a sinking feeling. Surely they weren’t going to call the cops or parents at the first sign of alcohol or some other substance.
    Finally Brynna nodded. “You’re right. I’ll go, but not to help the queen in training over there.”
    I whirled around, leaving the tea behind and ended up two inches from Brynna’s nose. “What is that supposed to mean?”
    “That you’re on your way to being one of Channing’s little followers and you haven’t been here two weeks.”
    “I’m no one’s follower. I hang out with them because they know how to have fun. Sorry, but I’m not interested in spending my summer reading books and collecting herbs.” I felt a dark ugly sound gurgling deep inside me and it grated in my voice when I spoke. “Got it?”
    Brynna held her ground, nose to nose with me. Then suddenly she took a step backward and smiled, clapping her hands together in quiet applause. “You know, you just might be right.”
    My skin had become damp. I hadn’t realized I was that angry.
    Myles held up the tea and started for the door. “We all done here?”
    Brynna and I squinted at each other, then we both nodded.
     
    ***
     
    We all sat around the picnic table and began to eat. The table was covered with newspapers and the shrimp, along with corn and potatoes, were piled in the middle. Soon the conversations were going faster than I could keep up with. Even Brynna decided to be nice in front of her parents and asked me questions about Chicago.
    “Wait a minute. All of you teach at the same school during the year?” I put down the shrimp I was holding and turned to my aunt. “But I thought you traveled around all the time to different schools.”
    Everyone else at table stopped talking. I wasn’t trying to make a scene. I didn’t understand how Louise managed to move from one teaching job to another, different states, different towns, maybe even more than one in a year. Now she expected me to believe that three other teachers could move with her and they could all find jobs in the same school every time. Was it that easy to get a teaching job? Even at my large school in the city new faces didn’t come and go that often.
    “It’s not regular public school.” Brynna said.
    I twisted toward Brynna and waited for her to explain, as did everyone else. She’d probably gotten the explanation from a book, with no pictures, of course.
    “We have a mobile school. It’s like home schooling. We have this huge group of people that want to travel and take their kids, so we go together and no one misses school and certain parents are the teachers.”
    “Oh.” Home schooling. Okay, I’d heard of that. “So you guys make money doing that?” I asked.
    “Every family pays to go, like a private school. And that’s how the teachers get paid.” Brynna said.
    “So what’s with the summer camp?” That sure wasn’t any home school thing.
    “Extra money,” Myles chimed in. “They don’t pay that much in the teaching jobs so we all do the camp for extra money.”
    “It helps us buy stuff like those jet skis and four wheelers.” Brynna