Read Online Memento Nora by Angie Smibert - Free Book Online Page B

reaction.
     
    “Where did you get this?” Mr. Finchly asked.
     
    I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I thought I was going to hurl.
     
    “They’re all over the place,” someone else—Catrina Jackson, I think—replied. Other kids agreed, saying they found it in the bathroom, hallway, café courtyard, locker rooms.
     
    I forgot how to breathe for a minute.
     
    The bell rang. Nobody moved.
     
    Finally, Mr. Finchly turned on his heel, wadded up the paper, and tossed it in the trash can at the front of the room.
     
    “Well,” he said, turning back to the class. “What are you waiting for? Get out of here.”
     

     
    On my way to Spanish, I started to think it was all going to be all right. I even relaxed enough to get a B on the quiz.
     
    After third period I met my girls outside the yearbook room. We started talking about Mercedes Rios breaking up with Trey Collins on Behind the Gates . I hadn’t told anyone yet we were moving. I couldn’t think that far ahead—even if it was only eighteen days. I hated the idea of leaving my girls, though I knew they’d be so behind the move. I’d be their ticket into compound life.
     
    “Oh, she’d never marry him,” I said when Maia brought up Trey’s brother, Stone, as a possible replacement; but I didn’t finish the thought. We could hear lockers slamming and unfamiliar voices down the hall toward the gym.
     
    The school cop and his squad of rent-a-cops were searching lockers. Actually, the real cop watched as the others did all the work.
     
    “I bet it’s because of that Memento comic,” Abby said.
     
    “Oh yeah, everyone’s got one.”
     
    “Someone ran off copies in the library.”
     
    “My cousin sent it to my mobile just before third period—and she goes to a private school across town.”
     
    Wow. I had no idea it would spread this fast. Or at all. It had become self-replicating, like the viruses we were studying in biology. I started getting that queasy feeling again.
     
    “Hey, isn’t that your skate-punk art history partner?” Maia asked, pointing to a security guard frisking a kid. Micah.
     
    Micah, however, was grinning as they patted him down. I didn’t dare move, even if I could. He opened his bag for them as if he didn’t have a thing in the world to hide. They turned out books and papers and candy bars and even dirty socks, but no sketch pads. He winked at me as he stuffed all his belongings back into his messenger bag.
     
    “Girl, he likes you,” Abby said, giving me a little shove.
     
    I blushed, and Maia told me I’d better nip that in the bud.
     
    I didn’t say anything. All I could see was that big, sandy-haired cop staring at me.
     
    The rest of the school day dragged on forever.
     

     
    That afternoon I waited in our usual spot in the library, but Micah didn’t show. The school cop did. He sauntered in about five minutes after I sat down. He poked his head into the librarian’s office. Ms. Curtis is kind of cute, so I thought maybe he was just hitting on her. She giggled, and I relaxed a bit. I opened one of the big art books from the perpetual stack on the table. No one seems to tidy up this place. The book was about kinetic sculpture. I turned the page, and a piece of paper fluttered out. They’re watching us. I stuffed the note back into the book and looked up to see the cop smiling at me as he headed out of the library.
     
    “I see Mr. Wallenberg stood you up.” It was Ms. Curtis. She’d emerged from her office to watch the cop leave. “Oh, don’t worry about him.” I wasn’t sure if she meant the officer or Micah. She looked at me differently then. “You know, we have similar taste in men,” she said.
     
    I was so not having this conversation with the school librarian. I grabbed my bag and stood up.
     
    “We fall for the ones our friends—and family—don’t get,” she added with a sad smile.
     
    “I’ve got to go.” I left the library.
     
    But then I thought, Maybe she has