Read Online Reckless Disregard by Robert Rotstein - Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Rotstein
Ads: Link
until he leaves. When I turn around, Poniard’s cosplay fans are standing. They begin to clap. They don’t realize that this most insignificant of victories has nothing to do with whether Poniard has libeled William Bishop or with what happened to Paula Felicity McGrath almost thirty years earlier.
The Hoar Frost Queen and Bugsy are arguing—well, the HF Queen is arguing—about Brighton. She comes home and announces that he shouldn’t be allowed to play Abduction! , says that the game is a lie and children shouldn’t be exposed to lies. Now Bugsy says that she’s being unfair, that television and movies and, yes, video games are lies, but they’re supposed to be, and that Brighton is doing very well in school, so why not give the kid a break? The HF Queen starts ranting about her fucked-up life , and all the while Bugsy stands leaning against the wall, arms crossed and eyes half-closed, maybe listening to her, maybe not. When the HF Queen notices Brighton peeking out through the crack in the door of his room, she raises her hand and points, her fingernails a burnished maroon, and it seems as if she’s about to issue an edict in that icy voice so cutting that it can lop off the head of an impudent subject, but instead she drops her arm wearily, goes into her bedroom, and closes the door. Brighton, figuring that it’s safe to leave his own room, walks up to Bugsy and shrugs a question. Bugsy raises a hand palm forward, a gesture that can mean leave me alone , leave her alone , or leave it to me . This time it means all three. Bugsy turns and goes into the large room with the pool table and the big-screen TV that he calls his study.
It’s true that Brighton is doing well in school—almost. When he first came to live in this house, he worried that the Archwood Community School of the Santa Monica Mountains—that’s actually what they call the place—would be too difficult, that all the kids would be geniuses. But it’s not hard at all, no harder than his old public school was, and while the kids are richer than his former classmates, they certainly aren’t any smarter. In fact, they’re dumber if you factor in their lack of street smarts. He’s doing well in math (graphing, fractions, no problem) and Language Arts/Literature (they’re reading Peter and the Starcatchers , a book about an orphan, how annoying). Social studies is the problem, although Bugsy and the HF Queen don’t know it yet. He doesn’t see the point of history, even when the teacher talks about being doomed to repeat the past. So what? No matter how bad the past was, how can anyone be sure that the future won’t be worse? But what worries him is this new assignment. It’s going to ruin his grade. He has to write a report on his family history, an assignment that will supposedly teach them about immigration in America but really is intended to get the students’ grandparents to donate money for the new gymnasium. So said Bugsy. Which made the HF Queen mad. Don’t make the kid a cynic , she said, as if Brighton weren’t one already. Anyway, what family history does he have to write about? That his parents abandoned him when he was a baby, that his Aunt Greta took him in, that she died ten years later of cardiac arrest, and that Bugsy and the HF Queen showed up? He will not write about Bugsy and the HF Queen.
The bigger surprise at school is his popularity. Well, not popularity, really, because he knows deep down that they still think of him as a video-game geek from the OC. But he commands respect. After all, he’s the only person they know who’s beaten Level One of Abduction! In the last few days, others claim to have done it. And now suddenly, Felicity’s letters from her nightstand are all over the web, and everyone wants to know what they mean.
Brighton starts toward his room but hesitates. Instead, he goes to the HF Queen’s bedroom and raises his fist to knock, but his hand freezes when he hears rhythmic snuffling, a
The Hoar Frost Queen and Bugsy are arguing—well, the HF Queen is arguing—about Brighton. She comes home and announces that he shouldn’t be allowed to play Abduction! , says that the game is a lie and children shouldn’t be exposed to lies. Now Bugsy says that she’s being unfair, that television and movies and, yes, video games are lies, but they’re supposed to be, and that Brighton is doing very well in school, so why not give the kid a break? The HF Queen starts ranting about her fucked-up life , and all the while Bugsy stands leaning against the wall, arms crossed and eyes half-closed, maybe listening to her, maybe not. When the HF Queen notices Brighton peeking out through the crack in the door of his room, she raises her hand and points, her fingernails a burnished maroon, and it seems as if she’s about to issue an edict in that icy voice so cutting that it can lop off the head of an impudent subject, but instead she drops her arm wearily, goes into her bedroom, and closes the door. Brighton, figuring that it’s safe to leave his own room, walks up to Bugsy and shrugs a question. Bugsy raises a hand palm forward, a gesture that can mean leave me alone , leave her alone , or leave it to me . This time it means all three. Bugsy turns and goes into the large room with the pool table and the big-screen TV that he calls his study.
It’s true that Brighton is doing well in school—almost. When he first came to live in this house, he worried that the Archwood Community School of the Santa Monica Mountains—that’s actually what they call the place—would be too difficult, that all the kids would be geniuses. But it’s not hard at all, no harder than his old public school was, and while the kids are richer than his former classmates, they certainly aren’t any smarter. In fact, they’re dumber if you factor in their lack of street smarts. He’s doing well in math (graphing, fractions, no problem) and Language Arts/Literature (they’re reading Peter and the Starcatchers , a book about an orphan, how annoying). Social studies is the problem, although Bugsy and the HF Queen don’t know it yet. He doesn’t see the point of history, even when the teacher talks about being doomed to repeat the past. So what? No matter how bad the past was, how can anyone be sure that the future won’t be worse? But what worries him is this new assignment. It’s going to ruin his grade. He has to write a report on his family history, an assignment that will supposedly teach them about immigration in America but really is intended to get the students’ grandparents to donate money for the new gymnasium. So said Bugsy. Which made the HF Queen mad. Don’t make the kid a cynic , she said, as if Brighton weren’t one already. Anyway, what family history does he have to write about? That his parents abandoned him when he was a baby, that his Aunt Greta took him in, that she died ten years later of cardiac arrest, and that Bugsy and the HF Queen showed up? He will not write about Bugsy and the HF Queen.
The bigger surprise at school is his popularity. Well, not popularity, really, because he knows deep down that they still think of him as a video-game geek from the OC. But he commands respect. After all, he’s the only person they know who’s beaten Level One of Abduction! In the last few days, others claim to have done it. And now suddenly, Felicity’s letters from her nightstand are all over the web, and everyone wants to know what they mean.
Brighton starts toward his room but hesitates. Instead, he goes to the HF Queen’s bedroom and raises his fist to knock, but his hand freezes when he hears rhythmic snuffling, a
Similar Books
