Read Online Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore - Free Book Online

hall.
    We could do something, just us. It’s going to be hard to think about anything else today.
    The problem is right in front of me, but I just can’t pull myself together to solve it.
    y(x+h) = y(x) = k 1 /6 + k 2 /3 + k 3 /3 + k 4 /6 + O(h 5 )
    Between the good news of Juliet wanting to go out with me again and this distracting feeling that the bone marrow in my arms and legs has turned to molten lava, it’s a little hard to concentrate.
    Mr. Wells is watching us take the test, his eyes wandering from student to student. He looks kind of sad, which I guess I can understand. Being a human, he probably didn’t take this level of math until graduate school.
    He has tiny capillaries in the whites of his eyes, like little brooks branching out from streams. He also has big pores on his cheeks. And there’s a little spot next to his mouth where he didn’t shave as closely as the rest of his face; most of it is regular stubble you’d see at eleven o’clock, but in that spot, it’s maybe a tenth of a millimeter longer.
    Wait: I’m in the back row and he’s sitting at the front of the room. I must be hallucinating.
    I snap out of it when I notice Mr. Wells looking at me right in the eye. He taps his watch and I go back to the test in front of me.
    â€œHow can you say that?” Bertrand is beside himself as we walk down the hall. “It was the easiest test we’ve had all year!”
    â€œI don’t know. I just couldn’t focus,” I say. The hall is crowded and everything seems too loud.
    Two arms drop heavily on our shoulders and then Hugh is between us. “Boys, get ready for this. Tickets for the Rubber Crutches go on sale tomorrow.”
    â€œThey suck,” I say.
    â€œPlus they’ll sell out in about ten seconds,” Bertrand adds.
    â€œTrue, but my dad knows the guy who owns their label, and he could probably get us tix. Good ones.”
    â€œThat’s what you said for the Mad Scientists concert, and you came up with nothing,” Bertrand says. “Your father’s connection is…”
    â€œDisconnected,” I say.
    â€œDanny Gray!” calls a female voice, high and squeaky. I stop walking, turn, and see Alexis Bouchon, one of my sister’s friends. She waves me over. I tell the guys to wait for me, and I go to her. She looks like a near clone of Jessica, but with slightly less attractive features. “So, Jess wanted me to tell you something.” Of course she did, because Jessica would never talk to me in public. “She said, ‘Turn your phone on, stupid. Mom’s been trying to call you all evening. She’s picking you up after school for a dentist appointment.’ Oh, and, ‘Wait for her in the back parking lot.’ That’s it, I think.”
    â€œThanks.”
    Alexis shrugs and heads back to my sister.
    â€œAlexis. One thing.”
    She turns to listen.
    â€œIt doesn’t bother you to deliver messages for my sister?”
    â€œWhy would it? Jess gives messages to my little brother for me so I don’t have to talk to him, either. It’s what we do.” She walks away like what she just said is the most sensible thing in the world.
    Ah, a trip to the dentist to make the day even better.
    â€œDidn’t I just go, like, two months ago?” I ask Mom in the car.
    â€œYou went nine months ago, and it’s my fault for not getting you there for your six-month filing. Your teeth must be quite sharp. I had to schedule a double appointment so he could get all the work done.”
    â€œSounds super.”
    Dr. Loeb takes me in almost as soon as we get to the waiting room. He asks how school is going while he gets me set up in the chair and starts checking around in my mouth. Then he furrows his brow and he says hmmm a few times. He wheels backward on his little stool and looks at my patient file. “That’s strange,” he