Read Online The Friendship Song by Nancy Springer - Free Book Online Page B

supremacists. People who say all other people are inferior to white people. People who are bigoted against most of the world and want to take it over, the way Hitler wanted to take over.”
    I was starting to understand now. I had seen Aly’s boyfriend, with his shaved head and combat boots.
    â€œOh, jeez,” I said.
    â€œThey stand for violence. Lately they’ve been marching with the Ku Klux Klan.”
    â€œOh, jeez.” I felt sick.
    â€œYou been having problems with skinheads? They been giving you trouble because you’re friends with Rawnie?”
    I guess she hadn’t noticed. I mumbled, “I’m not friends with Rawnie anymore.”
    â€œNo?”
    I shook my head, looking down at the guitar Gus had given me. It was a nice little electric guitar, bright enamel red, like the Caddy out back.
    â€œYou sure? Just because you’re fighting right now doesn’t mean you can’t still be friends.”
    â€œI think I blew it pretty bad.”
    â€œOuch.” Dad would have been trying to get all the details out of me, but Gus could tell I didn’t want to talk about it. I guess it made it easier that I was not her own kid. She was pretty good about leaving things up to me. Which is what she did next. She said, “Bummer, Groover. And here’s another one. I got the Neon Shadow tickets all right, but they would only give me two.”
    My brain felt tired, and I hadn’t been thinking much about the Neon Shadow concert anyway. I just looked at her.
    She said, “That band is really hot. I couldn’t get more for love or money.”
    â€œUm, two is okay. Thanks, Gus.”
    â€œYou don’t have to thank me.” It was the first time I’d thanked her for anything, and now she sounded like Rawnie, not wanting to be thanked. Jeez, I missed Rawnie.
    Gus said, “You just have to figure out what to do with them.” She stood up and got the tickets out of a cigar jar and handed them to me. They were electric red, and they were in a little envelope with NEON SHADOW in neon gold letters against a shadow blue background. I wondered how much she’d paid for them, but I didn’t really want to know, so I didn’t ask.
    The concert was Saturday. All day Friday I tried to cheer myself up by thinking about going to it with my dad or Gus, whichever one wanted to take me. But it didn’t work. I kept on thinking about Rawnie.
    She wasn’t saving me a seat at lunchtime anymore, of course, and I didn’t want to sit with Aly and her snooty gang, so I went off to the back of the cafeteria and sat by myself. There were other people I could have sat with, I guess. Really, there were more nice people in that school than not, once you got past the clothes and haircuts and stuff. But I just didn’t feel like talking to anybody. Same between classes. And same walking home. I could have caught up with Benjy and his sister and walked with them. But I didn’t.
    That night at supper I asked Gus, “Do you mind if I just give the concert tickets to Rawnie?”
    â€œFine with me.”
    My dad looked real surprised. “Harper, what are you talking about? Gus got those tickets for you.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œSo don’t you think you’d better use them? Do you have any idea how much trouble and expense—”
    â€œBuddy,” Gus interrupted him in a real quiet way, “Groover knows what she’s doing, and I think I do too.” She nodded at me. “Go ahead, Groover, run those tickets over to Rawnie if you’re done eating.”
    I looked at my dad, and he looked kind of bug-eyed for a minute like he might explode, but then he nodded. “Gus says it’s okay. But you aren’t really finished with your supper, are you?”
    â€œUm, yeah, can I be excused? I’m not hungry.”
    I had to go to the bathroom too. On my way back down the stairs I heard Gus saying to my dad,