Read Online Truth and Lies by Norah McClintock - Free Book Online

mind—Jen, framed in profile in the front passenger-side window of her dad’s BMW. Jen staringstraight ahead, not smiling.
    Jen with something serious on her mind.
    Just like me.

CHAPTER FOUR
    â€œWhat goes on in your head, Mike?” Riel said. He was at the door when I pushed it open and he started in on me right away with his questions:
Do you have any idea what time it is? Did you forget that you’re supposed to be grounded? You were supposed to go to work, go to the library, then come right home and do your chores—does that ring a bell, Mike?
And now this: “What goes on in your head, Mike?”
    The same stuff as goes on in anyone else’s head—jeez, what did he think? Why did adults even bother asking questions like that? Probably because they always came off looking superior. Because questions like that were impossible to answer. Questions like that left kids with nothing to do but shrug and look stupid.
    â€œDid you think you could just breeze in here any old time and there’d be no consequences?” Riel said. He was angry. I could see that by the pinched look around his eyes and by how tight his lips were, even when he wasshooting off question after question. But he wasn’t yelling. With Riel, the angrier he got, the quieter he talked.
    â€œI got fired,” I said.
    His eyes widened a little. He hadn’t been expecting that, and it was always nice to see Riel—a smart guy who knew he was a smart guy—get caught off guard and have to rethink things a little. Which was part of the reason I said it. I also said it because maybe Riel would think getting fired was the reason I’d been gone so long and because maybe if he calmed down enough to hear the whole story, he’d cut me a little slack. I said it, too, because I still couldn’t believe it. And I said it so I’d have something else to think about besides that picture of Jen, framed in the window of her dad’s Beemer. Something besides that whole thing with Jen.
    â€œFired?” Riel said. His lips weren’t so tight anymore either. “What happened?”
    What happened?
Not,
What did you do?
Or,
How did you manage to screw up again?
Just when you thought you had him figured out—Mr. Rigid, Mr. Model Foster Parent, Mr. Strict Disciplinarian—Riel could still hand you a surprise.
    I told him the whole story. He flinched when I mentioned Vin’s name. Riel didn’t have the highest opinion of Vin, mainly because the biggest trouble I ever got in, I’d got in because of Vin. But he didn’t say anything. He didn’t interrupt while I explained that Vin hadn’t done anything, that, as far as I could tell, none of the kids had done anything until after Mr. Kiros started in on them.
    â€œSo, basically,” Riel said when I finished, “he fired you because he was mad at some other kids, because Vin is your friend, and because he thought you were stealing from him?”
    â€œYeah,” I said. “Basically.”
    Riel nodded. He chewed over the information some more. “Well,” he said, “it sounds to me as if he was totally unjustified in what he did. If you want to, you can try to fight him on it. Try to get your job back.”
    Having a job was important to Riel. So was standing up for yourself. I knew that. But Mr. Kiros was pretty hard to take at the best of times. Forcing him to give me back my job wasn’t going to improve the situation.
    â€œMaybe I should just get another job,” I said.
    â€œYou sure?”
    â€œYeah, I’m sure. My resume is still on the computer. I can hand it out tomorrow after school.” I hesitated. “I guess I won’t be able to use Mr. Kiros’s name, though.” I’d been hoping for a good reference from the candy store job—if there was one thing I needed, it was a good reference. But it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
    â€œGuess not,”