Read Online Whatever Doesn't Kill You by Elizabeth Wennick - Free Book Online

class, upstairs at the other end of the school. Marie-Claire gets there a few minutes after I do, shoots me a peeved look and finds another table. Everybody else shows up shortly afterward, glancing at me before they join her.
    I dig my English book out of my satchel and pretend to read. Every once in a while I look over at my so-called friends. Griffin is laughing too loud, like he wants to make sure I notice how much fun they’re having without me. I’m sure they’re making plans for later and talking about what a loser I am, sitting over here by myself.
    So this is what it’s like to get frozen out. I can’t say I recommend it.

    After school it starts to snow a little—big fluffy globs that look pretty drifting through the air but start to look dingy and slushy the second they hit the ground. It’s warm enough for me to take the kids to the park and let them run off some steam while I sit on the picnic bench and make sure nobody falls off the top of the climber.
    Wex sits beside me, watching the other kids play. I don’t bother asking him why he doesn’t join in; the other kids are about as keen on him as my peers are on me. We sit for an hour or so, Wex up on the picnic table and me on the bench, neither one of us saying much of anything, until my butt is frozen from the cold metal. Finally I stand up and do a little wiggle to get the feeling back in my upper thighs.
    â€œAll right, guys. Time to go.”
    There’s some moaning and whining from Xavier, the oldest of my charges, but most of them are starting to get a little chilled. The snow isn’t really sticking around, and the sun is starting to sink behind the escarpment. We march back home in a line, with me and Wex bringing up the rear, and Xavier way up ahead like he’s too cool to be seen with all these little kids.
    â€œSlow down, Xavier. You’re too far away.”
    He heaves his shoulders, turns around with his hands thrown in the air. “Come on. You’re too slow. You said it was time to go home, so let’s go. ”
    But instead of speeding up, I stop in my tracks. Rounding the corner ahead of us, coming right toward us, is Ashley Walsh, resplendent in her bright pink down jacket and Ugg boots.
    â€œFunny seeing you north of Main Street,” I say, trying to sound casual. She’s clearly looking for me, because she slows when she sees me. I wonder if she’s going to beat me up as punishment for some offense I might have committed in gym class…or maybe just to cleanse herself from the humiliation of having been seen with me in public at school.
    â€œI heard you’d be around here. Scott Becker says he sees you here all the time.”
    â€œI usually am after school, if the weather’s okay.”
    She turns around and falls into step beside me. I have no clue what she’s after. She’s a little shorter than I am, maybe ten pounds lighter. I’m pretty sure I could take her in a fight, and I don’t think she’d jump me in front of a crowd of little kids anyway. I wonder if they’d all spring to my defense, and I smile a little at the thought of Ashley getting her ass kicked by a bunch of first-and-second-graders.
    â€œWhat are you smirking about?” she wants to know.
    I shrug. “Nothing special. So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?”
    â€œI was thinking after gym class. You’re not so bad.”
    â€œGee, thanks.”
    â€œNo, I mean, seriously. You’re really weird. I mean, like, freak-show weird. But you’re kind of funny, too. Maybe we can hang out or something.”
    I stop in my tracks and stare at her. “Seriously? You spend ten years treating me like something you’d scrape off the bottom of your shoe, and now we’re buddies all of a sudden?”
    Ashley shrugs. “Yeah. Sorry about that. But I figure… your friends aren’t talking to you, my friends aren’t talking to