Read Online Zen and Xander Undone by Amy Kathleen Ryan - Free Book Online

environmentally friendly poison. I’ve spent the last three days in bed, nursing a bad muscle sprain, and it feels great to be out of my bedroom. The doctor said that I’ll get better faster if I can resume light activity, but no, absolutely no shotokan practice for at least three weeks.
    It’s killing me.
    It’s hot outside, and I can practically feel my shoulders crisping in the sun. I should do this later, but I don’t want to go in the house because Xander is obsessing about John Phillips, and I don’t want to get pulled into her psychodrama.
    Spraying weeds is boring. Normally I would mix it up with a little shotokan practice. Spray. Side kick. Spray. Elbow strike. Spray. Middle block. But just standing long enough to aim and spray is already as much as my back can take. I still can’t bend over, so my aim isn’t so good.
    â€œHey! Zen!” I hear from across the street, and look up to see Adam coming over. He’s wearing a straw gardener’s hat, cargo shorts, and his old brown sandals, which are encrusted with mud. He must have been working out back in his mom’s garden. “How’s it going?”
    â€œOkay,” I say, keeping my head down as I spray another dandelion. “You all ready for finals week?”
    â€œMore or less. I only have two tests. The rest are papers.” Adam is a very good student. He ranks tenth in the class, only because he got a C+ in home economics his freshman year. He isn’t like Xander, though. He has to study. “You ready for your trig final?” he asks me.
    â€œI think so.” I shrug. My grades aren’t the greatest these days, but I don’t really care. After Mom died, little stuff no longer seems to matter. I don’t even think of school when I’m not there. “I’ll eke by.”
    â€œSo.” He casts his dark blue eyes over the roof of our house. “Did that guy ever come back?”
    I know exactly who he’s talking about. Every time I remember, I get angry all over again. “Haven’t seen him.”
    â€œThat’s good.” He twists his face into an uncertain smile, crosses his arms over his chest, uncrosses them, and jams his toe into a hunk of crabgrass I just sprayed. “Get any interesting mail recently?”
    By the fidgety look in his eyes, I can tell he’s talking about the prom.
    â€œAdam.” I take my rubber gloves off and lead him over to our porch to sit on the steps. Sitting next to him makes me wish I was lithe and sexy like Xander, but I’ll have to settle for “athletic.” “You really don’t have to do this.”
    He seems a little disappointed. “But your mom said—”
    â€œI know. It’s just, the prom really isn’t my style.”
    â€œMine neither.” He grabs hold of my wrist and pulls it so that I have to look at him. “I’m picking you up at six o’clock on Friday. You’ll be wearing a nice dress, and I’ll be in a tux. We’ll have dinner at Il Maestro’s, and then we’re going to the prom. We’ll get our pictures taken, and we’ll dance to a few songs and have some terrible punch. Then we will heave huge sighs of relief as we leave. After that, we’re going to get some ice cream, and then I’m bringing you home so you can practice cracking skulls, or whatever it is you do in your spare time. Okay?”
    â€œ
Why?
” is all I can say.
    In that one word are lots of questions I can’t ask.
Why
is Mom doing this?
Why
did she choose Adam?
Why
can’t I just remember her fondly and escape all the meddling in my life like other motherless orphans get to do?
    â€œYour mom wanted it.”
    â€œWhat did she say to you?”
    He pauses, seeming to gauge something about me before answering: “She told me you’re too self-sufficient, and you cut yourself off from other people, and that she thought going to the prom