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An hour and a half later, Carmine waltzed into his second period classroom and disrupted the American history teacher, Mrs Anderson, in the middle of a lecture She sive your presentation on the Battle of Gettysburg"
He groaned, having forgotten all about the oral presentations today She ly took his place as she sat behind her desk "You can begin any time"
"Uh, the battle happened in Pennsylvania It was, like, 1800s"
Mrs Anderson corrected him, "1863"
"Yeah, what she said General Lee led his ar A bunch of people died on both sides, hundreds of thousands"
"Tens of thousands"
"Same difference," he said "The South lost and the North won Abrahaave the E Address," Mrs Anderson said "The Emancipation Proclaave an exaggerated sigh "Who’s giving the report here?"
She waved her hand "Proceed"
"Like I said, the North won The slaves were all freed Hurrah, hurrah The end"
He bowed jokingly, and everyone laughed as Mrs Anderson shook her head "Did you even read the material?"
"Of course I did"
"Who was the leader of the North?"
"Lincoln"
"No, he was the president"
"Yes, whichleader of everyone"
Mrs Anderson’s face clouded with anger Oops "You won’t use that language in ht I already did"
A collective gasp resonated a his classmates as Mrs Anderson stood, and Carmine started toward the door before the words could co her at the saain, Car for his car in the student parking lot instead
The house was silent when Carmine made it home He headed to the third floor and paused at the top of the stairs In the library, in the same spot she’d been hours earlier, stood Haven She stared out into the backyard with a vacant expression, her aret her attention, and she flinched but didn’t look his way After a rew rigid as she held her breath, tension rolling off of her when their aristered with him if not for her reaction "Have you even moved today?"
"Yes"
He waited for her to elaborate, but no more words came It wasn’t until then that he realized she had on his shirt and pants, vaguely recalling his father taking the my clothes"
Carrow tenser "I can take the to take off your clothes for me?"
"Your clothes I have none of uilt She’d have had clothes if he had done what his father asked "What happened to whatever you caot rid of them"
"Whose blood?"
"Mine"
He tilted his head and stared at her There was soe about the way she stoodItaway fro uncoonna take a nap, Heaven"
"Haven," she corrected hih"
She turned to hi for the first time since he’d walked in "Me, too"
Despite Cars, he wasn’t careful about what he did with things His bedroo haphazardly strewn around the floor Shoes were scattered a empty in the corner of the room His desk was covered with papers and books, a laptop buried somewhere in theabout his life neat or tidy He felt safe tucked into the chaos, surrounded by the things only he controlled It was that he craved--control over his life--because it was the one thing Cars pulled Carered to the door to find his father there Vincent barged into the roo, he kicked it out of the way "Where are your keys?"
Car up with someone in his personal space "What?"
"Your car keys," Vincent said as he started searching through the desk, furiously pushing things around and tossing half of it on the floor
"What the hell do you want ive therabbed Carh it, he pulled out the silver American Express credit card and shoved it into his pocket before tossing the wallet aside, going right back to searching
Car?"
"I tried to be your friend," Vincent said "I cut you soot worse So I sent you away After what you did last year, so help e But no, you co, the back talking, the disrespectI can’t take it anymore"
"What the hell did I do?"
"The better question would be what didn’t you do" He slae "What’s in here?"
Car as his father yanked on it
"Where’s the key to open it, Car any of etting your keys You’re on restriction You’ll go nowhere but to school, and you’ll stay there Noclass You’ll do your work, you’ll watch your mouth, you’ll keep your hands to yourself, and when that last bell rings, you’ll co else!"