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"That was incredibly stupid," Charlie said, bringing hts back to the present "Do you have any idea what could have happened? What could still happen?" The rooe occurred between thes about my brotherʼs behavior, I auto deal There were no teachers around, and no one is going to rat out Mr

Basketball himself Thereʼs no way this will affect his position on the teaood"

"Good to know I donʼt have to worry then," Charlie said, never relaxing or taking his eyes off of Jase For the first time it occurred to me that Charlie may have been in on whatever scheme Toby had conned Jase into

Charlie repositioned himself so that he was turned towardstheuy? Do you like hier I arief Heʼs on the newspaper staff, and we have a couple of other classes together We were just talking

Quite frankly, I think heʼs arrogant and rude"

Charlie chewed this over for a minute "But he has the hots for you?"

"No, he doesnʼt," Jase interjected "Itʼs Scout, for Peteʼs sake Heʼs obviously playing her to get to me"

I recoiled as if I had been slapped Itʼs not like I actually thought Alex liked irls like me out to win some sort of stupid bet, and that only happened in cheesy teeny-boppersmiles werenʼt really meant for me And I didnʼt care I didnʼt want Alex Cole to like me, but to hear my brother dis up

"Scout, he didnʼt mean it like that" Charlie reached towardsI wanted was pity

"Get out of my room" I closed my eyes to keep the tears trapped

"Iʼm sorry--"

"Please just leave et out without

Charlie, as always, caed to get the orks under control I stomped into the bathrooh theoverly emotional and moody A double dose of Midol was definitely in order

Ia lot of noise, because there was a tap at the door, and then Charlieʼs voice asked, "Can I co, I reached over and turned the knob Charlie was leaning against the door fra two feet froht to

"Your brother feels like shit"

"Yeah, well I wouldnʼt be surprised if his nose was actually broken"

"Thatʼs not what I htred blotches creating a striking contrast to low There was even a little bit of snot along the edge of my nose