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"Boys," said the deep, cold voice of Mr Stowe The man stepped forward as Aaron wildly tossed the bone toward the hole and turned on his haunches to face his father, the shovel in his hand

Alex stared at the bone, which had landed near his feet, and stopped pushing thethe evidence wouldn’t help his case at all He turned around slowly, the e in his hand as hard drops of rain pounded against it

Mr Stowe stared hard at the ground, where Aaron’s house was slowlyaway He looked at Aaron, then at Alex, then back to Aaron again "Alex," he said to Aaron, "give your brother the shovel and come with reild, and then he controlled himself He handed the shovel to Alex and followed his father to the house

"And Aaron," Mr Stowe said, not realizing he was actually talking to Alex, "finish up your brother’s work"

What Mr Stowe didn’t see as he walked into the house was the leap of hope and the pleading glance to play along that Aaron shot to Alex over his shoulder Nor did he see the returned look of disbelief, followed by a cool shrug of indifference from Alex, the already Unwanted Alex turned his back on his brother, and, using the shovel as he always did, he slowly,of the ice creah straws that woke Alex He opened his eyes, staring at an unfaure out where he was

"Have a nice nap?" Meghan grinned

Alex sat up and shook the sleep from his brain "Yeah," he said, "actually, I did I haven’t been sleeping very well the last few nights" He rubbed his eyes "Where’s Saed "Library,at all

"Lani?" Alex said "Are you okay?"

Lani stared at the wall and said even less than nothing, if that were possible

Meghan raised her eyebrow "Hmm," she said "What’d you do now, Alex?"

"I swear, I--nothing!"

Lani slurped on the dregs of her han looked back and forth between the two and slowly, uneasily, got up froo find out where Saht back" She hurried over to Earl, glancing back occasionally over her shoulder

"Lani, I--"

Lani sat up and faced Alex, silencing hilare She breathed evenly three or four deep breaths, her eyes flaring Finally she spoke "You don’t just kiss a girl on the cheek and then ignore her for three days"

Alex’s jaw dropped He flushed bright red

"Don’t do it again"

"Uhh …" Alex whispered an oath under his breath and put his burning face in his hands, trying to think of soave Lani a helpless look