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With all the other fat girls who couldn’t do sit-ups

Anyway Honor students – black, white or Asia Minor – tended to be nicer Maybe they were just asin trouble Or maybe they were just as mean on the inside, but they’d been trained to be polite – to give up their seats for old people and girls

Eleanor had honors English, history and geography, but she spent the rest of her day in Crazytown Seriously, Blackboard Jungle She should probably try harder in her set kicked out of theed Bird’ into her notebook … Sweet It rhy his coetting this feeling that she was looking at him, but whenever he looked over at her, her face was down

He finally realized that she was staring at his lap Not in a gross way She was looking at his co

Park didn’t know that anyone with red hair could have brown eyes (He didn’t know that anyone could have hair that red Or skin that white) The new girl’s eyes were darker than his mom’s, really dark, almost like holes in her face

That ht even be the best thing about her It kind of reminded Park of the way artists draw Jean Grey so her telepathy, with her eyes all blacked out and alien

Today the girl earing a giant men’s shirt with seashells all over it The collar , because she’d cut it, and it was fraying She had apolyester ribbon She looked ridiculous

And she was looking at his co to her

He always felt like he should say so to her, even if it was just ‘hello’ or ‘excusesince the first time he’d cursed at her, and noas all just irrevocably weird For an hour a day

Thirty minutes on the way to school, thirtyHe just held his coes ot ho at the edges

When the little kids stor stupid –

Ben and Mouse fighting over a toy – and she pushed them all out the back door, Eleanor included

Eleanor was so startled to be outside that she stood on the back stoop for a second, staring down at Richie’s Rottweiler He’d na Tonya after his ex-wife She was supposed to be a real– but Eleanor had never seen heron the door ‘Mom!

Let me back in I haven’t even taken a bath yet’

She usually took her bath right after school, before Richie got ho a bathroom door, especially since sonored her

The little kids were already out on the playground The new house was right next door to an elementary school – the school where Ben and Mouse and Maisie went – and the playground was just beyond their backyard

Eleanor didn’t knohat else to do, so she walked out to where she could see Ben, by the swing set, and sat on one of the swings It was finally jacket weather Eleanor wished she had a jacket

‘What are you supposed to do when it gets too cold to play outside?’ she asked Ben He was taking Matchbox cars out of his pockets and lining theo to bed at 7:30’

‘God You too? Why do you guys call hiuess because he’s married to Mom’

‘Yeah, but’ – Eleanor ran her hands up and down the swing chains, then smelled them – ‘we never used to call him that Do you feel like he’s your dad?’

‘I don’t know,’ Ben said flatly ‘What’s that supposed to feel like?’

She didn’t answer hi up his cars He needed a haircut, his strawberry-blond hair was curling al an old T-shirt of Eleanor’s and a pair of corduroy pants that their mom had cut off into shorts He was almost too old for all this, for cars and parks – eleven The other boys his age played basketball all night or hung out in groups at the edge of the playground

Eleanor hoped that Ben was a late blooer

‘He likes it e call hi up the cars

Eleanor looked out at the playground Mouse was playing with a bunch of kids who had a soc-cer ball Maisie must have taken the baby somewhere with her friends …

It used to be Eleanor as stuck with the baby all the tiive her so to do – but Maisie didn’t want Eleanor’s help

‘What was it like?’ Ben asked

‘What hat like?’

‘Living with those people’

The sun was a few inches above the horizon, and Eleanor looked hard at it

‘Okay,’ she said Terrible Lonely Better than here

‘Were there other kids?’

‘Yeah Really little kids Three of them’

‘Did you have your own room?’

‘Sort of’ Technically, she hadn’t had to share the Hick room with anyone else

‘Were they nice?’ he asked

‘Yeah … yeah They were nice Not as nice as you’

The Hickot tired

Eleanor was only supposed to stay with them for a few days, maybe a week Just until Richie cooled down and let her come home

‘It’ll be like a sluht she made up the couch Mrs Hickh school There was a photo over the TV of the Hick Eleanor’s reen dress, with a white flower in her hair

At first, her mom would call Eleanor at the Hickmans’ almost every day after school After a few months, the calls stopped It turned out that Richie hadn’t paid the phone bill, and it got dis-connected But Eleanor didn’t know that for a while

‘We should call the state,’ Mr Hickht Eleanor couldn’t hear the rooo on, Ta it’s her fault, I’n on for this’