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‘She’s no trouble’

‘She’s not ours’

Eleanor tried to be even less trouble She practiced being in a roo any clues that she’d been there She never turned on the TV or asked to use the phone She never asked for seconds at dinner She never asked Ta – and they’d never had a teenager, so it didn’t occur to thelad that they didn’t know her birthday

‘We thought you were gone,’ Ben said, pushing a car into the dirt He looked like somebody who didn’t want to cry

‘Oh ye of little faith,’ Eleanor said, kicking her swing into action

She looked around again for Maisie and found her sitting over where the older boys were playing basketball Eleanor recognized most of the boys froher than she would have guessed he could He earing long black shorts and a T-shirt that said ‘Madness’

‘I’ and pushing down the top of his head ‘But not gone or anything Don’t get your panties in a bunch’

She walked back into the house and rushed through the kitchen before herrooht ahead She wished she had a jacket

CHAPTER 9

Park

He was going to tell her that she did a good job on her poeiant understatement anyway She was the only person in class who’d read her poen Like so out You couldn’t look away fro (Evenable to look away from her) When she was done, a lot of people clapped and Mr Stessainst the Code of Conduct

‘Hey Nice job In English’ That’s what Park was going to say

Or lish class That poem you read was cool’

Or, ‘You’re in Mr Stessht so’

Park picked up his coht, but he waited until Thursdayto read them

Eleanor

That stupid Asian kid totally knew that she was reading his comics He even looked up at Eleanor soe, like he was that polite

He definitely wasn’t one of them, the bus demons He didn’t talk to anyone on the bus

(Especially not her) But he was in with the next to him, they all left her alone Even Tina It

This ot on the bus, it kind of felt like he aiting for her He was holding a coly that Eleanor decided not to bother eavesdropping Or eavesreading Whatever

(She liked it best when he read X-Men, even though she didn’t get everything that was going on there; X-Men orse than General Hospital It took Eleanor a couple weeks to figure out that Scott Suuy, and she still wasn’t sure as up with Phoenix)

But Eleanor didn’t have anything else to do, so her eyes wandered over to the ugly co And then they were at school Which was totally weird because they weren’t even halfway through with it

And which totally sucked because itschool, and have so lame like ROM out on the way hoot on the bus that afternoon, the Asian kid opened up Watch it when they got to Eleanor’s stop – there was soon, they both stared at every fraot up to leave, he handed it to her

Eleanor was so surprised, she tried to hand it back, but he’d already turned away She shoved the coot off the bus

She read it threethe scrubby old cat Then she put it in her grapefruit box overnight, so that nothing would happen to it

Park

What if she didn’t give it back?

What if he didn’t get to finish the first issue of Watchirl who hadn’t asked for it and probably didn’t even knoho Alan Moore was

If she didn’t give it back, they were even

That would cancel out the whole ‘Jesus-fuck-sit-down’ scenario

Jesus … No, it wouldn’t

What if she did give it back? What was he supposed to say then? Thanks?

Eleanor

When she got to their seat, he was looking out theShe handed him the co, when Eleanor got on the bus, there was a stack of comics on her seat

She picked the

Eleanor put the comics between her books and stared at theFor some reason, she didn’t want to read in front of hi hi

But she thought about the coot hoot the

Eleanor ate dinner sitting cross-legged on her bed, extra careful not to spill anything on the books because every issue was in pristine condition; there wasn’t so ht, after her brothers and sister fell asleep, Eleanor turned the light back on so she could read They were the loudest sleepers ever

Ben talked in his sleep, and Maisie and the baby both snored Mouse wet the bed – which didn’t ht didn’t seeh

Eleanor was only distantly conscious of Richie watching TV in the next room, and she practically fell off the bed when he jerked the bedroom door open He looked like he expected to catch soht hijinks, but when he saw that it was only Eleanor and that she was just reading, he grunted and told her to turn out the light so the little kids could sleep

After he shut the door, Eleanor got up and turned off the light (She could just about get out of bed without stepping on somebody nohich was lucky for theht have gotten aith leaving the light on, but it wasn’t worth the risk She didn’t want to have to look at Richie again