Page 5 (1/2)
He looked exactly like a rat Like the hu version of a rat Like the villain in a Don Bluth movie Who knehat her , too
Every once in a while – when Richie ed to take a bath, put on decent clothes and stay sober all on the saht have thought he was handsome Thank the Lord that didn’t happen very often When it did, Eleanor felt like going to the bathrooer down her throat
Anyway Whatever She could still read
There was enough light co in froive it to her
And when she handed it back to hi hi precious You wouldn’t even know that she touched the comics except for the s like perfume Not like the perfuirl; she smelled like vanilla
But she made his comics smell like roses A whole field of them
She’d read all of his Alan Moore in less than three weeks Noas giving her X-Men comics five at a time, and he could tell that she liked them because she wrote the characters’ na lyrics
They still didn’t talk on the bus, but it had become a less confrontational silence Almost friendly (But not quite)
Park would have to talk to her today – to tell her that he didn’t have anything to give her He’d overslept, then forgotten to grab the stack of coht before He hadn’t even had time to eat breakfast or brush his teeth, whichso close to her
But when she got on the bus and handed hi She looked away They both looked down
She earing that ugly necktie again
Today it was tied around her wrist Her arms and wrists were scattered with freckles, layers of theold and pink, even on the back of her hands Little-boy hands, his ed cuticles
She stared down at the books in her lap
Maybe she thought he was mad at her He stared at her books, too – covered in ink and Art Nouveau doodles
‘So,’ he said, before he knehat to say next, ‘you like the S breath on her
She looked up, surprised Maybe confused
He pointed at her book, where she’d written
‘How Soon Is Now?’ in tall green letters
‘I don’t know,’ she said ‘I’ve never heard them’
‘So you just want people to think you like the Smiths?’ He couldn’t help but sound disdainful
‘Yeah,’ she said, looking around the bus ‘I’ to impress the locals’
He didn’t know if she could help but sound like a s The air soured between theainst the wall She looked across the aisle to stare out the
When he got to English, he tried to catch her eye, but she looked away He felt like she was trying so hard to ignore him that she wouldn’t even participate in class
Mr Stess to draw her out –
she was his new favorite target whenever things got sleepy in class Today they were supposed to be discussing Romeo and Juliet, but nobody wanted to talk
‘You don’t seelas’
‘I’m sorry?’ she said She narrowed her eyes at him
‘It doesn’t strike you as sad?’ Mr Stess lovers lay dead Never was a story of uess not,’ she said
‘Are you so cold? So cool?’ He was standing over her desk, pretending to plead with her
‘No …’ she said ‘I just don’t think it’s a tragedy’
‘It’s the tragedy,’ Mr Stess two or three necklaces, old fake pearls, like Park’s grandmother wore to church, and she twisted the fun of them,’
she said
‘Who is?’
‘Shakespeare’
‘Do tell …’
She rolled her eyes again She knew Mr Stessame by now
‘Rootten every little thing they wanted And now, they think they want each other’
‘They’re in love …’ Mr Stess his heart
‘They don’t even know each other,’ she said
‘It was love at first sight’
‘It was "Oh ht If Shakespeare wanted you to believe they were in love, he wouldn’t tell you in al up on Ros-aline … It’s Shakespearefun of love,’
she said
‘Then why has it survived?’
‘I don’t know, because Shakespeare is a really good writer?’
‘No!’ Mr Stessman said ‘Someone else, someone with a heart Mr Sheridan, what beats in your chest? Tell us, why has Romeo and Juliet survived four hundred years?’
Park hated talking in class Eleanor frowned at him, then looked away He felt hi at his desk, ‘because people want to re? And in love?’
Mr Stessainst the black-board and rubbed his beard
‘Is that right?’ Park asked
‘Oh, it’s definitely right,’ Mr Stessman said
‘I don’t know if that’s why Romeo and Juliet has become the most beloved play of all time But, yes, Mr Sheridan Truer words never spoken’
She didn’t acknowledge Park in history class, but she never did
When he got on the bus that afternoon, she was already there She got up to let him have his place by the , and then she surprised hi