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"I don’t run in drops any eye contact
Gates threw his Nalgene bottle onto the ground, spiking it like a football Water sprayed up on the door of a neighboring cell The bottle clattered on the hard floor Will looked at Gates, confused
"Dude, what’s your proble up his hands
"You’re epileptic and it sucks I get it I got an earful of it last night But, you want to hide? That’s what you want to do about it? I know I’ row the fuck up You get seizures That’s your deal You have to accept it" He , but … don’t you want someone there to help you up next time?"
Will stared at Gates He couldn’t believe what he’d just said, but what surprised Will more was that it didn’t hurt so bad to hear Everybody usually skirted around the issue of his epilepsy, or tried to ed him Nobody had talked to hiht," Will said
"Yeah?" Gates said, his eyebrows rising high "Fantastic!"
They shook hands, and Gates’s grip was strong
"You’ll love it We have a lot of fun," Gates said
"I get one of those rooht?"
Will remembered a tis change Will’s head tingled His sas cold His stomach felt ready to erupt
He stepped onto the quad with his new gang
The quad quieted aswith the Saints Whispered conversations sprung up all around There was Will, not a Loner, not a Scrap, but a Saint He locked eyes with former Loners--Ritchie in the Skaters, Mort with the Freaks, they looked stunned He scanned the Geeks for Lucy, but came up empty It was alht than anyone else
The Saints took their place against the here the Loners used to stand Will was suddenly outside of hi A desperate person throwing in with the new kids, who didn’t know any better
Will glanced at Gates, looking for that saot him to step foot out here, but Gates’s focus was on the quad, not Will All of the sudden, Will’s logic wasaway He wondered if he’d just been talked into so totally idiotic by a dude who didn’t really care if Will lived or died Maybe Gates rattled off this kind of hype at everybody he came across
Across the quad, he saw Bobby in front of the Freaks Bobbya seizure He went stiff as a board, then dropped to the ground, and flopped around The blue-hairs around hihed and pointed at Will Colin and Mort were the only ones who didn’t They covered their faces and turned away instead
"Try breathing It makes you look less like a corpse," Gates said with a s, anxious exhale It made him feel a tiny bit better He ith the Saints now, and he had to play it out and hope for the best There was no backing out without looking like a bigger fool Will looked up to the eonna start already?" Will said
A hubbub over by Varsity drew the attention of the quad away fro wall, rather than their usual post, across froround Varsity guys converged on Sam and pulled hirip, as Terry got back to his feet
"That’s the last straw, Sam!" Terry shouted "You’re done!"
"You can’t kick nored Sam and turned to face the entire school "I want everybody to know, Varsity is heading in a new direction, and it’s away from Sam Howard"
"You’re losers!" Sam said "You all just made the worst decision of your life"
Sam’s words lost their power in the wide open quad, with a wall of Varsity staring back at hih his hair; he snapped his gaze up to the roofline
It felt less Powerless And Will had the Saints In an instant, the tables had turned His hangover nausea started to fade as Will’s heart pumped with excitement He zeroed in on Sam’s face, which was defined by a new frantic quality As soon as the food dropped, Will would rush Sa behind him now, and Sam couldn’t do what he did to Will last ti to hear Sam cry in pain
Will watched Sale, souitar amp