Page 158 (2/2)

No That wasn’t true, either He’d already stopped being just some rando seventh grader who had taken the wheel when the bus driver had had a heart attack

He’d been that

And he’d been the kid who had freaked out, not understanding that the argu He’d thought his stepfather was going to hit his mother

So, by the tiht that would not die, he had already been School Bus Sarown man’s hand off

Not soer

He hated this house and hated this room Why had he come here?

Because everyone knew he hated it, so they wouldn’t co for him here They’d search for him everywhere and not find him

The stuff he had in his room—the clothes, the books, the old school notebooks, the pictures he had taken once with a waterproof ca to him Some other kid’s stuff, not his Not anymore

He sat on the end of his bed, feeling like an intruder A strange feeling since this was the only place he’d stayed in the last three months that he had any real claim to

He gazed at the ball of light “Turn off,” he said

The ball did not respond

Saht the single word, Dark

The light disappeared

The rooed into darkness So dark, he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face All over town, kids were sitting in the dark, just like this He supposed he could go around and create little light balls in every house in town Sam, the electrician

He was no longer afraid of the dark That realization surprised him The dark almost felt cozy, now Safe No one could see him in the dark