A Troublesome Boy Read Free Page A

way.” He walked back the way we had come — down the steps, across the landing, up the other steps and through that set of doors. “This is the locker room. The showers are at the far end. You’ve been assigned locker 82.”
    â€œWhere is everybody?”
    â€œSchool doesn’t start until Monday. Most of the boys will be arriving on the weekend. The ones who are here are down in the gym. Put your bag in your locker. I’ll take you down.”
    I shoved my bag in the locker and shut the door.
    â€œYour lock?”
    â€œI don’t have one.”
    â€œIn that case, bring your bag with you. I wouldn’t leave anything unlocked around here.” We headed back down the stairs. This time Brother Wilbur took them on the run, and the gym was back down on the first floor. Christ.
    I could hear the echo of voices before we got to the gym. Brother Wilbur opened the door. There were ten or eleven guys in there shooting hoops, screwing around.
    Brother Wilbur checked his watch.
    â€œIt’s seven thirty-five. You’ll have twenty-five minutes. Then it’s snack at eight, showers at eight-thirty. And as I mentioned, lights out at nine. Enjoy yourself, Mr. Clemson.” He shut the door behind himself.
    Cream-colored walls for a change. There were low wooden benches along both sides of the gym, but only one boy sitting. Scrawny little kid with spiky blond hair. Looked like he’d cut it himself, all tufts and divots. He was sitting there like a dink, reading a book. He had black-rimmed glasses and, when I got close enough to see, weird eyes. The most amazing blue I’d ever seen, but the eyes weren’t lined up right. The right one looked directly at you but the left one looked over your shoulder, like he was watching someone creep up behind you.
    I wasn’t sure I wanted to sit beside him, but it seemed mean to sit on another bench since he looked so hopeless already.
    I sat on the same bench, but at the far end. I dropped my duffel bag at my feet. He didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. He was watching the kids tossing the ball and chasing each other around the gym.
    â€œTim,” he said finally. His voice was almost a whisper. I looked in his direction. “Cooper,” he said. “Tim Cooper.” He was looking at me with the one eye. “Hi.”
    â€œTeddy,” I said. “Teddy Clemson.”
    â€œThere’s your coincidence of the day.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œOur initials.”
    â€œOh,” I said. “Yeah.”
    â€œYou new here?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œMe, too.”
    â€œWhat did you do to wind up in a place like this?”
    â€œBreak and enters,” he said. “Seven of them.”
    â€œSeven?” You’d never guess it to look at him. Scrawny-ass little kid.
    He was looking at the kids playing hoops. “Should’ve stopped after six, I guess.” He turned to face me. Smirky little dimpled smile. “Live and learn. You?”
    â€œPissed off my mother’s boyfriend.”
    â€œBoyfriends are such a pain in the ass,” he said. He leaned to his right, pulled something out of his left pocket. “My mother had a whole string of them. One worse than the one before. Dunno how she developed such bad taste in men all of a sudden. My old man was all right, even if he did skip out on us. All these other guys were just assholes. Except the one who gave me this.” He was holding a little bone-handled knife. Pushed a button and the blade flipped out. He smiled. “Looks like it might come in handy. Place like this.” He pushed the blade against the bench, put the knife back in his pocket.
    â€œTell me about your life of crime.”
    He laughed. He slid down a little toward me. “It started out as a kind of joke. Some guys I knew bet I couldn’t break into this place while the people were sleeping. One of my mother’s boyfriends was good for