Amber Brown Sees Red Read Free

(But I try not to think of him that way. I like to think of him as just Max, this nice guy. If I think of him as “stepfather,” then that means I’ve given up thinking that my mom and dad will ever get back together.)
    He looks at me, pretending to be hurt ... at least I think he’s pretending. “Would you like me to leave? Would you like to go back on the bus?”
    “No!” Brandi and I yell at the same time.
    “You must be Brandi.” Max smiles at her.
    She smiles and nods.
    He explains. “Amber, the school contacted your mom and then she called me to see if I could help by picking up you and Brandi. I changed my schedule. Your mom faxed signed permissions to the school ... and, here I am.”
    It’s weird.
    I really like Max but it’s sort of like he’s totally becoming a part of our lives .... and like my father’s almost not there .... like Max is becoming my father.
    I think about my real father and I think about how he’s almost becoming my unreal father.
    It’s hard to stay close to someone who I hardly ever see, who is basically just a voice. A lot of the really good times that my dad and I had seem so long ago.
    Now it’s Max who is there when we need him.
    “Save us! Save us!” Kids on the bus yell out of the window. “Help! We’re being held captive because of skunks!”
    “Quiet down!” one of the teachers yells.
    “Help! We are being held captive by skunks!”
    I’m not positive but that sounded like Jimmy Russell.
    “Detention!” the teacher yells.

    With that detention added to all his others, Jimmy will have to come back from college for that punishment .... or maybe he won’t even go to college.... It’ll probably be a job or jail.
    I remember an important fact.
    I have to go to the bathroom.
    “Wagons ho.” I use the phrase that my Aunt Pam always says when she’s ready to leave.
    We go to the car.
    Max pretends to be a chauffeur, opening the back door for Brandi and me.
    We get in and drive off, leaving Skunk School behind.
    “Pit stop!” I yell as we approach a gas station.
    Max stops.
    I run into the bathroom.
    When I come out, Max and Brandi are pretending to be gas station attendants, washing car windows.

    When I woke up this morning, I had no idea it was going to be like this.
    Every school should have at least one Skunk Day a year, only without the skunks and without the smell.
    I only hope that I can convince Max to take us to the mall.

Chapter Six

    “You have one thousand, two hundred and eighty-two points.” The arcade attendant tells us our total.
    That’s the most points I’ve ever gotten.
    There are several reasons for all of those points.
    One is that Max put a twenty-dollar bill into the token machine and the three of us played until all of the tokens were gone.
    The other reason is that Max is really great on the bowling-ball machine and the basketball hoops. Brandi really scores on the rock-and-roll machine and I am the champ of the Skee-Ball machine.
    The other is that we’ve put all our tickets together ...... One thousand, two hundred and eighty-two points.

    Brandi and I look at all of the possible prizes.
    There are so many.
    Some need so many tickets.
    I would really like the cassette-player jukebox, but it costs too many tickets.
    Brandi and I keep looking at everything.
    Max looks at his watch. “Come on, girls. Make your choices. It’s time to go to the food court.”
    “In a minute, please,” I beg.
    Max doesn’t seem to realize that these tickets are the closest thing that Brandi and I are going to have to paychecks for a lot of years. Allowances are different somehow and we’re not old enough to baby-sit. So, our choices are important.
    Should we get one big thing and share it? Brandi and I have done that before. We sort of share a mermaid doll that Max bought for me after I didn’t win one in a burping contest.
    Should we each get our own separate things?
    “My stomach is starting to growl,” Max says. “You girls have five