Bluefish Read Free

said. "Homework is against my religion."
    Someone behind them whistled, and Velveeta turned.
    A couple of girls in the back corner whispered and almost fell over giggling.
    "See those girls? They write for People magazine, and they've spotted us as the smoking- hot new eighth- romance. All we have to do is adopt octuplets, and the paparazzi won't give us any peace."
    Travis knew why they were giggling, and it wasn't about octuplets. One of them had corrected his science paper the day before.
    "Please turn to page eight of your text," said Ms.
    Gordon. "You can read a paragraph or just say 'pass' if you prefer not to read.
    The next person can just pick it up.
    Megan, will you start us off ?"
    Travis let out a long, slow breath. The windows were open on the other side of the classroom, and warm air breezed in. Sunshiny bright and cooking up to be another hot one. The swamp would be thick with that baked summer pine-needle smell. Gallons of drool would be sliding down Rosco's sloppy tongue.
    "Travis!"
    Travis's face flushed hot, and he pretended he was trying to find his place.
    "Would you like to pass?" Ms. Gordon asked.
    "Yeah, pass," he said.
    Velveeta started reading, and Travis relaxed. Her voice motored across the words as if they were a flat, smooth road - no bumps.
    At lunchtime, two different groups of girls called
    Velveeta's name out, but she walked right on by and set her tray across from Travis.
    "Look, we're regular lunch buddies now," she said.
    "You didn't have one clue where we were in social studies, did you? What were you thinking about?"
    "Nothing."
    "Do you have a talking quota?" asked Velveeta. "Like, a limit, maybe fifty words a day, and if you go over, you, what, lose your undercover badge? And you can't waste any of them reading out loud in class. Is your limit fifty or only twenty- five? No, no, don't answer - then you'll have to kill me."
    "Ten," he said.
    "Ha. And you've already used, two on me. Nothing and ten. Better shut up and eat."
    He finished off his grilled cheese and started spooning up soup.
    "Are you going to eat that cake?"
    Velveeta had already finished hers. Travis cut his and handed half across to her.
    "Okay, so sometimes the words are not so necessary," she said.
    After inhaling the cake, Velveeta sat back and crossed her arms.
    "I know what you're thinking. Why does she pick me? He wonders. She could be baaing with the popular sheep over there, or shooting baskets in the gym with the jockolas, or outside smoking with the delinks, so why is she sitting with me again?"
    She leaned across the table, bringing her nose close to his. One end of her purple- and- blue scarf trailed on the tabletop.
    "Because I saw you give Whistler his shoe back," she said. "That's why."
    After the last bell, Travis walked through town, crossing the street so he wouldn't have to pass in front of the big glass window of the bakery where Grandpa worked.
    He stopped at the bridge and leaned on the railing, trying to find the cardinal that was blasting its lungs out. He scanned the trees alongside the pond and finally spotted it, high in a birch, a hot patch of red in the swim of green.
    "Hey, you gonna jump or what?"
    Four guys sat on a picnic table in the green space on the other side of the bridge, smoking cigarettes and drinking sodas.
    "You need a push?" yelled one of them. "Or a dump?"
    "Dump, ha, I'll give him a dump."
    "Maddox, you are a dump," said a heavy- shouldered guy with a hint of blond mustache trying to crawl across his lip.
    Travis looked closely, measuring them. They must be high- schoolers. He hadn't seen them in the halls, and they were his age or a bit older. The two smaller guys he could take, no problem. Maybe the one called Maddox, too. The blond guy was solid, though, and he had that look. He was the one to watch.
    Travis shoved away from the bridge railing and walked past. If they were going to come after him, they'd have to climb the little hill up to street level, and they weren't