Broken (The Outsiders Series) Read Free Page B

impossible shade of blue. Those have to be fake. Which means that her boobs are probably fake. And that all adds up to one enormous, fake personality. “You’re new. Let me show you around.” She reaches out to grab my schedule from me. I have to stop myself from snatching it back out of her tiny hand. “Oh,” she squeals, “You’re going to Chemistry with Ms. Davis. You must be a junior then, Carter.” She looks back up at me, proud of herself for finding my name on the schedule. “I’m Candy,” she adds as she holds her hand out expectantly. “And I’m an experienced sophomore.”
    I roll my eyes at her but stick my hand out and shake hers. I can’t do two rude things to her. “I bet you are,” I say as I reach over to take my schedule back. “Too bad I’m not interested in your expertise.”
    She pokes her lower lip out, not caring that I insulted her. “You’re different, Carter. I’m curious. What’s up with you?” She tilts her head to the side and I stifle another eye roll. Will she leave me alone?
    “My past must have been different than yours, Candy. That’s all.” I offer a fake smile and turn to go. Next thing I know, she’s walking next to me , practically rushing to keep up with my larger strides.
    “My class is right across from Ms. Davis, so I can meet you afterwards. We can walk to the lunchroom together.” She smiles up at me. And I can’t find it in myself to be mean.
    “I think that would be fun, Candy. But don’t try anything. It isn’t gonna happen with us. Let’s just be friends. Okay?” I stop and look at her seriously, willing her to understand that I’m not joking.
    She looks down and shrugs. “Your loss, Carter. You’ll hear about me later.”
    This time, I roll my eyes. “See you later,” I manage. Then, I turn away without waiting for her reply. She is psycho.
    I’m almost at the door when someone puts his arm around my shoulders. “Dude, you could ’ve had the best five minutes of your life with that girl. Why’d you skip out? Scared? Insecure?” He lets me go and punches my arm softly.
    I push my way into the classroom. “Who says it’ll only be five minutes?” I ask.
    A group of guys near the door start laughing and one of them points at me. “Hey, kid, you’re not bad,” he says as he reaches over the desk to shake my hand. “I’m Ryan but the ladies call me Love Machine,” he sings as he gestures with his hands.
    I laugh with them and scan the table. There are three guys in front of me. Two have dark hair and one has light hair. The kid that thinks the girls call him Love Machine, Ryan, has dark eyes and a kind smile for someone that’s so vain.
    “Thanks for letting me shake your hand before you started touching yourself,” I say jokingly. The guys laugh again, and one of them pulls a chair from another table so that I can join theirs. Against my better judgment, I sit down. The bell rings a moment later, and in walks Ms. Davis.
    “Now class, today we’ll be taking notes on balancing equations. We will do a few practice problems together. Then, you’ll be working with your table partners. Do you have any questions?”
    Ryan raises his hand. “We’ve got a new student, Ms. Davis, and I’ll be the first to say that he’s pretty awesome. Can he work with the guys and me?”
    Ms. Davis sighs. She bites the inside of her plump cheek, thinking. As she does this, I take a moment to look at her. She’s older, probably about fifty or so, and she has flecks of grey in her black hair. She’s wearing nice clothes, but when I look down at her shoes, I flinch. She’s wearing Crocs, just like the science teacher at my other school. It must be something about science. “Ryan, I’m sure that you’ll behave and help this young man, then. Or else,” she says warningly. Then, she turns to address the rest of the class. “Take out paper and pencil. We’ve got a PowerPoint today, kids.”
    I borrow paper and pencil from one of the guys and get