Change of Heart Read Free Page B

over and over again, but he didn’t listen. Not that I blamed him. I understood his pain and confusion a whole lot better than I understood why Morgan had dumped him.
    â€œBut I love her,” he said—again.
    I sighed.
    â€œYou got suspended for three days, Billy. That’s big trouble. The next step is getting expelled. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
    He looked at me with liquid eyes. Finally he shook his head.
    When I got up to leave, he said, “Is Dennis okay?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDennis. Sean didn’t hassle him after I left, did he?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œWell, he’d better not,” Billy said fiercely. “Dennis is different, but he’s not stupid. He’s a good guy. He’s out every single morning during migration season, picking up birds. He’s smart, too. Way smarter than Sean. Even the professors are impressed by how much Dennis knows about birds.” He meant the two university professors who supported DARC, the Downtown Avian Rescue Club that Billy had founded. The club helped save injured migratory birds. According to Billy, Dennis was one of its most enthusiastic members.
    â€œI don’t think Sean would ever do anything to Dennis,” I said. “He was just in pain.”
    Billy looked doubtful. “Sean Sloane isn’t what Morgan thinks, Robyn,” he said. “He may be a good hockey player, but that doesn’t make him a good guy. You should tell Morgan—”
    I was tired of being in the middle. Morgan and Billy were my oldest and closest friends, but we never hung around together anymore, and I was always worrying what one of them would think if I was spotted with the other one.
    â€œIt’s Morgan’s life,” I said. “I’m not telling her anything.” I glanced at the essay on the couch beside him. “You want me to hand that in for you?”
    He just shrugged. I reached across him, picked up the essay, and read the first paragraph.
    â€œI’ll put it in Ms. Carver’s box for you.” No response. “And I’ll bring you your homework assignments tomorrow, okay?” Nothing. “Billy?”
    â€œOkay,” he said finally.

    Morgan was waiting for me outside school the next morning.
    â€œDid you talk to him?” she said.
    I nodded.
    â€œAnd? Is he going to leave me alone?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhy is everyone making this so hard for us?”
    â€œEveryone?”
    â€œBilly is harassing me. Tamara is harassing Sean.”
    â€œShe is?”
    â€œShe thinks she’s a big deal because she hosts that lame teen show on TV,” Morgan said. “Now she’s after him to do some stupid documentary. If you ask me, she’s just trying to get him back. But it’s not going to work.” She looked defiantly at me. Then she said, “You really should get to know him, Robyn. You’d like him.”
    Like everyone else in my school, I knew
of
Sean. But I didn’t actually know him. He was a senior, so he wasn’t in any of my classes, and, to be honest, after Morgan started going out with him I had no interest in getting acquainted. Billy would have been so hurt if he’d seen me hanging out with Morgan and Sean. But Billy wasn’t going to be at school for the next couple of days, and I was kind of curious to find out more about the guy who had stolen Morgan’s heart.
    â€œCome on,” Morgan said, looping her arm through mine. “I’ll introduce you. You’ll see what I mean.”
    We trooped into school and up the stairs to the second floor, where Sean’s locker was. It was hard to miss. Someone—not Sean, according to Morgan—had pasted a big gold star decorated with a hockey stick and a puck to the front of it. So far no one—not the janitorial staff, not the school administration, not even surly Mr. Dormer—had removed it,