Gina and Mike Read Free

talking moods. Sometimes, she wasted an entire period telling stories about when she was a kid. There was this one guy who was really good at luring her into monologues when no one felt like working. I would have to tell Eric that today was one of those days and see what he could do.
    “Hey, Gina. Wait up.”
    I turned around to see my best friend, Sue. A hair over five feet tall, she’s built like a gymnast and definitely has the energy of one. Everyone calls her Tigger, because she always seems to be bouncing from place to place.
    “How come you didn’t call me back last night?”
    “I had to babysit, remember?”
    “Yeah, I know. But you could have called afterward. I had something really important to tell you.”
    “Like what?”
    Sue looked around to see if anyone was super near us and then leaned in close to me. “Like Dave broke up with Diane and now she doesn’t have a date to the prom and she bought her dress already.”
    My eyes popped like champagne corks.  “Really? But they’ve been together forever.”
    “Yeah, as long as you and Mike. Maybe a little longer.”
    “How’s Diane?”
    “OK. She said she saw it coming. She said that Dave was ignoring her and acting weird. Dave, on the other hand, acts like he’s won the freakin’ lottery. Jerk!”
    “So what’s Diane going to do?”
    “Take her dress back. She said that even if a guy asked her to the prom that she wouldn’t want to go because she’d feel like he was only asking her because he pitied her or something. And she doesn’t want to be pitied.”
    “What about Dave?”
    “Word in the hall is that he’s going to ask a ninth-grader. Some girl he’s apparently had his eye on all year. “
    “Ouch.”
    “Yeah, tell me about it. It totally sucks for Diane.”
    I couldn’t help but thinking how trivial the whole Dave and Diane saga was compared to what I was dealing with. I mean, I was raped. Raped by one of my teachers. I couldn’t tell Mom. I couldn’t tell my best friend. I couldn’t tell anyone. About the only thing I could do was stay as far away from asshole Smith as I could.
    I couldn’t avoid going to class, but I could avoid babysitting for him. Mom would wonder why I stopped babysitting for the Smiths, so I’d have to come up with good excuses. Then again, maybe the asshole will tell his wife that I’m a lousy babysitter and not to call me anymore. The worst part about this colossal mess is that I really liked Alex and Andrew. I’ll miss them, and I’m pretty sure they’ll miss me.
    Eric was sitting at his desk right inside the door when I walked into English class. I stopped and whispered into his ear.  He nodded, and I knew he would see what he could do.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
     
    Gina
     
     
    Eric charmed Mrs. Hoffman, who was more round than she was tall, and it wasn’t long before she was decades deep telling a story from her childhood. She was the type of person who told you every little detail. Sometimes, she got so caught up in the details that she’d forget where she was in the story and someone would have to remind her. Today, she talked about the big red and white Coca-Cola cooler at this store near her childhood home.
    “And you’d flipped back the lid, reach into the ice-cold water and pull out a bottle of soda,” she said, rubbing her chubby hands together as if she was warming them. “There was a bottle opener attached to the front of the cooler. I’d wipe the wet bottle off with my shirt, pop off the cap and drink it fast so I wouldn’t have to share it with my sister.”
    Of course Eric, who looked like Clark Kent minus the glasses, did his usual good job of asking questions to keep the story going.  Mrs. Hoffman thought he asked the questions because he was genuinely interested in what she had to say and for that, he was her forever favorite.
    Today, he asked her what kinds of soda they had back then and she went on to talk about Frostie root beer (her