Grace Read Free Page A

when he walked down the halls at school, pretending like he wasn’t there but still making sure to get out of his way. His teachers, except for Mrs. D., now looked at him like he was one of the bad kids. Like he was the troublemaker. His mother looked at him with sad eyes mostly, though he knew she was trying not to. If pity were a picture, it would be a picture of his mother. His dad’s face was full of worry too, though he tried not to show it. His little sister, Gracy, was the only one who didn’t look at him with some shade of disgust or disappointment. But she was only five; what did she know?
    â€œThanks,” he said and took the camera from Mrs. D. and turned it over in his hands, excited to give it a try. He peered through the viewfinder and twisted the lens only to focus in on Jolyn Forchette, who was jealous and smelled like green beans, scowling at him from across the room. He crammed the camera into the backpack with the math homework he hadn’t turned in and a banana that had been sitting in there so long it had turned brown and soft.
    â€œIt’s already loaded,” Mrs. D. said. “Just shoot.”
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    He forgot about the camera as he made his way to the cafeteria for lunch. As the sea of students parted for him, liquid and flowing, whispering and sneering, he kept his head down, his gaze at the floor. He tried to make himself invisible, though that’s nearly impossible when you’re six feet tall in the seventh grade and you wear a size ten shoe. Still, he tried his best to disappear. But then as he made his way past a group of snickering and pointing seventh-grade girls, he started to feel that bad metal feeling. Corroded. That was the only way to describe it. Like his insides were rusted out, like one of his dad’s cars at the yard. He could even taste it sometimes way back in his throat. He tried to swallow it down hard, but the metallic taste lingered on his tongue, made the insides of his cheeks itch.
    He tried to ignore them and went to a table near the hot lunch line. He only had $1.50, which didn’t go far in the à la carte line. The few times he’d tried to get a decent meal there, he’d wound up starving by the end of the day, his stomach roiling and furious. Only losers got hot lunch, but at least the hot lunches filled him up. He threw his backpack down into a chair and grabbed a tray. That was the other good thing about hot lunch; there wasn’t a wait, so there would actually be enough time to eat after he got back to his table.
    Spaghetti. That meant there would be bread too and those electric orange cubes of cheese. Gray-green broccoli and chocolate pudding with skin on top. He was hungry. His mom had made eggs and bacon and hash for breakfast, but he felt hollow now. His body burned through fuel faster than his dad’s pickup.
    He pushed the brown plastic tray along the metal rollers and he watched as a group of seventh-grade guys went right to the table where his backpack was. He grabbed a carton of chocolate milk from the bin filled with ice and glanced over at the table, hoping they’d notice his pack and go somewhere else.
    â€œHere you go,” the lunch lady said, handing him a sloppy plate of spaghetti. He took a pair of tongs and grabbed a clump of cheese cubes and three spongy slices of garlic bread.
    The guys didn’t seem to notice Trevor’s backpack holding his place. They were all sitting at the table, laughing and eating their à la carte burgers and French fries. Trevor shoved the money at the hot lunch cashier and made his way over to the table.
    â€œFee Fi Fo Fum,” said one of the kids.
    â€œThat’s my backpack,” Trevor said softly.
    â€œThat’s my backpack,” mimicked the kid in a girly voice. He had red hair that covered one eye like a comma. Ethan Sweeney. Of course.
    Trevor reached for his backpack but Mike Wheelock, with his greasy black hair and a Patriots jersey,