Hissers Read Free Page A

underclassman for a year before you were king of the school, but this was different. This was a whole new game. Kids drove cars in high school, kids drank and fought and fucked. There were people like Jared in the school with you—big, muscled-headed idiots who could kill you with a finger.
    And worse, there were people like Maynard Drake, who would run you over with his jalopy just to get a laugh.
    There were girls there as well, girls like Reyna Heatherly and Paula Wheeler., legends in the boys’ locker rooms. Sure, Connor and Seth had no chance of ever getting with them but they could at least look. And where there was one Reyna or Paula, there would be others coming up the ranks.
    Yes, high school was where the golden treasure could be found. The elusive forbidden fruit. The power that made a boy’s world go round: sex.
    Connor tapped Seth on the shoulder. “Go get the Redbulls, I’ll get the batteries.”
    Seth invoked Yoda. “Yes, master. Redbulls purchase, I will.”
    The batteries were down an aisle directly in front of Jared, but the goon was bent over a nudie magazine and playing with a Bic lighter. Connor grabbed a package of four double As, split the plastic cover off the top and slipped the loose batteries down his socks. A summer’s worth of nicking batteries had made him a pro at this, and he was done in less than two seconds. He put the empty packaging behind a jug of motor oil.
    “You get them?” Seth hefted the Redbulls to show he’d done his part.
    “Yeah. Got ‘em. Let’s get the hot dogs.”
    They made their way over to the hotdog unit to make sure there were normal beef dogs rolling about. Sometimes the store had nothing but chicken taquitos and giant sausage dogs, which were good but cost twice as much as the regular dogs. Today they had an allotment of shriveled, sweaty links the EPA would probably confiscate in biohazard drums. They put their drinks on the counter and waited for Jared to notice them.
    He did not. His eyes remained glued to the magazine.
    “We’re ready,” Connor said.
    Jared tapped the magazine. “Hold on, Cochise , I’m almost done.”
    Seth leaned over and whispered in Connor’s ear. “Even if I believed he could string words together to form sentences, I don’t think there are any on that page.”
    Both boys leaned slyly over the counter to get a look at the woman on the page. She was dressed as a baseball player if you counted the hat and bat. Beyond that she wore nothing but high heels. The pink wetness between her legs was entirely alien to Connor and Seth. Not that they hadn’t seen pictures of naked women (they did have the Internet) but it still amazed them when they saw a vagina at such a close up angle.
    Seth’s jaw dropped open ever so slightly. Connor felt a bulge in his pants. Neither was concerned with the hotdogs anymore.
    The bell over the front door rang. Jared didn’t seem to care who’d come in, but he looked up nevertheless. For a second he just stared, then in what could only be described as a belated moment of decorum he closed the magazine just as two young girls walked to the counter.
    Connor felt a tap on his shoulder. He spun around and found himself face to face with Nicole Fitzgerald. “Hi, Connor.”
    “Hey, Nicole.”
    She was dressed in tan pants and a white tank top, a bikini top visible underneath it. Her hair was tied back in a pony tail. Behind Nicole was her best friend Amanita Miller. As usual she was exposing as much of her skin as possible, walking around in shorts too small for her and just a bikini top. A pair of oversized sunglasses covered most of her face. What was visible was smeared in so much makeup she may as well have been in the magazine Jared was looking at. Connor could smell cigarette smoke on her.
    Involuntarily Nicole glanced down at Connor’s crotch and then looked away embarrassed.
    Oh great! Connor stepped behind Seth and tried to hide his situation. “Um…what are you doing here?” he asked, as