Live and Let Shop Read Free Page B

Delinquents.”
    I couldn’t believe this! She wanted to send me to some weirdo school in Pennsyl-freakin’-vania? With a bunch of creeps and nutcases from all over the place? No way. Me and my big mouth. Why can’t I ever just shut up? Instead of thirty days in the slammer, she now wanted to send me away for a whole year ? What kind of idiot did she think I was? Juvie had to be better than this—or maybe not, but at least it was only a month, assuming I lived that long.
    Plus, I’d have to leave Beverly Hills and all my friends. I am such a California person. Were there malls in Pennsylvania? I didn’t think I could even spell Pennsylvania. I was about to say something, but Marvin beat me to the punch.
    “Your Honor, this is highly irregular…the sentencing guidelines…”
    It was becoming clear that Judge Kerrigan had little patience for ol’ Marv—about the only thing we had in common.
    “Counselor. I’m guessing you haven’t been in acourtroom in twenty years.” Hah! She had that right. As far as I could tell, Marvin pretty much stayed within three feet of Charles most of the time, and I’d had to give him directions to the courthouse on the way over here! “I’ll bet you’ve never been in a juvenile court in your life. So I don’t think you really want to debate the finer points of juvenile law with me, do you?”
    Marvin got that I’ve just been slapped look on his face again, then took his cell phone off his belt and asked the judge if he could call my dad. She nodded.
    I decided the only thing that would work now was out-and-out defiance.
    “I’m not going to some lame school in Pennsylvania. I’ll do my time in Juvie instead.”
    “She’ll go.” Marvin, taking a stand at last. Except—what?
    “What!” I said.
    “You heard me. I’ve just spoken to your father. He thinks it’s an excellent idea, and tells me to instruct you to stop arguing with the judge and make the arrangements.”
    “I’m not going.”
    Marvin shrugged and held out the cell phone like hewas daring me to hear it for myself.
    This day just kept getting worse. I had figured we’d breeze in, let Marvin schmooze the judge, get a few extra months tacked onto the probation, and be home before lunch. Now I had to make Sophie’s Choice. How much does that suck?
    I looked at the judge, and there was definitely a trace of a self-satisfied smile on her face. I’d been had. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
    “Listen, Rachel,” she said. “I know that this school can help. It will change you. For the better. You might even find whatever it is you feel is missing in your life, that is causing you to act like such an idiot.”
    I resented that. “I’m not an idiot,” I protested.
    “I didn’t say you were an idiot. I said you were acting like one.”
    Oh, that judge.
    “So. What’s it going to be, Rachel? Jail or a second chance?”
    I felt totally alone. No parents. No friends. Marvin was useless.
    “Okay. I’ll go. I’ll go to the stupid school.” From everything I’d read and heard, Juvie was not a fit forRachel Buchanan. Besides, a nugget of a plan was starting to form in my head. Maybe I could get out of this somehow, but not if I was in the slammer. It would have to be easier to escape this mess from a boarding school than a prison. Even if the school was in Pennsyl-freakin’-vania.
    Still, it felt like an eight-hundred-pound gorilla was sitting on my chest.
    “Excellent,” the judge said. She looked at Marvin. “Counselor, let’s begin the paperwork. Rachel will have one week to say good-bye to her friends and travel to Pennsylvania. She will report to Mr. Jonathon Kim, the headmaster of the school. He will compile and send quarterly reports on her progress and behavior to this court and her parents.” She dismissed Marvin with a wave.
    We stood up from our chairs and started toward the door of the courtroom. Marvin put his hand out as if to shepherd me to the door. I turned back to the