No Use For A Name Read Free Page A

billionaire, so since she's being such a good girl and buying me a cone—again—I thought I'd save her some money." I laced my fingers together and held them over my heart. "Please?"
    "Cousins, huh? I thought you guys were twins. Alright, you've convinced me." Grady grabbed a small cone, leaned into the case and scooped my ice cream. He held it out to me and I reached out to take it, but at the last second he moved it just out of my reach. "Now don't go telling people I'm a pushover, got it?" he said teasingly.
    "And don't you go telling people I'm a good girl," Kaia interjected, winking at Grady.
    Grady gave me my ice cream cone, then leaned against the countertop next to the register, bracing himself so that a couple of extra muscles popped out on his already impressive arms. "There's nothing wrong with being good. My pastor says it's not a bad thing to try and fail at being a good person, because Jesus will be there to lift you up. Not trying at all is where you get in trouble."
    Oh no! A Jesus freak. And he was so cute .
    Kaia threw back her head and laughed. "I guess if you want to tell people I'm good I won't stop you. I doubt they'll believe you though."
    "What's your name?" Grady asked her.
    "I'm Kaia. And this is my cousin, Mary."
    I choked a little on my ice cream, and quickly put a napkin over my mouth.
    "Mary, huh?" Grady lifted his eyes to mine.
    "Yes, like the virgin," Kaia answered, as my choking degenerated into a full blown coughing fit. "C'mon Mary. If you're going to drag me to the Christian store to look at the new Bibles again we might as well get it over with. See you later Grady."
    "Come back soon."
    "Oh we will," Kaia promised.
    We exploded out the mall exit and plowed through the hazy cloud of secondhand smoke. Kaia cackled maniacally while I tried to control my coughing. The smoke wasn't helping.
    We got to the parking lot and I was finally able to catch my breath. "What the hell did you just do to me, Kaia?"
    "Dude, I totally misread him. But I hooked you up! You're so in."
    "Mary, Kaia? Mary? "
    "He wants a good Christian girl. I figured as long as you're in the market for a new name, Mary would be perfect." She collapsed into giggles.
    "But he's a Jesus freak! And I don't even believe in God."
    Kaia stopped laughing abruptly and her mouth fell open. "You don't believe in God?"
    "No." I tilted my head. It wasn't, like, something I really thought about much. "Do you?"
    "Of course I do." We reached Kaia's Honda, and she pulled her keys out of her pocket to unlock the door. "So you're an atheist then?"
    "I guess."
    "Weird. Aren't you afraid?"
    "Of what?"
    "I don't know." Kaia shrugged. "Dying? Going to hell?"
    "A dude with a beard throwing a lightning bolt at me?"
    Kaia stuck her tongue out at me. "That's Zeus."
    "Whatever. No. I'm just not the religious type, medieval, mythical, or otherwise." Kaia got in her side of the car and reached over to unlock my door. I dropped into the passenger seat and huffed. "This is just great. Grady's a senior. How am I supposed to run around being Bitchy Barbie with one guy and Moral Mary with another? Jeez, Kaia!" But even though I tried really hard, I couldn't keep a tiny smile from stealing onto my face.
    Kaia grinned back at me. "It's a huge school. You're a smart girl. I'm sure you'll manage."
    "Great, now I'm made of plastic, holier-than-thou, and smart. Maybe next I should tell everyone my name's Poindexter."
    "Ooh! Can I call you Dex?"
    "Shut up."

 
THREE
    The last days of summer passed way quicker than I wanted them to. Not that I liked hanging around my house listening to my sisters bitch at each other, but I was actually kind of nervous about starting high school. How would I find my classes? Would I see anyone from Totem Falls, or would I be surrounded by people from Hilltop and Lincoln? The other girls in cheer hadn't seemed too friendly at tryouts. Was everyone going to be like that?
    At least I was required to wear my cheer uniform to school for the