Read Dedication for Free Online Page A

well.”
    “Shut up. Get the phone book in the pantry and let’s look up Jake Sharpe.”
    “No.” I’ll just keep carrying the fact that I’m supposed to like him because I said so in gym class around along with my library card, my Red Cross babysitting certification, and my house key.
    “We made a vow!” Laura sits up on her knees. “A birthday vow!”
    “You made a wish when you blew out your candles! It’s not the same thing. Laura, let’s just finish Science. My dad’s going to be picking me up soon.” I stand.
    “Uch.”
    “What! Volcanoes are cool. Come on.” I reach a hand down to seesaw her to her feet. “I’ll help you. You’ll learn to love the volcano from the inside out.”
    “Fine, but next time you’re calling Jake Sharpe. First.”

    I put my sandwich back down on its Baggie and tap Laura’s untouched yogurt, my voice lifting over the din of the packed cafeteria. “No good?”
    She points to the silver wires on her teeth. “This no good.” She slumps forward, pushing her old folks’ home lunch away. “I can’t believe I had to get these the same week as…as—”
    “Move it, Malaria.” Benjy Conchlin bumps Laura’s chair as he slides through to his table, his red curls poking out above the size tab of his Sox cap.
    “As that.”
    Just then JenniferThree plunks her tray down, the ohmygod look on her face silencing the entire table.
    “Something the matter?” Laura asks, refusing to play into her dramatics.
    Jennifer pauses another beat, until she’s sure she has our undivided attention. “Jeanine. Got a big red stain. On her white pants. In shop.”
    We collectively gasp.
    “That has to blow you calling Rick Swartz out of the water.”
    We all nod in agreement, and, gloom lifted, Laura returns to tackling the Yoplait. I offer her a slice of apple. “Suck on it.”
    “Squish it against the roof of your mouth with your tongue,” Michelle, the longest brace wearer at the table, instructs.
    “There she is.” Jennifer gestures to the double doors of the cafeteria and we all turn to see if she is still alive—if getting a period stain in a room full of boys, does not, in fact, kill you.
    Jeanine is wearing her gym shorts—ah, good move. But still, most every head turns. Despite her being a colossal bitch, I feel genuinely awful for her. Our eyes meet and I offer a sympathetic smile. She nods. Good for her, she’ll just walk through the maze of round tables and sit with the weirdo clique that took her in when Kristi’s group was done with her, and—she isn’t walking. She flips her newly blackened hair over her shoulder and looks around.
    “What’s she doing?” Laura whispers.
    We all shrug in response, riveted.
    She walks directly to the nearest table and leans down, displaying a stain-free butt to all, as she talks to—the whole lunchroom watches—to Jake Sharpe. He scans the tables and then she points. Points right at me.
    And then…they all turn, the whole cafeteria turns. The whole room looks at me and then back to Jake Sharpe, who stands to get a better look. At me.
    “Ohmygod.”
    “Ohmygod,” Laura echoes.
    “She’s telling the boy you like that you like him,” JenniferThree Howard Cosells the moment as we all stare at each other, agog. Then the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch and my life. Motion resumes. But Jake and his friends stay put. To wait. Because they’re right by the exit. People continue to blatantly stare as they shuffle toward the racks of dirty trays.
    “We’ll go together.” Laura stands, tossing her bag into the nearby trash.
    “No,” I hear myself say, “I have to just—I’m just going to…” And then I’m moving, speed walking, pimply faces a blur. I grip my lunch bag and books to my chest and focus on the glowing exit sign over the doors, moving along the waves of stares and whispers. But then I hear, “Hey, Hollis!” and automatically turn in the direction of Randy Bryson’s voice and, in the slowest of slow