Read Drive-By for Free Online Page B

science book and my English book.
    Tomorrow was going to be a big day for me.

18
    I got up early and left the house with the backpack over my shoulder.
    I didn’t eat breakfast. Skipping a meal upsets Mom. That was nothing compared to what she was going to do when she found out I didn’t wait to walk Mina to school.
    I couldn’t worry about eating or being in trouble with Mom with everything else that was going on.
    A trash truck whined and coughed down the alley. I ran after it. When the men weren’t looking, I flung my backpack over the top into the bin. I stood next to the poinsettia and waited, hoping the gun wouldn’t fire.
    Motors whined. The big truck began compressing the trash.
    Then I ran to Big Molly’s Diner.
    Lamar and Ice Breaker Joe stood outside, holding cartons filled with French fries. Steam rose from the chili covering the fries.
    I walked up to them, pretending not to be afraid. They laughed at me, but I kept thinking what Mom always said about whoever laughs last, laughs best.
    “I figure I know where Jimmy left the stuff he owes you if there ever was any stuff,” I said. I wasn’t going to tell them I had seen it.
    “Look how tough he’s acting now,” Ice Breaker Joe said.
    “Jimmy crawled under the house all the time saying he was fixing pipes,” I said.
    They looked at each other. Something connected in their big dumb brains.
    “There’s a board over the entrance to the crawl space behind the pink hibiscus plant. You’d never see it if you didn’t know it was there. But I wouldn’t go there,” I said.
    “And why wouldn’t you go there?” Lamar asked, and stuffed a mess of French fries covered with chili and cheese in his mouth.
    “Because cops have been watching the house day and night.”
    “There’s no cops there unless they’re invisible,” Ice Breaker Joe said.
    “Yeah, well, I guess they’re all undercover,” I said. “I see them all the time.”
    “Then why don’t you go get the stuff?” Lamar said.
    “Because I’m no gangbanger and neither was Jimmy.”
    “Then why you telling us about under the house?” Lamar said.
    “I did what you asked so all the gangbangers would stop coming around and breaking into the house. I told you. I warned you. Now we’re even.” I started walking away. I walked really slow even though my legs were hammering with nerves.
    I walked into Big Molly’s Diner and took a seat.
    Sonny came over. “Those boys at the car bothering you?”
    I shook my head so Lamar and Ice Breaker Joe could see and know I wasn’t a squealer.
    Sonny placed a menu on the counter and gave me a glass of water.
    When I heard the car pull away, I went to the pay phone and punched in 911.
    The only undercover cop who had been hanging around the house was me.
    I told the voice on the line that Jimmy Cahill had hidden drug money he stole from his gang under the house at 1501 Logan Street, and that the gangbangers who killed him were going to get it now. Then I hung up.
    I knew police would be buzzing around here and buzzing around the house, so I went up to Sonny.
    “My mom gave me money for breakfast and I lost it,” I lied. I’d been telling too many lies. I promised myself this was my last. “I tried to call and no one’s home. Do you have any work I can do to earn money for breakfast?”
    Sonny gave me a doubtful look. He didn’t know if I was gaming him or not.
    “You want to clean the rest rooms?” he asked.
    I nodded.
    “I’ll give you breakfast every morning,” he said, “if you’ll clean out the rest rooms every day. I hate that job.”
    “Can I bring my sister sometimes?”
    “How old is she?”
    “She just turned five,” I said. “She likes French fries.”
    “All right.”
    By the time I was rolling the bucket of suds into the bathroom, I heard sirens. I was glad to be hiding out in the bathroom with Clorox fumes in my nose. That way I had an excuse to mind my own business and I didn’t have to get in anyone’s way.
    I