Read Game Changer for Free Online

sitting next to Maria in homeroom all year. They didn’t usually say much to each other beyond “Hey” and “What’s up?” But Maria had never acted jealous before. Why was she so bitter now?
    And why were the other kids around them nodding and glaring at KT, like they all agreed with Maria?
    The bell rang, signaling that it was time for everyone to go to first period.
    Not me, KT thought. At least—not yet.
    She darted out of the classroom and around the corner. She wasn’t going to take the risk that her first-period teacher, Mr. Huck, wouldn’t let her use a computer either. She was taking matters into her own hand. She’d sneak into the library, check out the Rysdale Invitational website on the computer there, and then go to first period.
    She turned a second corner. Past the lockers and then . . .
    KT stopped.
    Wait—this isn’t the way to the library. It’s . . .
    She backtracked, almost completely back to homeroom. Start over. Left, then right,then . . .
    She’d ended up in the wrong hallway again.
    “KT?” a voice called behind her. “Is everything okay?”
    KT hesitated. She squinted at the walls around her, willing the doorways and cut-throughs and classrooms to unscramble and reassemble and look familiar again. She’d been going to Brecksville North for three years. How could she have done what sixth graders always feared on their very first day?
    She’d gotten completely lost in her own school.



Chαpt e r F 0 u r
    “KT?” the voice behind her said again.
    KT whirled around. This nightmare of a morning instantly got worse: It was Mr. Huck, her social-studies teacher. The one whose class she was skipping.
    She tried putting on her game face.
    “Uh, hey, Mr. Huck,” she said brightly, with what she hoped was an innocent-looking smile. “I know I’m late to first period, but—”
    Mr. Huck gave her a light, conspiratorial punch on the arm.
    “Well, no, technically you’re not late yet,” he said. The bell rang in the emptying hallway around them. Doors slammed; the hallway fell silent. Now it was just Mr. Huck, KT, and the cinder-block walls.
    “ Now you’re late,” Mr. Huck said. “But I am too, so I won’t tell if you don’t.”
    Mr. Huck had never been quite this . . . friendly before. He was an okay guy, but most of the time in his class KThad the sense that he was just waiting for the school day to end so he could get to what he really loved: coaching the boys’ lacrosse team.
    KT could respect that. She felt the same way about getting through school to get to softball.
    But it didn’t make social-studies class very interesting.
    “I wanted to talk to you anyhow,” Mr. Huck said. He leaned against the wall, as if trying to make their conversation even more private.
    They were already standing close together in a deserted hallway.
    Is he hitting on me? KT thought with a mix of amazement and disgust. She knew several girls who had crushes on Mr. Huck, because he was kind of good-looking, and it hadn’t been that long since he’d been a student at Brecksville North himself. But he was probably twice her age.
    KT thought the girls who got crushes on teachers were stupid.
    “ Are you okay?” Mr. Huck asked, his eyebrows wrinkling into worried-looking wedges.
    KT forgot her suspicions about him hitting on her. This was more like . . . like he really respected her.
    “Nobody’s giving you a hard time about that e-mail, are they?” Mr. Huck asked.
    E-mail? KT thought. What e-mail?
    “Um,” KT said.
    Mr. Huck lowered his voice.
    “It’s all right,” he said. “Mr. Arnold showed it to me in confidence.”
    Mr. Arnold was the principal.
    “He did?” KT said, because she had to say something.
    “Yes,” Mr. Huck said. He clenched his hand and turned his wrist like someone swinging a pretend lacrosse stick. KT thought she understood the motion, because she always flicked her wrist like she was throwing a pretend softball any time she got stuck in an