how she feels that day, I guess.â
âWhy didnât you tell me that before? Geez, I thought everyone was obsessed with it for no reason.â
âWell. I donât know if everyoneâs obsessed with it because of the legend or if the legend grew because everyoneâs obsessed with it. Anyway, McCoy says weâre not supposed to talk about it. But if you really want creepy, you should watch him take care of it. Cleans every lightbulb by hand. Caresses it.â
I laughed.
Tucker paused, his neck and ears turning red. He fidgeted. âThereâs also the myth about a python in the ceiling tiles, being fed by the lunch ladies. But that oneâs not too interesting. Do you know about Red Witch Bridge?â
I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye. âIâve heard of it.â
âNever drive through the covered bridge by HannibalâsRest at night. You hear the witch scream right before she rips you to shreds and leaves your car empty by the side of the road.â A gleam of excitement lit his eyes as he waited for my reaction. Normally he only got that look when he was telling me about one of his conspiracy theories.
âHave you ever done it?â I asked.
âMe? Drive through Red Witch Bridge? No, Iâm brave as soggy potato salad.â
âYou? Soggy potato salad? No .â
Tucker laughed and puffed out his skinny chest in mock bravado. âI know I donât look it, but Iâd run the other direction before I got anywhere near that bridge.â He dropped the act and offered me the Coke. âThirsty?â
âYou donât want it?â
âNah. Bought it and then remembered that I hate soda.â
I took it hesitantly. âYou didnât put anything in it, did you?â
âDo I look like that type of person?â
âI donât know, Mr. Soggy Potato Salad. Youâre a wild card.â
I technically wasnât supposed to have caffeineâmy mother said it made me too excitable and screwed with my medicine, which made her a liar because I felt perfectly fine whenever I broke the rulesâbut I drank it anyway.
âI see your textbooks have had a rough day.â Tuckerprodded the binding of my calculus book.
âMm,â I said. âStray cat found its way into my locker.â
âSuperglue will fix that right up.â
Superglue? Now there was an idea. I glanced down at Miles. He was staring over his shoulder at us, eyes narrowed. The enormity of this balancing act hit me all at once, made my stomach lurch. I couldnât let him walk all over me, but I couldnât make him angry, either.
Tucker gave him the finger. Miles turned back to the court.
âIâll regret that later,â Tucker said, âwhen my steering column is gone.â
Either Tucker would regret it, or I would.
âAre you okay?â Tucker asked. âYou look like youâre going to vomit.â
âYes.â No. âIâm okay.â This was the least okay thing that had happened to me since the Hillpark Gym Graffiti Incident.
I realized too late that Iâd snapped at him. I didnât mean to be harsh, but I hated worry, and pity, and that look people got when they knew something wasnât okay with you and they also knew that you were in denial about it.
I wasnât in denial. I just couldnât let it slip this time.
Chapter Seven
I spent the rest of the game flipping my focus back and forth between my homework and Miles. He didnât look back up at us, but I knew he knew I was watching him.
I distracted myself by trying to think of ways to pay Tucker back for the Coke. He ignored me when I brought it up and changed the subject to conspiracy theoriesâ Roswell, the Illuminati, Elvis faking his own death, and when Miles glared up at us again, a nice little story about a Nazi moon base.
Tucker was the sort of intelligent, history-savvy person I could throw at my mother and watch
Craig Buckhout, Abbagail Shaw, Patrick Gantt