Read Odessa Again for Free Online Page B

Sofia, but they’d become friends last year in third grade and Odessa didn’t understand what had happened since. At first she thought it was just that they didn’t have the same teacher anymore, but then the backpack started showing up on Odessa’s bus seat.
    Claire didn’t seem to have had any real friends before Odessa came along. She was skinny and knobby-kneed, and too eager to agree with whatever was said. It’s hard to pinpoint why some kids are targets for the cruelty of others, but there was no denying that Claire Deloitte was a big, fat bull’s-eye.
    “Claire, did you see that movie about the aardvark and the pelican that opened this weekend? Everyone’s talking about it,” one of the girls might say at recess.
    “Yeah,” Claire would answer. “It was funny.”
    “Ha! Ha! Ha! There is no movie about an aardvark and a pelican!”
    Or:
    “Claire, don’t you love that song ‘Dream Detectives’?”
    This song Claire had to know was real; it played anytime a radio switched on.
    “Yeah. It’s awesome.”
    “Oh my God! That song is sooooo stupid. It’s, like, the stupidest song ever. ”
    Or this:
    “Claire, when’s your birthday?”
    “It’s on Oct—”
    “Who cares!”
    Maybe it was just because Odessa didn’t pull any of these cruel jokes on Claire that Claire had attached herself to Odessa by the third week of third grade.
    When it was Odessa’s turn to stay in at recess to wipe down the desks, Claire would stay and help. If Odessa chose quiet reading time over working on the geography puzzle, Claire would read alongside her. Once Odessa opted to skip out on the birthday cake brought in by Sienna. Carrot cake. Yuck. Claire declined her piece too.
    At first Odessa wondered about Claire.
    Why didn’t she stand up for herself? Why was she such a follower? But she stopped wondering, because she liked to be with Claire. Claire was smart. And she was funny. And despite the fact that she preferred books with cartoons, she too was a lover of words.
    Now Claire spent most of her time at school with Maya, and that made Odessa feel jovial for Claire, because she didn’t want her to be friendless.
    So Odessa got on the morning bus with the graphic novel in her hands. She’d stayed up too late reading it cover to cover, and she was surprised by how much she’d enjoyed it.
    She displayed the front of it as she approached Claire, who rested her arm on the dreaded backpack. Odessa took the seat in front of her.
    As the doors closed with a whoosh and the bus lurched forward, Odessa turned around. She held the book out. “Have you read this?”
    Claire glanced at the cover and then down at her lap.
    She nodded.
    “Did you like it?”
    Claire didn’t respond. She probably thought Odessa was trying to catch her in a trap—asking for an opinion only so she could mock it.
    “Well I read it last night and I thought it was awesome,” Odessa said. “I totally didn’t get why anyone bothered with graphic novels, like I thought they were going to be Calvin and Hobbes or Garfield or something, you know, baby stuff, but this book was really, really good.”
    Claire shrugged.
    The bus stopped to pick up Mick McGinnis, and when it started up again, Odessa fell forward in her seat and dropped the book. As the bus climbed up the hill, the book slid back into Claire’s row.
    Claire picked it up, and for a moment Odessa thought she might shove it into her own bag or maybe toss it over her shoulder or out the window, but she held it out to Odessa.
    “If you liked this one,” Claire said, “you should try The Windchaser. ”
    Odessa took her book back, feeling encouraged. Bold. “Would you mind putting your backpack on the floor so I can sit next to you?”
    “No switching seats once the bus is moving,” Claire shot back.
    She pointed to the rules posted at the front of the bus. Right above No Chewing Gum and below No Shouting it said Pick Your Seat and Stay There.
    Claire knew Odessa followed rules. It was