Read Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders) for Free Online Page B

the others fall in behind him, not even saying anything, just backing him up.”
    “And they might not even like each other,” Karen said, her excitement clearly returning. “They might have been bickering away for the whole movie, but when it came down to it, they were willing to die for each other.”
    “I don’t really want to die for anyone,” I said.
    Karen just grinned. “No, me neither. But a scaled-down version of that? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
    “Like the Fellowship of the Ring,” I said to Annalise, who still didn’t seem impressed, so I gave up on her and focused on Karen. “It would be cool,” I said, and I meant it.
    …
    “Forget it, Winslow. I’m not going to spy on Dia for you,” Karen announced as soon as I walked up to the cafeteria table where she was sitting with the guys.
    “What? Who’s Dia?”
    “Clau- dia . Dia. She doesn’t like her name, so I gave her a nickname.”
    I wished I wore a watch so I could check it. “Wait. This morning before school you said it was no big deal, you could scout her out. Now you’re calling it spying and giving her a nickname?” I wasn’t upset about the change, but it was a bit confusing. “How’d that happen?”
    “We’re forming a sisterhood,” Karen said, as if her words made sense.
    “A sisterhood?”
    “We could have called it a team, but we don’t like sports. So we’re calling it a sisterhood.”
    “A sisterhood of what ?”
    “A Sisterhood of Awesomeness.”
    “Oh. Okay, yeah, that’s a totally normal thing to do. Nothing weird about that at all.”
    “We will stand together against our enemies. Once more unto the breach, and all that.”
    “I’ll tell you what, Karen: I don’t think you should be stoned at school. I don’t care if the cool kids are doing it.”
    She grinned. “You’re jealous, because I’m on Dia’s team and you’re not.”
    “‘Dia’? Did she actually agree to that?”
    “Hell yeah. It’s her superhero name.”
    “What’s yours? Ren?”
    “It could be! With a W , like the little bird. Damn, that’s excellent, Winslow. Thanks!”
    I pushed my cafeteria tray toward her. “You should eat something. Soak up the booze.”
    “Your superhero name would be Slow,” she said with exaggerated sympathy. “I can see why this isn’t such a fun game for you.”
    “It’d be Topher, you dunce. You’re doing first names, not last.”
    “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Topher’s really not bad.”
    “Here comes Ler. Not sure if he’s going to like your game.”
    She faded away then, off to cuddle up and be generally sickening with Tyler, and I ate my lunch a little more quickly than usual. I was supposed to be meeting Claudia—Dia?—in the library as soon as I was done eating, and I found myself actually looking forward to it. Karen was a pretty smart person, and as far as I’d seen she was a good judge of character. If she wanted to form a sisterhood with Claudia, that seemed like a good sign. It made me even more curious than I’d been before.
    So I wolfed down my lunch and headed for the library. I stopped just inside the door and watched Claudia for a minute. She was sitting at the same table as the day before, and the same friend was beside her, and Claudia was frowning down at whatever she was working on like she was thinking it through. Then she smiled in satisfaction and jotted something down in her notebook.
    She was still smiling when she glanced toward the door and saw me. Her expression kind of froze, then, until the smile looked fake and weird. She looked away and let her face relax, and I walked toward her cautiously. It had been a weird reaction, I was pretty sure.
    When I got close enough to the table I asked, “You okay? You still on for tutoring?”
    “I still need it for my application,” she said. Not quite frosty, but not friendly, either.
    Which was fine. It was good, almost. Part of what I’d liked about her the day before had been how totally unimpressed she was with me.