Read Savvy for Free Online Page B

stepped past Bobbi and her big pink gum bubble, and ran my finger along the cool pink steel of the bus, underlining the word
Salina
in the address, clearing the dust away and leaving a clean gash below the word like I had just sealed a deal.
    Will Junior, still following close, raised his eyebrows high when he saw the underlined lettering on the bus. Yet he said nothing as I walked past Bobbi and climbed onto the first step just inside the open door.
    Thinking about how wrong I’d been about yesterday’s bus ride being my last for a while, I ignored my momma’s voice in my head telling me to never ride with strangers, ignored my poppa’s voice telling me to always let an adult know where I was so that I could stay safe. I tried, tried, tried to ignore the voice of Bobbi’s angel talking in my head. But that proved far more difficult.
    “She wonders if you’re feeling all right.”
    “Hey, birthday-brat, what do you think you’re doing?” said Bobbi, without a trace of concern bobbing up in her voice. That angel didn’t really seem to know Bobbi that well.
    “Get frittered, Bobbi,” Will Junior said, surprising both his sister and me. “Leave us alone, or I’ll tell Mother and Father about the D you got on your chemistry test.” He had his hands on either side of the door to the bus and one foot resting on the first step like he planned to follow me right in.
    Bobbi rolled her eyes as though she’d just been threatened by an amateur. “They’ll find out about that anyway,” she snorted. “And it certainly won’t surprise them.”
    “Okay” continued Will. “Then I’ll tell them about how you hoodwink the school secretary by pretending to be Mother on the phone to excuse yourself whenever you ditch.”
    “You think I care?” Bobbi dared him.
    “She cares,”
said the wily voice, and I imagined that angel tattoo twirling its devil’s tail.
“She’d hate to lose her secret weapon.”
    “What are you two up to, anyway?” Bobbi pulled the wad of pink gum from out of her mouth and pressed it against the side of the bus, dotting the
i
in
Bible
with the sticky blob. Then she moved to take Will’s place in the doorway as he and I climbed up into the bus. Through the front windshield, I saw Fish coming out of the church, dark and stormy, looking for me.
    “Mibs has to get to Salina and I’m going along to see that she makes it there safe,” Will Junior said to Bobbi as though God Almighty and the Great State of Nebraska had set him the task, and as though Pastor Meeks and Miss Rosemary wouldn’t tan his hide for taking off without a word.
    “Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re Mibs’s own personal safety officer?” Bobbi shouted up at her brother. “Don’t you think one state trooper in the family’s enough?”
    For a moment, Will looked ready to explode. If the top button of his shirt hadn’t already come undone, it might have popped right off from the way that Will puffed himself up.
    “Shut up, Bobbi,” he said. “It’s only ninety miles to Salina. We’ll be there in no time.”
    Across the parking lot, Fish had seen us and was now headed toward the pink bus, the grass next to the sidewalk waving and flattening around him as if it were under the whirling blades of a helicopter. Fish was furious.
    “
You’re
not going to Salina,” Bobbi and I both said to Will Junior at the exact same time. Then she and I exchanged a long, squinting glare—Bobbi still standing on the ground in front of the steps, me at the top by the driver’s seat, Will Junior halfway up between us, and Fish closing in fast.
    Most of the tatty seats inside the bus were stacked with crates and boxes, and it looked as though several of the backseats had been removed to make room for more storage. Ignoring Bobbi and Will Junior, I headed toward the back of the bus, thinking I could hide pretty well back there until the bus got down to Kansas. Will Junior followed me in, Bobbi on his tail.
    “Well,