Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“I saw you whispering with Kala. I recognize that look on Kala’s face. That’s the Taggart revenge face. So what happened?”
Lou stopped for a moment, and he was worried she might not speak up, but finally she put her pencil down. “It wasn’t any of the gulag kids. They’re great. I like them, and they don’t make me feel like a weirdo.”
Probably because all of those kids were weirdos. Weirdos were actually the norm, and not a single parent he knew tried to force their kids to fit in. Oddly, it made the MT kids way more tolerant than the kids he’d grown up with. He’d never seen one of them bully another kid.
Now fistfights when one of the Taggarts thought an injustice was being done? He’d seen a lot of those, mostly started by Kala or Erin and Theo’s daughter, Devi. Those girls were serious about justice and probably had read too many comic books.
Lou seemed to think about it for a moment. “It’s my grandmother. She came to the school for lunch today. She never tells me she’s coming, just shows up, and they let her because she’s on the school’s board. I hate it when she comes to school.”
He got the feeling Daphne’s relationship with her in-laws wasn’t great, either. It was interesting to know that tension went down to Lou as well. “What happened with her?”
“Usually she shows up at the classroom and we walk down to the cafeteria, but today she was late and just walked up to the table I was sitting at.” Lou frowned. “Alone.”
“Why were you sitting alone?” Boomer asked. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being alone.”
“I sit alone because no one likes me there. Everyone thinks I’m weird because I’m so much younger. They say I’m a baby and the only reason I’m there is my grandparents are rich,” Lou explained.
“That’s not true. You’re there because you’re super smart. You belong there. Don’t you let anyone tell you differently.” He’d known there was something wrong at the school. No one had greeted her when he’d dropped her off the first morning, and when he’d picked her up this afternoon, she hadn’t waved good-bye to any friends. She’d had her head down until she’d seen him, and only then had she become the vibrant Lou he knew.
Kenzie, Kala, and Tash didn’t come to aftercare very often. Mostly they took the bus home and took care of each other, but they’d been coming up for days to hang with Lou and make her feel comfortable.
“But my mom couldn’t afford to send me, and that’s what they’re pointing out,” Lou explained with a sigh. “They want me to know how different I am, but I don’t care about that. I wish my mom didn’t feel like she had to send me to Hanover. I could go to public school. I think I would be at the same one as Tash and Kala and Kenzie.”
Somehow he didn’t see Daphne letting that happen. “I think your mom wants you to have the best education possible, and you still haven’t told me what your granny did.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t ever call her Granny.” Lou’s head shook, and there was a horrified expression on her face. “She is Grandmother and nothing else.”
“Not a warm person, then?” He remembered his own grandmother with fondness. She’d been his maternal grandma, and she’d always told his mom she should stand up for him. When she’d died, his mom had wilted entirely.
“Practically arctic,” Lou said with a sigh. “She always tells me how much I remind her of my dad, but only when my grades are good. If they’re not, then I’m just like my mom.”
“Your mom is smart. She graduated with honors.” He didn’t like the thought of Lou’s granny putting her mom down. He didn’t like that at all. “She’s real smart. Like you.”
“There’s more to life than being smart. At least I hope there is,” Lou replied with a sad smile. “Anyway, she caught me reading, and she took away my book.”
He was confused. “I thought you were supposed to read. Why would she take away a book?”
“Because it wasn’t a literary book. Carltons don’t read trash.” Lou said the words with her nose in the air and in a snobby accent, likely imitating her granny before slapping the kitchen table. “It was a good book, and Tasha gave it to me and I want it back. I don’t see why I can’t read what I want to read. It’s not fair.”
It didn’t seem fair to him either. “I bet your mom will handle it.”
“My mom always does what Grandmother tells her to. She always has. It’s because if she doesn’t, Grandmother and Grandfather won’t pay for me to go to private school,” Lou explained. “Which would be great because then I could go to public school and I wouldn’t have to wear a dumb beret and take French. Why should I take French? I live in Texas. I should take Spanish.”