The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition Read Online Free Page B

himself.  He suspected that Delilah was going to be her next target.  “I won’t break up with you right now if you call your dogs off of Grace and everybody else at that table.”  He knew that Aimee needed him for his friends and for homework help.  She’d be failing English I already without his help. 
                  Turning and blinking at him, “Or what?”
                  “Or you’ll fail English and get kicked off of the squad.  You won’t even be able to play softball.”  He left out the fact he’d take all of his friends with him and she’d be left with Kelly. 
                  Holding out her hand, Aimee agreed to his terms, “Deal.” 
                  He just didn’t have to approve with what he had just agreed to. 

                  Sobbing in the girls’ locker room, Grace waited for Delilah to get back from her sister’s locker.  Her new friend knew that Charlotte – a sister – kept shampoo and a blow dryer in her locker just in case she needed it during or after theatre. 
                  She didn’t know that Delilah had been waylaid outside the locker room door. 
                  “What do you want, David?” Delilah asked, holding up a bag with the needed supplies for him to see.  “I have somebody waiting in there to get your girlfriend’s sister’s lemonade out of her hair.”
                  “I have to tell you something,” he insisted. 
                  “I don’t care what you have to tell me,” she huffed.  “You could have prevented this.  Just tell your girlfriend to leave Grace alone.”
                  “I did.  I had to make a deal with the devil in order to get them to leave Grace, and you, alone.” 
                  Turning towards her former best friend, “But David, it’s too late.  Grace has been bullied for weeks now, ever since the first day of school.  She’s been trying so hard to blend into the background just to get them to leave her alone.  Grace is afraid of her own shadow in these hallways.  I’ve seen her around her siblings and she’s outgoing and funny.  I’ve seen her around Jennifer and me and she’s interesting. But as soon as Amanda Kirkland or Aimee comes around she’s cowering and refuses to make eye contact with anybody.  And you are just now doing something about your crazy girlfriend?”
                  “I didn’t know,” he weakly mumbled, wondering how he had missed all of it.  “I just found out about the bullying today.”
                  “Too little, too late,” Delilah glared at him before disappearing into the one place he couldn’t go. 
                  Announcing to her friends, “Someday I’m going to make David William Carver regret everything.”  Pulling the shampoo out of the bag, she smiled at Grace, “But let’s get you cleaned up first.” 

 
Sophomore Year

Chapter Seven
                  There were a few things wrong about transferring to a new school a month after everybody else had started.  Even more so when it was your Sophomore Year and everybody around you had already formed their groups. 
                  Wesley Pitts looked at the cafeteria around him.  Not only was he facing an uphill battle of transferring in, he also had to deal with his parents’ divorce and his father deciding to move back to his hometown in order to take care of his ailing mother. 
                  He had, thankfully, gotten all of his classes.  He doubted he could tolerate having to take Home Economics because he couldn’t get into Geometry this semester. 
                  However the current task in front of him had nothing to do with class assignments.  Scanning the cafeteria, he saw an indifferent looking classmate – possibly from first period Biology – sitting next to a