Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about The Grapes of Wrath Read Online Free Page B

homework here. Currently that involves sitting in front of our television in the playroom. Carrie, meanwhile, has cornered me in the kitchen.
    â€œDon’t tell me you’re interested in David.”
    â€œNot personally, no. But is he?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œWouldn’t you know?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œWhat about Mariel?”
    â€œThey’re friends.”
    Carrie cocks one eyebrow. That ability must be genetic; why can’t I do it? “Really?” she asks. “They seem awfully friendly.”
    â€œI think they’re just friends.”
    â€œYou think?”
    â€œI’m pretty sure.”
    â€œBut he hasn’t said anything about her to you?”
    â€œWe’ve never talked about her.”
    â€œWhat do you talk about? He’s your best friend, you’rein almost all of the same classes, you eat lunch with him every day—don’t you know anything about him?”
    â€œI know what he eats for lunch.”
    Loathsome Louis longs to munch much lovely lunch
    David spends too much time at lunch pitching possible essay titles at me. This is not for my benefit; he does it before every major assignment. David starts with the title, then writes a paper to fit it.
    â€œ ‘Joad as Toad: Character in
The Grapes of Wrath
.’ ”
    David likes colons. You can hear them in his pause. He looks to me for a reaction.
    â€œPossible. Nice rhyme. Subtitle needs work.”
    He nods and looks solemn again.
    â€œ ‘Mapquest: Map and Quest—Just Where Were the Joads Going?’ ”
    â€œBetter.”
    There is a pause before the next pitch, and I look up to find Louis behind my chair. Louis never arrives, he just appears. For someone his size, that’s an accomplishment.
    â€œHello, Louis,” David says, placing his apple core back in his brown paper lunch bag. In defiance of all social norms, he always carries a traditional brown bag, which emerges every day from his backpack unwrinkled and stands on the table with remarkable posture for a near-empty paper sack. It’s some sort of statement, because for most people the goal is to make the fact that you broughtyour lunch look as unintentional as possible. The food should look like you just happened to find it—hey, there’s a tuna fish sandwich in my pocket. There are a few categories of people, mostly girls, who can get away with actual lunch-boxes, but only if they can convey proper irony.
    â€œDitchell, Mavid.”
    Louis frequently joins us at lunch, which is surprising because David and I are the only juniors who have early lunch. In theory, Louis should be in class now. But here he is again. He pulls up a chair and places it right alongside David’s, leg to leg. David scoots a little to the left to mitigate the personal space invasion.
    Sitting next to David, I realize that he and Louis are almost the same size. But while David isn’t someone you would easily pick out of a lineup of teenagers, Louis is someone you would notice immediately. He’s a lot like David, only more so. Both are taller than me, but not really tall. On David, the height makes him look average. Louis is a little chubbier, with a rounder face and enough weight to make him bulky, but not really fat. His height makes him seem big. David’s hair is blond, but not pale blond, or Swedish blond or beach blond—just mostly blond with enough streaks of brown to make the blondness less noticeable. Louis is fair as well, but his hair is almost yellow, and there is something beacon-like about his head that makes him easy to spot walking down the hall. And then there’s the grin. David doesn’t really smile much. Hemight enjoy things, but deadpan is as funny as he gets. Louis is always wearing a very wide, very happy grin. It isn’t really a friendly grin, but it sure makes him look like he’s enjoying himself.
    Louis picks up David’s lunch bag and