Beckoners Read Online Free

and
you
will be sitting in a chair listening attentively.”
    Zoe walked a couple paces behind Beck as she led her all over the school, like Zoe was some half-wit who wouldn’t realize what she was doing.
    â€œCome on.” Zoe was not about to go back down the stairs they’d just come up. “Are you taking me there or not?”
    â€œOh, look, we’re there.” Beck pointed down the hall at a green door with a Shakespeare poster under the little window. “I’ll be back for you after class.”
    â€œDon’t bother,” Zoe said. “It’s obvious you don’t want to do this. Forget it.”
    â€œI said, I’ll be back for you after class. If I don’t babysit you all day, Cromwell will have my ass, okay? Happy?”
    â€œWhy did you volunteer then?”
    â€œI don’t
volunteer
to do anything. This is Cromwell’s idea of ‘rehabilitation.’” She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her bag and stuck one between her lips before taking off down the stairs.
    A tiny woman with a sweep of silver hair piled high on her head opened the door just as Beck disappeared.
    â€œDo tell me you are not going to stand out here all day.” Mrs. Henley pulled Zoe into the room by her elbow. “Take a seat, child.” Zoe made her way to a desk at the back, thirty sets of who-the-hell-is-
she
eyes locked on her.
    â€œYou’ll have plenty of time to alienate her later, people.” Mrs. Henley picked up a clipboard. “Now, all I ask, please, is that when I call your name you answer anything but
yeah.
” She raced through the list, hardly waiting for the “heres” and “presents” until she called out “Rebecca?
Miz
Wilson?” Silence. “Has anyone seen her this morning?” Silence. “No one has seen the illustrious Beck yet?” She looked down her nose at two girls in particular, a chunky blonde with harsh eyebrows, and a tiny South Asian girl with hair down to her bum. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”
    Everyone stared blankly forward.
    â€œApril? You were in the gym just now, was she there?”
    A skinny girl with limp wheat-colored hair looked up from scratching her knees. She turned in her desk to look at Zoe.Zoe slouched in her seat and looked right through her. April turned back to the front and nodded, lanky hair falling across her narrow face, fingers worrying a gold cross at her throat, a WWJD bracelet slipping down her wrist. Until then, Zoe had thought the whole What-Would-Jesus-Do thing was a joke. She didn’t believe people actually wore that crap, let alone believed in it.
    â€œWell? Was she or was she not in the gymnasium with the other volunteer ambassadors?”
    The class snickered.
    â€œYes,” April whispered.
    â€œHark!” Mrs. Henley cupped a hand to her ear. “Is that the sound of verity I hear before me?” She noted something on her clipboard before smiling generously at April. “Thank you, Miz Donelly.”
    Beck was waiting in the hall after class, although it was only to pass Zoe off to Simon, a pale, slender boy who towered beside her, dressed all in black, from boots to porkpie hat. Beck pushed him forward.
    â€œSimon’s taking you to Chemistry.”
    Simon wiggled his fingers at Zoe. “Hey.”
    â€œI have to take off.” Beck glanced down the hall. “Pretend Simon is me, except ugly and with a lisp.”
    â€œI love you too, sweetheart.” Simon scowled at her.
    â€œWhat about Cromwell?”
    â€œI’ve got an emergency. If you see Cromwell, tell him I’m busy being bulimic or something.”
    â€œWelcome to Central.” Simon folded his arms and watched Beck hurry down the hall. “Home of freaks, geeks and mental cases. Just your average run of the mill public educational institution, where chaos reigns supreme.” He draped an arm across Zoe’s shoulders and led her down