How to Win at High School Read Online Free

looks at him. “Just quit trying to force it,” she says. “What’s so great about hanging out with Rob Thigpen and his buddies, anyway?”
    Adam looks at her.
    Tries to think of an answer.
    Something witty and all-encompassing.
    Fails.
    â€œEverything,” he says finally. “Just everything.”

30.
    â€œSo did you make it to that party, or what?”
    Sam and Adam are watching the hockey game on TV. It’s the intermission and Adam is getting more Doritos from Sam’s cupboard. He pauses when Sam asks the question. Keeps his nose in the cupboards, pretends like he’s rummaging.
    â€œUh, no,” he says. “Had to work.”
    â€œShit,” Sam says. “Really? You couldn’t get the night off?”
    Adam turns around. Shrugs. “Guess they needed me or something. Lame, right?”
    â€œWhat about after?” Sam says. “The Hut’s not open that late. And parties don’t really start until like eleven or midnight anyway. You could have just swung by after work.”
    Adam pretends like he’s looking for a bowl for the Doritos. “Yeah,” he says. “I know.”
    Sam doesn’t say anything for a long time, and the TV just blares some stupid car commercial, and Adam can tell that Sam’s looking at him, watching him pour the Doritos into the big bowl, waiting for him to come back to the couch and sit down.
    Adam takes his time, but it’s not long enough.
    Sam’s still looking at Adam when he sits down. Looking at him like he’d do anything for a day in Adam’s shoes.
    ( Take them , Adam thinks.)
    â€œYou don’t like parties, huh?” Sam says after a while. “That’s cool.”
    â€œNo,” Adam says. “That’s not it. I do, I just—”
    He stops.
    ( I’m just a loser , he thinks.)
    â€œI was tired,” he says.
    Sam sighs. “You gotta get out and do this stuff, Adam,” he says. “Do the fun stuff while you can. It’s not going to be like this forever.”
    Adam looks into the bowl of Doritos, like that toxic blend of monosodium glutamate and delicious chemical cheese can save him.
    â€œIt’s not always going to be this way,” Sam says. “It’s not always going to be just parties and girls. It gets taken from you before you even know what’s happening.”
    Sam pauses. “Hey,” he says. “Look at me.”
    Adam wrenches his gaze from the bowl and looks at Sam. His withered, useless legs. His shitty apartment with its millions of safety bars and emergency nurse buttons. The wheelchair with the squeaky wheel in the corner.
    â€œEven if you don’t fuck around and get paralyzed, man, it’s not going to be high school forever. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to go out into the real world.
    â€œAnd the real world?” Sam says. “The real world fucking sucks, Adam. You have to get out there and do it. You have to take what you can—everything you can— while you can. Understand?”
    Adam does understand. He wants it. He wants to take it, just like Sam is saying. He just doesn’t know how, exactly.
    It’s fucking frustrating.

31.
    Monday morning. Math class.
    â€œLooked for you at Sara’s party,” Darren says, sliding into the seat beside Adam. “You didn’t make it?”
    Adam closes his eyes.
    It’s too early for this.
    â€œLike two hundred people showed up,” Darren says. “There was a Facebook blast and everything. It was crazy.”
    â€œYeah,” Adam says. “So I hear.”
    â€œWhat’s your cell number?” Darren says. “Next time, I’ll text you.”
    Good luck , Adam thinks.
    Then he thinks:
    I need a cell phone.
    More $$$.
    More Pizza Hut.
    More dirty dishes.
    Then Adam thinks about Sam in his apartment, staring at the TV, thinking about all the lost chances he never got, wondering why his little