Hunter Moran Hangs Out Read Online Free Page B

mouth. “I’m not afraid of him, the big bully.
Ya-ya!
” she shouts.
    They can hear her in Timbuktu, wherever that is. She’s going to get us killed.
    Across the street, Fred begins to yowl and howl.
    Bradley turns and starts toward our tree.
    But someone else is yelling; it’s Linny, screeching again. “I’m coming after you!”
    Bradley stands frozen for about a quarter of a second; then he throws the hair over his shoulder into the pond and lumbers out of there.
    Zack gives me a high five. “Good old Linny after us again,” he says.
    â€œBradley’s nothing but a sniveling coward.” Yulefski grins. “I read that in a book.”
    I close my eyes for a second. Who can bear to look at those teeth of hers? That snarly hair?
    She slides off the edge of the platform and wraps her legs around the tree trunk. “I have to get my books. Wait until Sister Appolonia hears I’ve read forty-two this summer.”
    It hits me hard.
    No wonder I had that nightmare. We were supposed to read three books this summer, then write essays on how they changed our lives.
    Zack realizes it, too. He looks as if he’s going into a coma.
    Linny yells again. “I’m not fooling. Nana’s here, and lunch is ready.”
    Hand under hand, we climb down the tree and jump the last hundred feet or so. The shock of it goes from my toes straight up to my head.
    Yulefski’s waiting for us, rubbing the mud off the book covers. “Mrs. Wu at the library will have a fit if they aren’t in good condition,” she says.
    â€œSee you when school starts,” I tell her. “Or maybe around Christmas.”
    Nana’s car is in the driveway, a tomato-red Caddy, probably as old as she is.
    Linny’s still yelling. And is that her friend Becca chiming in? Becca who’s one big black-and-blue mark from working out at Gussie’s Gym?
    Halfway down the street, Yulefski adds to the screeching. “I just remembered the third thing about the you-know-who.”
    We stop dead.
    â€œHunter? Zack?” Linny screams.
    Another clue. Terrific. “See you right after lunch,” I tell her.
    She blows breath through her braces. “Dr. Diglio, the dentist, is seeing me after lunch. I’ll catch up with you.”
    â€œCan’t you just tell us now?” I ask.
    But Yulefski’s into suspense. “See you later.” She skips up the street.
    We head for home. Zack is still chewing over the book situation. “How are we going to read three books in a couple of days?” he moans as we gallop along. He takes a massive jump from the edge of the lawn to the coyote gravestone, and then to the front path.
    He snaps his fingers. “Suppose we make the whole thing up?”
    â€œNo good. Sister Appolonia has probably read every book in the world. What else does she have to do?”
    Nana’s in the kitchen. She gives us a hundred hugs. Even with a face that’s a little cracked, she’s not bad-looking, andshe gives out the best birthday presents in the world. Too bad she’s hoping the baby will be named after her. Maizie. I can’t think of anything worse. “It’s a boy,” I say, to let her down easy. “K.G.”
    She tilts her head.
    â€œKenneth Gerard.”
    She smiles, then mixes us up as usual. “Your teeth are really straightening up nicely, Zack.”
    They’re my teeth, and Dr. Diglio says I’ll be lucky if I don’t lose them by the time I’m twenty.
    Who’ll care at that point?
    We slide into chairs around the table. Becca sits across from me, going on about gymnastics and Olympics and how she’s going to sacrifice everything to win a medal.
    She frowns. “I just need to get six bucks to pay Gussie’s Gym for the next couple of weeks.”
    Linny picks the weirdest friends.
    One time, Zack and I sneaked up to Gussie’s window to watch. Diglio the dentist was doing