If Only Read Online Free Page B

to Hugh, who was squatting against a locker, looking dazed.
    Hugh took the glasses and jammed them on his face. Then he looked up at Danny and said, “Piss off.”
    Danny stepped back and raised his hands. “Hey! Don’t take it out on me.”
    They glared at each other for a moment, and then Hugh started to gather up his scattered papers. Danny crouched down to help him. They walked out of the school together and discovered that they lived in the same direction. They walked for about six blocks, talking a little bit about teachers and classes, and then separated.
    Hugh glommed onto Danny after that, and most of the time Danny doesn’t mind. He waits for him now. “What are you doing walking this way?” Hugh demands.
    Danny shrugs. “I feel like it. It’s a free world, isn’t it?” He starts walking again, fast.
    â€œJust wondered,” Hugh says. “Where’s Pam?”
    â€œSick.”
    â€œOh,” Hugh says.
    Then he sighs and starts jabbering about his grandma coming to visit. She comes every few months from Toronto, and Hugh hates it.
    He is moaning now. “I have to give her my bedroom and sleep in Martin’s room in the basement.”
    Martin is Hugh’s brother. He’s way older than Hugh and is away at a university in a place called Berkeley, all the way down in California. He is so smart, he won a full scholarship. Danny met him at Christmastime. He isn’t at all like Hugh—he’s tall and thin and serious, and he doesn’t talk nearly as much. He’s studying to be some kind of scientist.
    â€œYou always have to give your grandma your room,” Danny says. “You should be used to it by now.”
    â€œBut I can still hate it, can’t I? I don’t want to sleep in the basement.”
    â€œWon’t Martin need his room?” Danny says. “I thought university ended soon.”
    â€œHe’s not coming home this year. Well, just for a few days. That’s another bummer. As soon as he’s finished his exams, he’s got a job up north collecting lichen specimens or something weird like that.”
    Hugh’s voice drones on. “We’ll have to have what Grandma calls real conversation at the dinner table. Stuff from the news. She thinks I should read the newspaper.” He sighs again and says, “She’s coming for my birthday. ”
    Hugh’s birthday isn’t for another month, and Danny wonders if he’ll have to listen to weeks of this. Hugh’s problems are nothing compared to his. Danny almost tells him that. But he keeps his mouth shut and walks even faster.
    When they get to school, Danny mumbles something to Hugh about going to the washroom. “Meet me at the lockers,” Hugh says quickly, and Danny nods. Hugh has a history of trouble at the lockers. A bunch of grade-twelve boys still pick on him. Danny doesn’t know why. Maybe because Hugh is so short and wears glasses. Maybe because they just feel mean.
    Danny would hate it if they did that to him, but it seems to mostly roll off Hugh. He never talks about it. One time a kid spilled tomato soup all over his Social Studies essay, and Hugh just laughed and pretended he thought it was an accident, even though everyone knew it wasn’t. But he’s nervous at the lockers, and he’s happier when Danny is there too.
    Danny knows that, but this morning he stays in the washroom, sitting in one of the cubicles, until the bell rings. He feels guilty about abandoning Hugh, and he doesn’t meet his eyes when he sits down at his desk in their first class, social studies. Hugh sits beside him, and Danny can feel him staring at him while he pretends to look for something in his binder.
    Their teacher, Mr. Leary, comes in, carrying a mug of coffee. Mr. Leary is tall and balding, and he wears little round glasses like Hugh’s. He is American, and no one can figure out what he is doing living in