Pig City Read Online Free Page B

kiss Gabriel. I have no choice.
    Gabriel’s a meatball! She divided 9 by 4
½
, and wrote 2 for her answer.
    Except even if I kiss him, how do I know he still won’t tell everybody about Pig City? He might telleverybody I kissed him, too.
    Question 3.
3x
+
15
=
39. What is the value for x
?
    What if I tell him I’ll kiss him only if he’ll give insurance? She laughed.
    â€œDo you find the test amusing, Laura?” asked Mr. Doyle.
    She looked up. She knew Mr. Doyle thought she had laughed at one of his questions. Even though Mr. Doyle wrote humorous word problems, you weren’t supposed to laugh at them. It was sort of a game between him and the class.
    But she hadn’t laughed at one of his questions. She had laughed at the thought of making Gabriel give her a pair of his underpants.
    â€œI was just thinking,” she said.
    â€œThat’s good, Laura,” said Mr. Doyle. “You should think when you are taking a test. It sometimes helps.”
    She returned to the test. She subtracted 15 from 39 and multiplied by 3. x = 72.
    She had never kissed a boy before. She thought it was something she probably should do before next year. She didn’t want to go to junior high inexperienced.
    The thought of kissing Gabriel excited her a little bit. It also made her a little sick to her stomach.

9
Laura’s Reply
    Tiffany, Allison, and Laura planned Debbie’s insurance during lunch. Laura tried to look happy despite the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
    â€œOkay, how’s this?” asked Tiffany. “We’ll tell her she has to call a boy up on the phone. Then we can tape the phone conversation on Laura’s tape recorder.”
    â€œThat’s good,” said Allison. “And if Debbie tells anybody about Pig City, we’ll play the tape for the whole class to hear. She’ll have to tell the boy she loves him.”
    â€œPassionately,” Tiffany said with great emotion. “She’ll have to say she loves him
passionately
.”
    Allison laughed at the way Tiffany said that word.
    â€œShe’ll have to disguise her voice,” said Laura, trying to get in on the fun. “So the boy won’t know who she is.”
    Tiffany and Allison continued to plan what Debbie would have to say to the boy, but Laura’s mind was elsewhere. When she returned to class, she tore apiece of paper out of her notebook. Using her broken pencil, she wrote:
    Hey Gabriel
,
    I think you’re uglier than a two-headed frog
.
I’ll kiss you but only to save Pig City, not because I like you
.
    Yours truly
,
    Laura
    P.S. I’d rather kiss a rattlesnake!
    She gave up on the idea of asking him for insurance. He might make her give him insurance, instead. She’d just have to trust him. She frowned.
    She folded the note in half, then in half again, then one more time. On the outside she wrote:
    For Gabriel. Anybody else who reads this is a worm-nosed snail-eater
.
    She passed it to the girl who sat next to her, who passed it to the boy next to her, who threw it at Gabriel.
    It bounced off the side of his head and landed on the floor.
    Gabriel grabbed for it.
    â€œGabriel!” said Mr. Doyle. “Bring that here.”
    â€œWhat?” asked Gabriel as he tried to hide it under his chair.
    â€œYou know what,” said Mr. Doyle. “Bring the note here and write your name on the blackboard under ‘Dictionary.’”
    Gabriel picked up the note and slowly walked down the aisle to the front of the room. He read the outside, but didn’t dare open it in front of the class.
    Laura was slowly dying. Mr. Doyle usually read all notes out loud to the class. Don’t read it, she prayed. Just throw it away.
Please
.
    Mr. Doyle held out his hand. Gabriel dropped the note into it.
    â€œWho’s it from?”
    Gabriel shrugged.
    Mr. Doyle read the outside of the note, first to himself, then out loud. “‘For Gabriel. Anybody