Sara Read Online Free Page A

going to be late—”
    She cut me off. “I’ll write you a note.” Her face was set, and her glasses had slid down her nose. “I want you to tell me the truth, Tony Martin. What are you hearing from the other kids?”
    I didn’t answer her at first and she glowered at me. I licked my lips. “Nobody really says anything to me,” I mumbled.
    She let out a sigh. “Tony, I’m a teacher, not your enemy.” She sat down behind her desk and took her glasses off, rubbing her eyes as she went on. “I know you kids would all rather be goddamned water-boarded before coming to a teacher for help, but this is serious.” She stared at me. “You know what’s been going on all over the country, right? How all these gay kids are being bullied into killing themselves? I don’t want that to happen to Glenn.”
    I laughed before I could stop myself, earning another glare from her. “Mrs. Drury, Glenn can take care of himself, believe you me. I don’t think—”
    She cut me off. “It’s not going to happen here. I won’t let it.” She narrowed her eyes. “I want you to keep your eyes and ears open, okay? And if you see or hear anything, or Glenn says anything to you, that makes you think he might go that way, you are to come to me immediately. Is that clear?” She pointed her right index finger at me.
    I felt my cheeks getting red. “Yes,” I mumbled as the warning bell for the next period rang, and slipped out of the room, hurrying down the hall so I wouldn’t be late for fourth period. I was pretty pissed, frankly—at her and at Glenn. Why was I getting sucked into the middle of all this?
    Fourth period was weightlifting, and Glenn was already in the locker room when I got there. He was sitting on a bench tying his shoelaces, having already changed into a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. He was all alone—which was weird.
    There should have been at least one other guy in there changing. I knew a lot of guys on the football team had study hall that period—the only choices were chorus or study hall, and at least eight guys on the team didn’t take chorus. I stood there for a minute, watching him and feeling like a jerk.
    If I was sick of hearing about his locker and everything, I could only imagine how it would feel to have it happen to me. I don’t know how the kids in his classes were reacting to the lecture, or how it would feel to sit there and know the teacher was talking about you. I wasn’t in the college prep track, so this was the only “class” we had together.
    I knew he hadn’t taken any of the shop classes. Mr. Mumsford had made it clear in second period Wood Shop that he was only reciting what Mr. Lafferty had made him say, and once he had finished reading from the piece of paper, had gone on a harangue about homosexuality being a sin in the eyes of God. You could see the word homosexual left a bad taste in his mouth. This was Glenn he was talking about, my best friend, and I could feel myself getting angry. “The only reason the school board is making us do all this,” he went on with a sneer, “is because that kid in Topeka killed himself last year and the school board is getting sued over it, and they’re afraid this kid will do the same thing.”
    I glanced around the shop and could see some of the other kids nodding.
    He looked right at me when he said, “But according to the Bible, it’s a sin, an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. And who are we, who are any of us, including the members of the school board, to defy the word of God?”
    I somehow made it through the class without mouthing off to him, but it wasn’t easy.
    I’d always liked Mr. Mumsford and had enjoyed all of the shop classes I’d taken with him. His wife was the home ec teacher, and they had two kids in grade school over in Kahola, where they lived.
    After the