Sticks & Stones Read Online Free

When I looked up, I saw a whole bunch of kids I didn’t recognize. They looked like they were about my age, but they must have been from a different elementary school.
    And after all the commotion of Liam leaving and me crying and itching and freaking out, they were staring at me like I was nuts.
    I gulped and wrapped myself in a hug, like I was a little animal trying to protect myself from predators. Kids from my school knew they weren’t allowed to call me bad names, but kids from other schools didn’t know me and didn’t know the rules. Whenever I’d see people I didn’t know out at the mall, the library, the pool, wherever, I’d have someone with me. A friend. Mom. Dad. Someone. And they’d give the strangers scary looks, and they’d cover my ears if it looked like someone was going to say something bad.
    But this time I was alone.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with your arms and legs?” some kid with spiky hair and glasses asked. I was already crying a little bit, but that was enough to push me over the edge. My arms flailed away from my body as I cried and cried and cried.
    â€œWhat’d you do to that freak, Felix?” A girl came up to the boy.
    FREAK formed on my kneecap right before their eyes.
    â€œHoly meatballs!” yelled Felix. “What are you, some kind of a witch?”
    â€œWitch!” the girl repeated, laughing.
    WITCH was itchy. So, so itchy. I was an itchy, itchy witchy.
    The rest of their friends approached. Before they could say anything, I scrambled away as quickly as I could.
    As I ran home that day, tears streaming down my cheeks and words itching the bejeebers out of my body, I realized: maybe Mom, Dad, Jeg, and Liam were the only people who thought CAV was cool. And now Liam didn’t think it was cool, and Jeg wasn’t around as much, so maybe she didn’t, and Mom and Dad … Well, parents had to tell you that you were cool, even if you weren’t. Everybody knew that.
    If this was a sign of what people really thought when they weren’t being threatened by my parents or friends or teachers, then, well, maybe CAV wasn’t the cool kind of weird after all. Maybe it was the weird kind of weird, plain and simple.
    So I decided, right then and there on that sticky almost-summer day, that I could never wear shorts or T-shirts ever again. And, throughout the summer, I had stuck to my promise. Even if I was hot all the time.
    Hot was better than itchy.

 
    7
    IT’S ON
    â€œElyse, we gotta go!”
    I took one last look at the gum and decided I’d throw it out later. Then I hurried downstairs and joined Mom and Dad in the car.
    â€œThis class trip is going to be so great for you, sweetie,” Mom said as she put on her seat belt. “I know it’s months away, but I made some lists. Things you have, things you need, things you don’t have that you might need, types of anti-itch cream that are best for cold weather…”
    I groaned. Prescription anti-itch cream was the only thing that made my bad CAV words feel better, but the stuff was seriously nasty. Not only was it thick and gooey, but it also smelled like milk somebody should’ve thrown away weeks ago.
    Mom passed a notebook back to me, and I held it up in front of the window and pretended to read her lists. Really, though, I just wanted to look out the window.
    â€œDon’t worry about all this stuff, Elyse,” Dad said. “You’ll be fine. It’ll be good. Everything’s good.”
    Mom rubbed his shoulder for a second, and then turned back to look at me. “Of course everything is good. Well, that’s what we’re aiming for. But we have to be prepared. Sometimes things don’t go how we want them to. I have lotion for tonight in my purse, just in case things get itchy in there. Okay?”
    I stared back out the window, pretending I hadn’t heard her. Maybe if I didn’t think about the possibility