Super Emma Read Online Free Page A

can’t see them. I straighten them for a second to undo my seat belt, and then I grab my backpack.
    “I’ll be home all day,” Mom continues. “You call me if—if anything happens.”
    She means if Jared gives me a bloody nose orsomething. “Nothing is going to happen,” I lie.
    I
know
that I am telling a lie, because Jared is going to get even for sure. And for no reason, really, except that he is a boy who likes things to get all stirred up. But there’s nothing I can do about that. That’s just his nature.
    Mom is still looking worried. She puts her hand on my sweater, as if her magic touch will keep me from leaving the safety of our red VW. “It’s just that Jared is so big, Emma—and you’re so tiny. He might hurt you by accident.”
    I shake away her hand. “You make me sound like an elf or something,” I grumble. “I’m not
that
small.”
    Mom gives me a nervous smile, the kind that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Of course you aren’t an elf, darling. But a big boy like Jared shouldn’t go around hitting a little girl, that’s all. A boy shouldn’t hit
any
girl. Or even another boy, for that matter.”
    My mom can be very old-fashioned. As ifa girl wouldn’t get in trouble at Oak Glen for slugging a boy—or another girl! This is an equal-opportunity school when it comes to getting in trouble.
    “Oh, dear,” my mom says, “I think I should go into the school office and talk to someone. I can’t just do
nothing
, Em. I’m going to park this stupid car.”
    “Well, you can’t park the car, not here in the loading zone,” I tell her. My heart is thunka-thunking underneath my sweater, because I just want her to go home. “You’ll get a ticket, and tickets are expensive,” I remind her.
    “Oh, you’re right,” she mutters. She peers all around, looking for a regular parking place—which is impossible to find on a Thursday morning when school is just about to start.
    “There’s Annie Pat waiting for me,” I say real fast, before Mom can come up with another terrible plan. “I’ll-be-okay-I-love-you-
bye
,” I say, and I jump out of the car.
    “Bye,”
I can see my mom’s mouth say through the closed window as she gives me a weak little wave.
    I try to walk bouncy toward Annie Pat, exactly like a girl who does not know that today is going to be the worst day of her life. Because I’m pretty sure that Mom is still watching me.
    But then I hear our car give its little cough and then start up again. She is pulling away from the curb, I think, picturing it.
    And I am on my own.

    “You should have stayed home,” Annie Pat advises me in a tight, worried voice. “You should have changed schools, or moved.” We are about to take our seats for roll. Over by the window, Cynthia and Fiona and Heather are taking peeks at me and whispering together. They look worried, as if it is lunchtime already and Jared has just given me two black eyes.
    Cynthia is wearing a brand-new pink top, as if this is a special occasion.
    Thanks a lot, Cynthia!
    “Why should I have stayed home?” I say to Annie Pat, feeling grouchy all of a sudden. “I thought you said I was so brave.”
    “Well, you
were
brave, yesterday,” Annie Pat says. “But,” she adds, “I don’t think a person ever really knows how brave they’re going to be the next time something bad happens. Every single time, it’s new. Like when I went to the doctor last week, I had to get a shot, and—and even thougheveryone was telling me how brave I always am,” she says, shivering a little, “all of a sudden, I wasn’t brave at all. I just started crying.”
    Annie Pat can be very scientific about things. And she is so exactly and perfectly right about this one thing that I lose my breath for a second, just as if Jared has already punched me in the stomach.
    Because I don’t know
how
I’m going to act when Jared tries to make me sorry.
    Maybe I’ll whine and beg him not to pound me.
    Or maybe I’ll try to run away from him,