The Landry News Read Online Free

late Friday afternoon, she left the first edition of The Landry News on the kitchen table and went to her bedroom. She wanted to find the stack of newspapers she had made during fourth grade. When she came back with the small pile of earlier editions, her mother was standing at the table, reading the editorial about Mr. Larson.
    Looking up, her mother said, “Let me guess: The teacher tore this up after he read it, right?”
    Cara nodded.
    â€œCara, honey, you have done it this time.” Her mother scanned the patchwork newspaper and heaved a long, tired sigh. “Well, at least this is the only copy and Mr. Larson didn’t run it down the hall to the principal—like some other teachers have done.”
    Mrs. Landry dropped heavily onto one of the chairs beside the table. She looked at her daughter standingthere. “Now tell me, Cara: Are you angry at me? Is that why you do this? Because if you are trying to hurt me, I just want to tell you that it’s working. It’s working just great.”
    Tears welled up in her mother’s eyes, and Cara looked at her, unblinking. “No, Mother, I am not trying to hurt you. And you shouldn’t be upset. This is just a newspaper. These are just facts, Mother.”
    â€œFacts? Just look right here, young lady.” Joanna Landry stabbed a red fingernail at the editorial. “This is not just facts. You have unloosed your acid little tongue on this man and said mean and hurtful things here.”
    Cara flinched at the accusation, but she jumped to defend herself. “It’s an editorial, Mother, so it’s allowed to have opinions in it. And all the opinions are based on facts. I didn’t make any of that up. I never have made anything up. I just report the facts. You are the one who taught me to always tell the truth, remember? Well, I’m just telling the truth here.”
    Mrs. Landry was outgunned, and she knew it. It had been years since she had won an argument with Cara, and she wasn’t going to win this one. But having to admit that her daughter was only telling the truth did not make things any easier. Here they were only one month into a new school year in a new town, and Cara was already stirring the pot, stewing up trouble. Joanna Landry could feel her hair getting grayer by the minute.
    She took a deep breath. “You may call it just telling the truth, but ever since your father left, you have gone out of your way to tell the truth in the most hateful way you know how. And it just makes me sad, Cara. It’s not fair to me, and it’s bad for you, and it just makes me sad.” And with that, Mrs. Landry stood up and went to her room and closed the door.
    Cara’s thin shoulders hunched together as she sat on the dinette chair, looking at the paper, waiting for the sobs to begin in her mother’s bedroom. She’s wrong, thought Cara. This time, she’s wrong.
    But last year, it was like her mother said. Cara had been hateful—to everyone. When her dad left, Cara was sure it was because of her. Her mom and dad had always argued about money and about saving for Cara’s college and about buying Cara better clothes, about taking Cara on a nice vacation. When her father left and filed for divorce, she thought it was because he didn’t want to feel responsible for a family—for her.
    It was just bad timing that turned Cara into an outlaw journalist. The week her father moved out, Cara’s fourth-grade teacher had begun a unit on newspapers, and Cara seized hold of the idea with murder in her heart. She became a ferocious reporter—aloof, remote, detached. She turned a cold, hard eye on her classmates and teachers, saw their weaknesses and silliness, and used her strong language skills to lash out. She stuckclose to the truth, but the truth wasn’t always pretty.
    When she learned that a rather large teacher kept a desk drawer filled with candy bars and fatty treats, Cara wrote