The Rule of Won Read Online Free Page B

should make being alone with me again your Crave!”
    Yeah, right. Like I was going to post on a message board about how my girlfriend didn’t want to go out with me. What wonders
that
would do for my self-esteem. And hell, after listening to Ethan, I was wondering if I
had
made the freaking gym fall down. Maybe because I was secretly feeling guilty about being a slacker. Right.
    But, disbelief aside, I gotta confess, I kind of liked the basicidea. As a slacker, the notion that my life could change without me actually doing anything other than thinking about it
sounded
good.
    At the bus stop I finally saw good old All-den Moore. He was bogged down with all these books and loose papers. I hadn’t spotted him earlier because he’d changed. He used to be a heavyset kid who wore pants that were too short. Now he’d lost some weight and either shrunk or gotten clothes that fit. Still seemed the nervous sort, though—the kind who’d twitch if you raised your hand too fast, like you might hit him.
    He was busy trying to shove some of those papers into the old khaki army backpack he used for books. The thing was so full, you could see the thread unraveling at the seams. The more stuff he shoved in, the more slipped out, but he wouldn’t give up. With both hands busy, he tried to catch the falling papers under his foot. It was like this weird, awkward dance.
    I scooped some of the papers off the ground and held them out to him.
    As soon as he recognized me, he was like a squirrel, looking all around and wincing.
    â€œCaleb Dunne. You want to kill me,” he said.
    He snatched the papers from me and hopped about a yard or so away before trying to stuff them into his pack.
    â€œAll-den, it’s okay, really. I don’t want you to die. Not prematurely anyway.”
    â€œJust suffer, right?”
    Once he realized I wasn’t coming any closer, I got him to stay still long enough to say what I had to.
    â€œNo, I just want you to know, you did what you thought was right and I don’t blame you. I’m not the bullying sort. Too much effort. You don’t have to be afraid.”
    He looked around again, then at me. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m only sorry they didn’t throw you in juvie,” he half muttered under his breath.
    â€œBut I didn’t do anything!”
    â€œThen why’d you run?”
    â€œUnbelievable. Because I thought if someone saw me there, they might think I
had
done something. And I was right, wasn’t I?”
    He grunted. He still didn’t believe me. I guess no one did. Maybe Vicky didn’t either.
    His bus pulled up. He backed up to the doors, keeping his eyes on me like I was going to steal his precious papers. Then he squinted at the button Vicky gave me and did a double take.
    â€œ
The Rule of Won
?”
    â€œYeah. What of it?”
    He shrugged. “It’s only the most incredibly inane book on the entire planet.”
    I wanted to say I was just wearing the damn thing for Vicky, but that’d sound pretty lame, too, eh?
    â€œNo, wait, I don’t . . . I’m just . . .”
    As I babbled, he got on the bus.
    If that little encounter didn’t make me feel all warm and cozy, as the bus pulled out, it farted a big black cloud of exhaust right in my face.
    I guess Ethan would say that I’d asked for it.

3
    â€¢ Ten million dollars would be terrific. I’ll do the rest. Thanks. All best. —Dylan
    â€¢ What I really want most of all right now is to earn the trust of our student body by being elected its president. I just know I could do the best job of anyone running, and I want to devote all my spare time to making our school a better place. So please vote for me! —Vicky
    â€¢ I want the proportional strength of a spider. If granted this boon, I swear I will always remember that with great strength comes great responsibility. —Jacob
    â€¢ The picture is simple and stark: