Zero Tolerance Read Online Free Page A

pretty fast. And she made me stop. Okay, I can see making me stop. But then she said, ‘Now go back to the library, and let me see you walk down the hall like a young lady.’ It was so demeaning. Like I was two. And the bell rang, and she still kept watching me to see if I was walking slowly enough to please her, and I was late for pre-algebra.”
    â€œShe called me ‘missy,’” Sierra confessed.
    â€œI hate her,” Lexi said.
    â€œI hate her, too.”
    Sierra didn’t feel like calling Celeste. Celeste’s silence at the lunch table had felt so superior, even smug. But if Sierra didn’t get back to Celeste, Celeste would just keep texting.
    â€œYou weren’t in French,” Celeste said as soon as she answered her phone. “And I heard you weren’t in art or science either.”
    â€œWell, you know Ms. Lin.” Sierra tried to put the best face on it. “She’s such a stickler for rules. She just has this huge thing about them, so I had to sit there forever to wait for Mr. Besser, and then I couldn’t really talk to him anyway.”
    â€œAre they going to let you go to school tomorrow?”
    The question punched Sierra like a fist in the stomach. What if she didn’t get to go to class tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that? What if she really did get expelled and never returned to any of her classes ever again?
    She couldn’t let herself think that way.
    â€œOf course!”
    â€œThen why wouldn’t they let you go to class this afternoon?”
    â€œBecause Ms. Lin’s crazy.” Sierra still couldn’t bring herself to use Lexi’s word. “And Mr. Besser was busy in a meeting with this other principal who was doing a tour of our school to get ideas for his school.”
    â€œSierra,” Celeste said as if she were a grownup trying to get a child’s attention. “Don’t you get it? If anyone brings a knife to school, for whatever reason , they get expelled. You could get expelled for this.”
    Sierra’s chest tightened. What if Em was wrong and Celeste was right?
    â€œLook,” Sierra snapped. “They’re not going to expel someone for a total and complete mistake! Anyway, I’ve got to go. I have a ton of homework.”
    â€œOkay,” Celeste said mildly. But then she asked, “So you’ll be at choir?”
    Sierra wasn’t going to be at choir tomorrow morning. During the before-school choir practice, she was going to be in a conference with Mr. Besser and her parents. But she couldn’t bear to say that to Celeste.
    â€œSure,” Sierra said with false bravado. “See you then.”
    Maybe she’d be done with the meeting in time to get to choir after all.
    Or maybe she’d never be allowed to go to a choir practice ever again.
    She pulled Cornflake close to her after she hung up the phone, wanting the comfort of the cat’s warm, plump body cuddled against her, but Cornflake struggled out of Sierra’s embrace and stalked away.

 
    6
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    Sierra had thought her dad might come home early—she knew her mother had called him at the office—but he stayed at work even later than usual, so Sierra and her mother had dinner alone. She heard his car pulling into the garage at half past eight and hurried downstairs to see him.
    Before he even took off his coat he said, “Sorry I’m late. We’re just two days away from trial on the Wilson case. I had to take care of some things tonight in order to clear my calendar for tomorrow morning so that I can go into school with you and your mother and see what the hell is going on there.”
    â€œI saved you some taco casserole,” Sierra’s mother told him.
    He waved her away. “We had dinner delivered at the office. Sierra, honey, you tell me everything that happened. Okay? Every single thing.”
    Sierra’s mom hung his coat for him in the hall closet