Revenge of the Snob Squad Read Online Free

fist.
    “I didn’t do it,” she whimpered.
    “None of us did anything.” Ashley regained her composure. “She just fell. Lydia’s a klutz.” The Neon Nikes all nodded in unison.
    Beside me, Max growled. I held her back. Tried to.
    “All right, break it up.” Dauntless Dietz rushed in at the last moment. “You, go to the office and get cleaned up. The rest
     of you girls take your starting positions.” He raised his whistle to his withered lips.
    “But Mr. Dietz,” Lydia wailed, “Ashley tripped me! Aren’t you going to do anything about it?”
    He looked from Lydia to Ashley and gulped. “Shake hands and make up.”
    “For what?” Ashley said. “I didn’t do anything. She’s a whiner. Ask anyone.”
    I hoped he wouldn’t. “Come on, Lydia.” I took her arm. “He isn’t going to do anything. He can’t. He has to keep working so
     he can get Social Security.” I glared at him, daring him to deny it.
    He didn’t.
    Max, Prairie, and I trailed the sniffling, hobbling Lydia to the nurse. Someone behind us said under her breath, “Quack.”
     I recognized that voice. I won’t name names. Max stiffened. She didn’t turn around. She just balled both fists at her sides
     and seethed, “You know what this means.”
    I took a stab. “Their goose is cooked?”
    Between clenched teeth, Max snarled one word: “War.”

Chapter 5
    L ined up along the length of the army cot in the school clinic, we watched while Lydia got her temperature taken. It’s a state
     law or something that even if you go to the nurse bleeding to death from a pencil up the nose, you have to have your temperature
     taken. After sticking the thermometer down Lydia’s throat, the nurse disappeared. We heard her giggling at some crack Principal
     Krupps made out in the hall.
    Max muttered, “Solano said it first. We need a strategy.”
    “I said that? When did I say that?”
    “We need to set up a command post. Some place underground. A secret headquarters.”
    Max, I thought, you’ve been watching too many Schwarzenneger movies.
    “What about Ms. M-Milner’s room?” Prairie said. She sat crouched next to me, elbows on knees. “N-no one goes there.”
    Unless they have to.
    “Forget it.” Lydia pulled the plastic thermometer out of her mouth. “I’m not setting foot in the special ed room.” She blinked
     at Prairie. “No offense.” The thermometer slid back into her mouth.
    I wondered what the human temperature was at the moment of strangulation. From the look on Max’s face, she was wondering the
     same thing.
    “N-none taken,” Prairie said, sparing Lydia’s larynx.
    Prairie spent most mornings in Ms. Milner’s PC lab. I’m not sure what
PC
stood for—I didn’t think it was
Politically Correct
. Most everyone referred to it as the retard room.
    “We need a place away from school,” Max continued. “At someone’s house.” She looked at me.
    “Don’t look at me. I take the bus.” Which was another trauma I’d be dealing with well into adulthood.
    Max arched an eyebrow at Prairie. “I have s-six brothers,” Prairie said.
    We all groaned.
    Eyes focused on Lydia. She removed the thermometer again. “My mother doesn’t allow me to have friends over when she’s not
     home. Anyway, I go to day care after school.”
    Day care? I said what everyone else was thinking. “Day care?”
    If the blood rushing to her face was any indication, Lydia’s temperature shot up a hundred degrees.
    “We’ll meet at my house then,” Max said. “You know where the old burned-out firehouse is?”
    Everyone knew where the old burned-out fire-house was. Last year’s most talked about news event. And the name in the news
     was Max McFarland. She’d been expelled for a month because someone reported her smoking there.
    “I live right behind it,” Max said.
    “In the dump?” The thermometer fell out of Lydia’s mouth.
    Max glared. “It’s not a dump. It’s a junk car lot. My brother buys old cars and fixes them