"Oh. Yes," I said. "It does."

We ordered our food, then took our trays to the table where Nikki and Raspberry were sitting. I saw the way some of the students from my class were looking at us. They were probably wondering how I'd come to be sitting with older girls. I was sure that now they would all firmly believe I had been left back and these girls I was with were not all that much older than me.

Chad was two tables down right, glaring angrily our way and mumbling something to his friends. Alanis pretended she didn't see him.

"Okav, listen up. We just stick to our story." Alanis advised us all at the table. "It will be Stuart's word against ours.

Remember. He came drunk and we got rid of him. Anyone see you two in his truck afterward?'" she asked Nikki and Raspberry.

"No, there was no one around when he dropped us off,"

Raspberry said. "Good."

"What about the bottles in the basement?" Nikki asked. "There's all those empty ones and some more full ones."

"Yeah. Right after school, I'll take care of it." Alanis said.

"Crashed into a tree and broke his arm in two places," Raspberry said, shaking her head. "And arrested for drunken driving. That sounds very serious,"

"Didn't you two see how drunk he was when he let you off at the corner?" Alanis asked her.

"Sure we did, but what could we do about it?" Raspberry asked. "I feel sorry for him. His father probably will break his other arm.'

"Forget about him. He was a creep for getting to let us in trouble,' Alanis told her. You don't tell on your friends," she added, glancing at me. "Never."

"Maybe he just doesn't know how to lie," I said. "I'm not too good at it," I added, and they all stopped eating and looked at me as if I had said the weirdest thing.

"Everyone knows how to lie. Jordan. He just didn't care about us. He tried to push off his own blame on us," Alanis said.

"Raspberry's right. He's probably afraid of his father," Nikki said. "I've seen him. He's a really big man."

"Doesn't matter. I'm not afraid of his father." Alanis told her and then turned to me. "Look. Jordan. Here's how you do it. First, you tell yourself you're not lying. You force yourself to believe what you're saying and then when you say it, everyone else will believe you if you do it that way, understand?"

"I suppose," I said.

"We're just lucky she didn't say too much in Dart-face's office," Nikki said.

"What'd ya mean? She did better than you did." Alanis told her. "You were nearly in tears and getting ready to throw yourself on the floor and beg for mercy until I came up with the story."

"Shut up. I was not."

"Just make sure you're the one who shuts up," Alanis said. "For your information. Jordan could get into the most trouble. It was her great-aunt's house. They might send her away to some institution like they sent her brother.'

"What about her brother? You never told us what he did exactly." Raspberry said.

We heard the warning bell.

"She'll tell you some other time. Everyone just watch out. Dart-face could call us in one at a time and try to get one of us to say something different, Remember. Stick to the story or else," Alanis warned, standing. "C'mon. Jordan, Get your booty back to class and stay out of Mrs. Morgan's way, In her case her bite is worse than her bark."

"What's that mean?"

"It means watch out what you say to her. stupid," Nikki said.

"I'm not stupid," I said.

"Yeah. Don't call her stupid. She may look older than you, but she's not," Alanis told her. "Although sometimes I wonder," she added in a mutter.

Nikki's eyes flared. She pressed her lips together, then started away.

Tags: V.C. Andrews Early Spring Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net