Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes. P. H. C. Marchesi

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ New York, then,” said Lendox, taking her hand in his once more. “It is time to meet Shelby and Shauna Kitt.”

      The Twins

      Earlier that day, the world still seemed exactly the same to Shauna as she ran through one of the empty corridors of the Lamont Middle School building.

      “Give it back!” she yelled, with as much determination as she could muster.

      Tommy Clark, the biggest thirteen year-old bully in school, stopped and waved her notebook above his thick, red hair. Next to him stood Jesse Olsen, Tommy’s inseparable thug. Jesse was a sweaty, chubby boy who – whether on purpose or not – could not help spitting whenever he said anything. Shauna glared at both of them, and took a tentative step forward.

      “What are you gonna do?” Tommy asked, grinning. “Call your brother?”

      “I can take care of myself,” she said, trying to sound confident even as her eyes scanned the corridor for any sign of Shelby, who had gone back to the classroom for a book he had forgotten.

      “Yeah, where’s your freaky brother now?” gurgled Jesse, enjoying his moment in the spotlight.

      “He’s not a freak,” snapped Shauna, stamping so hard on Jesse’s foot that he spat in surprise. She tried to dash past Tommy, but he grabbed her roughly by the shoulder.

      “Anyone who hangs out with his sister is a freak,” he yelled, angrily shaking her. “You’re both freaks! You think you can come to my school, and not pay me my protection fee?”

      Shauna could have said that neither she nor Shelby had any money, but she knew it would not make any difference. What Tommy really wanted was to bully anyone he could – the money was just an excuse.

      On that thought, Shauna decided she needed a more radical approach.

      “Here’s your fee!” she cried, biting his hand as hard as she could.

      Tommy cursed, losing the grip on her shoulder. Shauna was free – or at least she thought she was, but Tommy grabbed her hair with his other hand, and yanked her back. Now she really was in trouble.

      “Leave her alone!” shouted a voice from the end of the corridor. It was Shelby, who had just turned the corner, and was marching in their direction, his eyes bright with indignation.

      “What are you looking for, freak?” yelled Tommy, still hanging on to the scrambling Shauna. “This other freak here?”

      Shelby’s cheeks flushed with anger, and he ran straight at Tommy, who never even had time to step aside before finding himself on the floor with a bloody nose.

      “I warned you,” Shelby said, staring so intensely at him that Tommy, for the first time in that school, actually felt afraid.

      “Get him, Jesse!” he whined, holding his bleeding nose.

      Before Jesse could count to three – if he could count to three, that is – Shauna stamped on his sore foot again.

      “Who’s the freak now?” she cried, as Jesse hopped around on one foot.

      “Awesome, Shauna!” cried Shelby, giving his sister a high-five. No one messed with the Kitts. If you messed with one, you had to deal with both. Hopefully, Tommy and Jesse would remember that.

      As Shauna scooped up her notebook from the floor, a shrill voice echoed through the corridor – it was Ms. Mould, the headmistress, who had just turned the corner and seen them.

      “What is going on here?” she trilled harshly, the heels of her shoes echoing unpleasantly as she flustered forward.

      “He broke my nose!” Tommy screamed.

      “They started it!” Shelby shouted, defensively.

      Tommy’s statement seemed to make a bigger impression on Ms. Mould, who had disliked the twins ever since their transfer from a school in Chicago a few months earlier. When the mother came in with them on the first day, Ms. Mould stared at Fran’s flowing hair and dark eyes, thinking that no regular mother should look that good. Every time she saw either twin, Ms. Mould still felt a pang of envy: the boy had Fran Kitt’s dark, unruly hair, and the girl had inherited those impossibly bright, black eyes.

      Something else had bothered Ms. Mould on that first interview: the three of them struck her as far too happy for people in their horrible financial situation. Why were they not miserable, as was to be expected? Ms. Mould often replayed their first encounter in her head: she did not know why they had bothered to come in for a meeting, since she had already determined that there were no vacancies in her school. Their mother, however, had insisted on coming in and introducing herself and her children. As they sat there, in front of her, Ms. Mould suddenly felt unreasonably generous, and decided to let them enroll. What could have possessed her to do that?

      They were fairly regular kids, she supposed, except for the fact that they were inseparable. Ms. Mould did not approve of that: siblings who hung out together were much harder to control, and nearly impossible to discipline. Only the previous week, the two of them had resolutely refused to dissect a frog in biology class. Who ever heard of that? When she had called them into her office and demanded an explanation, Shauna had mumbled something about the frog calling for help. Ms. Mould immediately sent Shauna to the school counselor, but the visit did not yield the desired results. When the counselor informed Shauna that frogs didn’t speak, Shauna shyly told him that it was only because people didn’t know how to listen. She passed a battery of psychological tests with flying colors, and the counselor finally had to tell Ms. Mould that Shauna was more emotionally balanced than just about any other kid who had ever entered his office. So Ms. Mould, much to her irritation, had to leave it at that.

      Clearly, their mother wasn’t bringing them up properly. During the lunch hour, the history teacher had shown the headmistress Shelby’s most recent history test: to Ms. Mould’s shock, all she could see were drawings of strange creatures. After class, Shelby had apparently told the history teacher that he had forgotten all about the test as he was drawing. As for the girl, she didn’t say much, except to her brother. Surprisingly, though, all the teachers liked Shauna Kitt, though they couldn’t figure out why. Maybe it was something about her smile. Every time she saw Shauna smile – and this happened often, since the girl nearly always had a shy smile on her face – Ms. Mould felt pangs of guilt for having told the counselor that the girl was just “plain weird.” Where did such guilt come from? She didn’t know, and she didn’t like it.

      As far as Ms. Mould was concerned, then, the Kitt twins were too inconvenient to have around. This was the perfect opportunity to get rid of them.

      “I have had it with you two!” she cried, doubling her pace.

      Shelby and Shauna looked at each other. Should they stay, and try to talk to Ms. Mould? Definitely not. In silent agreement, they turned around and ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Within moments they were downstairs, out the door, around the corner, and free from Ms. Mould’s piercing “You won’t get away with it this time!”

      “Mom’s gonna freak out when she finds out,” gasped Shauna, once they had finally slowed down.

      “I guess we can tell her tomorrow. Tonight’s opening night, and we shouldn’t spoil it.”

      They СКАЧАТЬ