"Christopher Pike - Weekend" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

Shani left her place in the stands and hurried to the girls' showers. There she found Kerry slumped on the
bench that ran in front of the lockers, Angie standing nearby. The place was otherwise deserted. Kerry
was more confused than upset. She did not understand what the big deal was. Her dance pants had
ripped and she had flashed her underwear. So what? Shani agreed with her that there was nothing to
worry about. She was lying. She didn't tell Kerry that those flesh-coloured panties she'd been wearing
could be mistaken for bare flesh, at a distance. That theyhad been mistaken for Kerry's backside, by
more than one person.

As Kerry began to change into her street clothes, muttering about how she hoped the confusion would
get cleared up quickly, the three of them made an interesting discovery. Someone had replaced Kerry's
nylon dance pants with blue cottonpaper pants of the same size. No wonder they had ripped. Normally,
Kerry would have immediately spotted the switch. But she had been in a hurry before the pep rally, and
hadn't detected the difference in the fabrics.

When Kerry remembered how Lena had soaked her underwear, forcing her to be late, Shani
immediately put two and two together. The connection was obvious. Lena must have figured Kerry
would discard the wet panties. Lena must have also been thesomeone who had switched the dance
pants. She had undoubtedly been hoping that Kerry would be caught flashing her bottom. This fortunately
hadn't happened, but it easily could have. Lena later denied the accusations, but she did so with a sly
smile, and her deepest admiration for whoever had thought up the plan.

In the following days, Angie and Shani told anyone who would listen that Kerryhad been wearing
underwear beneath her dance pants. Few believed the truth; they apparently preferred not to. Kerry had
to endure ceaseless catcalls. She also lost Sol to Lena. Shani had been disgusted with him for deserting
Kerry in her hour of need, but he swore that the pep rally incident had absolutely nothing to do with their
break up. He explained that Lena had simply made him an offer that he couldn't refuse.



Shani checked on Kerry in the front seat before opening the annual to page fifty-eight. As a further
example of how unreal Kerry's "flash" had been, there had been at least a dozen people taking pictures at
that pep rally and not one of them had caught anything even remotely x-rated. Nevertheless, tucked in
one corner there was a small black and white picture that had captured all but the "highlight" of the
afternoon. It had been taken from the rear of the audience, and showed the crowd on its feet laughing
and pointing at an innocent smiling Kerry, whose life was about to come to an end. There was nothing for
the guys to gloat over, but it clearly brought back the day. Park had been on the yearbook staff. Shani
would have to speak to him about who had allowed the picture in the annual.
 Was it a coincidence, Shani often asked herself, that Robin's accident had happened less than a month
after Kerry's humiliation?

"Hey girls," Angie said. "Looks like we're no longer alone. Sol's van is just up ahead."

Shani tossed the annual aside and peered between Angie and Kerry. The glare of the blazing sun made
seeing difficult, but it was clearly Sol's faded black Dodge. Farther down the road, perhaps a half mile,
was a solitary brown clay building, probably the Margarita Ville Canteen. That meant they were almost
there. But who cared? Huddling near the rear of the van, beside Sol and Park, was a guy with the
smoothest walk this side of England.

"Flynn!" Shani cried.