"Nancy Springer - Snickerdoodles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

bar-reled out from behind his desk and started to slap Blake around. Some of the
hotshots were almost used to this. But not being built sturdily to stand up to this sort
of treatment, Blake began to whimper.

тАЬI didnтАЩt do anything to him! It was just a joke!тАЭ

тАЬDonтАЩt sound like no joke to me, put-ting a curse on a person!тАЭ Mr. Lipschitz
tended to forget his grammar when im-passioned.

Blake yelped, тАЬIf you knew, whyтАЩd you ask?тАЭ and Mr. Lipschitz hit him again.

тАЬWhereтАЩs the black book?тАЭ Mr. Lip-schitz bellowed, mauling him. тАЬWhere is
the devilish thing? Anything you bring onto school property I got a right to
confiscate!тАЭ
 Blake felt the dark stirrings of anger, and with it, some courage. No way was
this rhinoceros going to get hold of his motherтАЩs book. Blake had stashed it above
the suspended ceiling in the boysтАЩ restroom on his way to the office, and no amount
of abuse was going to make him say where it was.

тАЬYou answer what I asked you, boy!тАЭ

Lipschitz smacked him on the ear. Blake said nothing, did not cry out, but
with sudden angry strength pulled himself away from the man and glared at him with
smoldering eyes. Lipschitz went pale and stepped back, stagger-ing, fumbling at air
with his hands. The big man seemed to be suffering some sort of shock. His fat
heart bothering him, maybe, from overexertion. Blake could feel no sympathy for
him.

тАЬEvil eye,тАЭ Lipschitz whispered. тАЬDonтАЩt you evil-eye me, Bloodsworth. Get
out of here. Stay out. Get away from me!тАЭ

Blake stared a moment longer, then left the office without getting his hall pass
initialed. Now he was an outlaw, not a geek. Being an outlaw felt better, and he
decided to keep going. He re-trieved his motherтАЩs cookbook from its hiding place
first thing, afraid that if Lipschitz searched he would find it. Then for the same
reason he left the school building and walked home, shaky but defiant.

At the front entry, the black cat ap-peared out of the shrubbery and walked by
his side.

Enola Bloodsworth seemed unsur-prised to see Blake home from school in
the middle of the day, laying her heirloom cookbook on her kitchen counter.

тАЬI donтАЩt feel well,тАЭ he told her.

She did not even blink at the lie. тАЬYouтАЩre suspended,тАЭ she told him
agree-ably, тАЬor possibly expelled. Your prin-cipal just called me.тАЭ

The bastard was okay then. Damn. Blake had hoped Lipschitz would
con-tinue with his heart attack and be out of action awhile.