"Christopher Stasheff - Wizard in Rhyme 03 - The Witch Doctor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

my mind, and just contented myself with being really mad at him.
What was the big deal, anyway?
 The big deal was that Matt was the only real friend I had, at the
moment-maybe the only one I'd ever had, really. I mean, I hadn't known
Matt all that long; but four years seems like a long time, to me. Four
years, going on five-but who's counting?
It's not as if I'd ever had all that many friends. Let me see,
there was jory in first grade, and Luke, and Ray-and all the rest of
the boys in the class, I suppose. Then it was down to Luke and Ray in
second grade, 'cause jory moved away-but the rest of the kids began to
cool off. My wild stories, I guess. Then Ray moved, too, so it was
just Luke and me in third grade-and Luke eased up, 'cause he wanted to
play with the other kids. Me, I didn't want to play, I was clumsy-I
just wanted to tell stories, but the other kids didn't want to hear
about brave knights rescuing fair damsels. So from fourth grade on, I
was on decent terms with the rest of the kids, but nothing more. Then,
along about junior high, nobody wanted to be caught talking to me,
because the "in" crowd decided I was weird.
What can I say? I was. I mean, a thirteen-year-old boy who
doesn't like baseball and loves reading poetry-what can you say? By
local standards, anyway. And in junior high, local standards are
everything.
Made me miserable, but what could I do?
Find out what they thought made a good man, of course. I watched
and found out real quick that the popular guys weren't afraid to fight,
and they won more fights than they lost. That seemed to go with being
good at sports. So I figured that if I could learn how to fight, I
could be good at sports, too. A karate school had just opened up in
town, so I heckled Mom until she finally took me, just to shut me up.
I had to get a paper route to pay for it, though.
It only took six months before I stopped losing fights. When
school started again in the fall, and the boys started working out
their ranking system by the usual round of bouts, I started winning a
few-and all of a sudden, the other guys got chummy. I warmed to it for
a little while, but it revolted me, too. I knew them for what they
were now, and I stopped caring about them.
It felt good. Besides, I'd connected with karate-and from it, I
got interested in the Far East.
One of the teachers told me I should try not to sound so hostile
and sarcastic all the time.
Sarcastic? Who, me?

So I learned to paste on the smile and sound cheerful.
Didn't work. The other kids could tell. All I succeeded in doing
was acting phony.
Why bother?
Of course, things picked up a little in high school, because there
was a literary magazine, and a drama club, so I got back onto civil
terms with some of the other kids. Not the "in" crowd, of course, but