Blue Skin of the Sea by Graham Salisbury Page A

to the girls as well. “Come in close.”
    A low round of sniggering ran through them as they surrounded me. Keo held back a step, and mostly kept his eyes on the ground.
    Jack went on. “Sonny wants to be a Black Widow, and wewant him to be one, too. So I gave him a test. Anyone who’s not a sixth grader has to take a test.” Jack peered into the eyes of everyone in the group, capturing their full attention. “If he passes,” he went on, “he’s in. If he fails, he’s out.”
    The Black Widows and the girls waited silently.
    “His test was to shoot a cat at the dump and bring it to me in a box.”
    I think that startled the girls. All three of them moved closer. One opened her mouth to say something, but kept quiet, squinting her eyes as if Jack’s order was so appalling she couldn’t find the words.
    “Tomorrow,” Jack said, staring at me. “Bring it to school.”
    Keo shook his head when I glanced over at him. He must have been picturing Jack’s reaction when he learned about the kitten.
    The next morning I took Popoki to school in a small box, leaving late again, and walking into the classroom with everyone sitting at their desks watching me. Word had spread in whispers that I was bringing a dead cat to school. But within ten minutes the whole fifth and sixth grade knew there was nothing dead in the box at all, by all the noise the kitten made.
    Even Mrs. Lee heard it, and came over to take a look. “It’s so cute,” she said, picking it up and showing the class. “I can see why you were so worried about it.”
    Jack refused to look at me the whole morning, acting as if I didn’t exist. Keo kept to himself too, and so did the rest of the Black Widows.
    At recess I took the box outside and was immediately surrounded by a horde of girls wanting to see the kitten. Jack and the Black Widows shoved their way through them. I stood holding the box with Popoki’s head peeking through the slightly opened top.
    “I said a
dead cat,
stupid.” Jack glared down at me, looking as if I’d made a fool of him.
    “Kill it.”
    A hush fell over everyone. No one moved or even dared to breathe. Keo, standing behind Jack, looked as serious as if he’d been told his dogs had run off. Jack reached for the box, and I jerked it away.
    “You little punk,” he said. He slapped the box out of my hands. When it hit the ground, the kitten stumbled out and rolled into a forest of feet, then sprinted away. I started after her, but Jack tripped me and fell on me, sitting on my stomach slapping at my face. “Sissy little punk,” he said.
    I turned from side to side, trying to dodge his hands, my arms pinned under his knees. I heaved up with my stomach, but he was too heavy. The stinging slaps turned into blows. One of them hit my nose and sent a pain through my head like I’d never felt before. I squirmed and twisted, but the blows kept coming, harder.
    Then suddenly Keo slammed into Jack, knocking him off me. The ground shook when they hit. The Black Widows spread away, some of them saying, “Get him, Keo, get him.”
    I got up on my hands and knees, blood from my nose dripping down into the dirt. Keo and Jack rolled back and forth, their faces contorted, making spitting sounds. Jack pushed Keo away and scrambled to his feet. Before Keo could get up, Jack kicked him. Keo tried to slide away, but Jack kept going after him. I staggered over and hit Jack from behind and knocked him to the ground again.
    “Boys! Stop it,
nowl”
Mrs. Carvalho yelled, suddenly appearing, swatting at us with a yardstick.
    I let go of Jack. He jumped up with his fists clenched, glaring at me with demon eyes.
    “Sonny! Keo!” she said. “Go to my office! You should be ashamed of yourselves ganging up on Jack.”
    Then she turned to Jack. “Follow me.” “But I have to get my cat!” I said.
“Not another word!”
    As Keo and I made our way through the crowd of kids, I saw Bobby Otani handing the cat to Mrs. Lee.
    Dad was disappointed in me