Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise by Wendelin Van Draanen Page B

pretty disrespectful.”
    Well, stupid me, ’cause something about that pulls the gag off his mouth. “It’s more than disrespectful, it’s a lie!” He shakes his head. “He’s a master liar!”
    In the front of my mind I’m going, Stop! U-turn! Go back! But the back of my mind is calculating quick, and out of my mouth comes, “Bradley?”
    “Yes! Grandfather was onto him, but Grandmother always falls for his lies.” Then he says, “We’re scattering Grandfather’s ashes tomorrow, and he lies to cover upthat his daughters are partying with their friends in Miami Beach? After everything Grandfather’s done for them?”
    “Maybe Bradley
doesn’t
know? Maybe your cousins lied to him?”
    “Oh, he knows!”
    I think a minute. “His wife’s supposedly sick, too, huh?”
    “See? She’s probably there with them!”
    I study him. “Don’t your cousins know you can see their posts?”
    He just stands there, saying nothing.
    “Ah,” I say with a little nod. “Too many friends to notice an imposter?”
    “Look,” he says, sitting down across from me. “I helped you. Now help me by just staying out of it.”
    I put my hands up. “Gladly!”
    “I want Grandmother to know because she should know, but there’s no way anyone can find out the information came from me.”
    “What about your mother?”
    “No one!” he says, and it comes out all fierce.
    Like it’s somehow a matter of life and death.

TEN
    Kip took off after he went all fierce on me, and I buckled down on my work sheet. And even though I sweat bullets through every single one, I wound up finishing six problems.
    Six!
    Which meant I didn’t have to do any on my birthday!
    Well, technically, it was two in the morning
on
my birthday, but it didn’t matter.
    Now I could sleep!
    Trouble is, as I’m going
up
the stairs to sneak back into my room, Kip’s coming
down
the stairs to sneak into his. We hit the Deck 9 landing at the same time—which was awkward enough right there—but then who steps off the elevator at that exact moment?
    Darren and Marko.
    So of course I try to duck, and of course they see me.
    And Kip.
    So far, fourteen wasn’t one bit luckier than thirteen.
    “No!” I groan, and actually stomp my foot. “This is not what it looks like!”
    Darren just stares at me, then gives Kip a look that could crush rocks.
    “I gotta go …,” Kip stammers, and runs off, acting
totally
guilty.
    So there I am, left trying to explain. “Look!” I tell Darren, yanking my chemistry work sheet out of my backpack. “I went down to the library to do homework! And Kip happened to—”
    But it was already sounding so lame.
    So conveniently “coincidental.”
    “Here,” I tell him, and shove my chemistry work sheet at him. “
This
is what we were doing.”
    He looks it over and eyes me. “Why?”
    “Because I hadn’t done the problems I was supposed to do today and felt guilty! Because I kept hearing my science teacher’s voice telling me she’s proud of me for working so hard to bring my grade up! Because I didn’t understand the assignment, and it was freaking me out, and I didn’t want to be stuck doing double the problems on my birthday, and Marissa says we’re doing some land excursion the next day, and I have no idea what that is or how long it’s going to take! And because Marissa was snoring and I couldn’t sleep!”
    His look is half
uh-huh
and half
oh
. And since he’s not
saying
anything, I just keep barreling along. “And since there was no place in the room to work without waking Marissa up, I went one little floor down and worked in the library. Kip came in to use a computer, which turned out to be really lucky because he actually knows how to dothis stuff and tutored me. And I got
two
days’ worth done, which is a huge relief, believe me.”
    Darren hesitates, then gives a little nod. “Ah.”
    Since I don’t know what it means and since now I’m all keyed up, I go, “What am I, a doctor?”
    Darren gives