Free Raven by V. C. Andrews

it's not okay."
He laughed, and I noticed what a nice smile he had and what a perfectly straight nose. I liked the way a small dimple in his right cheek appeared when he talked. His dark brown hair was cut closely on the sides, but he let a wave sweep back from the front. He had beautiful hazel eyes, bejeweled with flecks of blue, green, and gold on soft brown. No wonder he was everyone's heartthrob, I thought, and tried to look cool and sophisticated under his gaze. I could feel the way everyone was looking at us in the cafeteria. It made me think I was on a big television screen and every little move I made was magnified. I brushed my lips quickly with my napkin, afraid a crumb might be on my mouth or chin.
"So you're living with Jennifer, huh?" he asked.
"Sort of," I said.
"Sort of?"
"I don't call it living," I told him, and he laughed again. Then he smiled, his eyes drinking me in so intently I felt as if I were sitting there naked.
"I had a feeling you were smarter than most of the girls in junior high school here."
"I'm hardly smarter."
"You know what I mean," he said with that impish gleam in his eyes.
"No, I don't."
He laughed and grew serious. "Have you been to any school basketball games yet?"
"There's a big one coming up tomorrow night with Roscoe. We beat them once, and they beat us once this year. Why don't you come?" he asked.
"I don't know if I can."
"Why can't you? Don't you believe in having school spirit?" he asked with that teasing smile returning.
"It's not that. I don't know if my uncle will let me out," I said.
He grew serious-looking and ate as he thought.
"Why?" He leaned toward me to whisper. "Did you have a bad record at the last school you attended or something?"
"Sure. I'm on the post office walls everywhere," I said. He stared a moment and then roared so hard that kids who were sitting nearby stopped talking to look at us.
"You really are something. Come on, come to the game. Afterward, Missy Taylor is having a small house party. We'll have a good time, especially if we beat Roscoe. Can I hear you say okay again?"
"I can't make any promises," I said, but I really wanted to go.
"You're old enough to go out if you want. They shouldn't keep you locked up. Jennifer's certainly not kept locked up," he added. "She'll be at the game, I bet. You can come with her, can't you?"
"I'll try," I said. "She's not happy about taking me along anywhere."
"I'll make sure she does," he said with a wink.
We talked some more. He asked questions about my life before I began living with Uncle Reuben. I didn't want to tell him too much. Jennifer had successfully spread the word that my mother had died, and for the moment, I was afraid to contradict her and create too much of a scandal. It might scare Jimmy away, I thought, and anyway, what difference did it make what the kids at this school knew or didn't know about me?
Jennifer approached me in the hallway the first opportunity she had after lunch. Normally, she wouldn't so much as glance in my direction, but her girlfriends were buzzing around her like bees full of curiosity instead of honey.
"What's going on between you and Jimmy?" she demanded as if she were a police interrogator. She stood in front of me with her hands on her hips.
"Excuse me," I said. "I don't want to be late for class."
"Don't you walk away from me, Raven," she cried, her nostrils flaring. She looked exactly like Uncle Reuben.
"I'm not walking away. Do you want me to be late and get into trouble? Uncle Reuben won't like that, will he?"
"You've got time. Answer me," she demanded.
"Jimmy who?" I said, looking perplexed.
"Jimmy who? Jimmy Freer. You were talking to him in the cafeteria," she said, amazed at my questions. She looked at the other girls, who were just as surprised.
"Oh," I said, "was that his name? He never told me. Um. . . nothing's going on, but when something is, you'll be the first to know," I added, and kept walking. I could almost hear the explosion of anger in her head. -
I didn't