Free The Apocalypse by Jack Parker Page B

eagerly. "Yeah, Jake. Hannah deserves that."
    Silently, Jake studied the two girls for several seconds. No wonder Hannah was annoyed with them; they were persistent. "Look," he began finally, "I can't just tell Hannah that I hate her, all right? It'll confuse her or something, and even though I don't give a damn about her, it'd hurt her mother, and then my mom would kill me." Jake closed his locker easily and shook his head. "So out of the goodness of my heart, I'm going to tolerate Hannah, whether you two like it or not. If you want her to know, you can tell her yourselves."
    Tisha and Libby exchanged glances, and when Jake thought they were finally going to drop the subject, Tisha threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Aww, Jake, I didn't know you were so sweet!" she gushed. "You're looking out for Hannah for real!"
    Libby rolled her eyes. "No, he's not. He's looking out for his own hide but whatever." She pulled Tisha away from Jake, who was grateful, and gave him a stern nod. "We won't tell Han, but I swear to God, Jake, if you hurt her, you'll be dealing with us."
    "Yeah," Tisha said challengingly, even though Jake thought the expression on her face was sappy. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. You'll have us all on your case."
    "Great," Jake said dismissively, smirk in place. "Can I get to basketball practice now?"
    Since it was a rhetorical question, Jake stepped around the two girls and started down the hall. He started to stop and tell them to drive Hannah home so that she wouldn't have to wait for practice to end, but, if he did that, it would start a negotiation. Then Jake would have to listen to them, and he didn't have time for that. A scorned woman may be rough to deal with, but so was his coach if he was late for practice.

Chapter 5
     

Multiplying Madness
     
     
     
    Hannah padded around her bedroom in her white cotton socks, moving from her desk to her bed. She flung herself down onto her stomach and scowled at her numerous textbooks. Of course being in advance placement classes meant that Hannah had a heavy workload, and with a heavy workload came a hefty amount of homework. Homework that Hannah didn't understand, which just made matters worse. She had just begun to contemplate a strategy for studying when there was a knock on her door. Almost grateful for a distraction, Hannah called, "It's open."
    The door swung open slightly, and Patricia Ayers stuck her head in, wearing a soft smile. "Hi, honey. How was your first day back at school?"
    A barely audible sigh passed between Hannah's lips as she shrugged her shoulders carefully. "It was okay, I guess."
    Nobody would ever drag the truth from Hannah—the truth of how she'd struggled to sit still in all of her classes and how she felt smothered by so many people asking her questions. She knew that people meant well, but Hannah just wanted to be left alone. The swarms of people in her classes and the insistence of her 'friends' made Hannah feel like even more of an invalid. The only people she felt comfortable around were Jake and his friends, simply because they didn't push themselves on her. In fact, they treated her normally, or at least she thought they did. If they didn't, it at least felt natural.
    Almost cautiously, Patricia entered Hannah's bedroom. "Um, this is completely up to you, Hannah, but…Greg's downstairs. He said he'd like to see you." Patricia sat on the edge of Hannah's bed and reached out to smooth her daughter's hair tenderly. "Do you want me to ask him to leave?"
    Surprised, Hannah could only stare at Patricia. To be honest, she hadn't thought about Greg Hudson much at all. After she'd been told that her boyfriend had wrecked the car she'd been injured in, Hannah had put the thoughts out of her mind and focused more on herself. Aside from casually talking about Greg to Jake and his friends, Hannah's mind had been totally void of Greg. And now he was downstairs.
    "He said he understood if you didn't want to see