Free Don't Tell Mother by Tara West Page A

literature textbook when I walked into the classroom. She sat on the opposite side of the room. I had three minutes until the tardy bell, so I had to act fast. Taking a spot in the empty seat beside her, I cleared my throat to get her attention. “Hey, Keysha.”
    “What’s up?” she said with a disinterested tone and keeping eyes glued to the pages of her open book.
    What was that all about? The book couldn’t have been that interesting.
    Pretending not to notice, I kept my voice upbeat. “Ready for the game tonight?”
    “Yeah,” her voice trailed off as she turned a page.
    Total blow-off. Grrrr. Her behavior was beyond irritating, making me want to slam my fist on the desk to get her attention. That would only piss her off, and then I’d never get her to tell me about the party.
    I tried another approach. Maybe if I bashed our coach, I’d know for sure which side she was on. “I don’t know if the team’s ready. Lowe doesn’t work us hard enough.”
    She shrugged. “Nope.”
    Okay, enough was enough. She was obviously trying to get a rise out of me, although I didn’t know what I’d done to make her act this way.
    “Is there something wrong?” I asked, totally aware my voice was laced with just a hint of attitude.
    “No,” she replied flatly.
    Fine, if that’s how she wanted to act. No use farting around with her. Might as well get to the point. “Okay. What are you doing after Friday’s game?”
    Since we had a game tonight and another on Friday, I was pretty sure the party would be after the next game so they could have Saturday to recover from their hangovers.
    “Look, I can’t talk right now.” Keysha looked up from her book long enough to roll her eyes at me. “I didn’t finish last night’s reading assignment.”
    “Whatever!” I huffed, heaving myself out of the desk and storming back to my seat.
    Whatever side she was on before, I knew where her loyalty lay now. One more friend lost to Lowe. One more reason to get her butt canned. This wasn’t a popularity contest. This was basketball, but for some reason, my immature coach had found a way to make it personal.
    Personal!
    A smile came to my face as I thought of a brilliant plan. Lowe wanted to make it personal, so be it. I had just the friend who knew how to get very personal. One little slip into Lowe’s mind, and Sophie could tell me exactly when and where to bust the party.
    ****
    “You want me to do what?” Sophie looked at me like I’d just asked her to French kiss Grody Cody Miller.
    I had drug Sophie behind an empty bus, which was parked just outside the gym. As people were piling inside the gym for the game, I knew inside would be too crowded.
    Looking over both shoulders, I had to make sure no one was within gossip distance. “Find out about the party,” I whispered.
    “Okay, I get that part.” Sophie cocked a brow. “But how do you expect me to do it?”
    Grrr. Why was she acting like this was so complicated? “When you’re taking pictures at the game tonight, just pop into Lowe’s head.”
    Sophie smirked. “So you want me to log in to your coach’s brain and download the file marked Don’t tell AJ .”
    I exhaled a low, frustrated breath. She still hadn’t said sorry for picking Bob over me at lunch today. Now she was baiting me with stupid jokes. “Very funny.”
    She rolled her eyes. “I can’t just dig around for old thoughts. She has to be thinking about the party when I’m in her brain.”
    “Then pick Paige’s brain or any of my teammate’s brains.” I threw my hands in the air. “Everybody knows about the freakin’ party but me.”
    “Okay.” Sophie’s gaze narrowed. “Let me get this straight. You want me to forget about my yearbook assignment, which is to take pictures of the game, and keep invading brains so I can find out about a party which you’re not invited to.”
    Why was she making this so difficult? She was my BFF, after all.
    Folding my arms across my chest, I leveled a