Free No One Must Know by Eva Wiseman

school aren’t very friendly. The boys in my bowling league are much nicer.”
    I cleared my throat. “Um, what about me?”
    He smiled. “And you too, of course, Alex.”
    “I wouldn’t worry. You’ll make friends soon enough. It just takes time.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    There was a brief commotion, and then the manager of the Odeon appeared on the narrow stage in front of the tall crimson curtains covering the screen.
    “May I have your attention, please,” he cried. The noisy audience fell silent. “It’s time for our weekly draw.Ten lucky kids will get free Eskimo bars. Get your ticket stubs ready!”
    Jacob fished our tickets out of his pocket. “Here, you hold them,” he said.
    The manager reached into his box. “The first lucky number is 19122001,” he announced.
    It matched the number of one of our tickets. I waved my hands in the air. “We won! We won! Go get it,” I said to Jacob.
    “No, you go.” He nudged my arm to lever me out of my seat. “Go, before he gives it to somebody else.”
    I made my way to the front of the theater to the sound of loud clapping from Molly and Jean, who were sitting a few rows ahead of us.
    “Remember the ice cream at the beach?” Jacob asked when I got back to my seat. “You almost dropped your cones when those stupid kids threw the ball at you.”
    “It’s a good thing you caught it,” I said, smiling at him. “Today, you get to eat the ice cream. You paid for the tickets.”
    “Don’t be silly, Alex. I want you to have it.”
    “Okay, let’s share. I’ll break it in half.”
    “Let me cut it in half. Breaking it will make a mess.” He took a Swiss Army knife from his pocket and slicedthe bar down the middle. “I got this knife for my bar mitzvah,” he explained. “I knew it would come in handy someday.”
    Just then, the house lights dimmed, the curtains opened, and the Road Runner appeared on the screen. Jacob’s hand snuck into my lap and grasped my free hand. I glanced at him in the semi-darkness and saw that he was smiling at me. I smiled back. The next two hours passed by like two fleeting minutes. I was aware of only the warmth of Jacob’s shoulder pressing against mine, his closeness, the pressure of his fingers entwined with mine. When the house lights came on at the end of the movie, it was a rude shock.
    “Time to go home,” Jacob said. He checked his watch. “If we hurry, we’ll catch the five o’clock bus. I’ll take you home.”
    “You don’t have to.”
    “I want to. And your parents will be mad if I don’t see you to your door.”
    “They’re not home. They usually go for a drive on Sunday afternoons.”
    With some luck, I’ll get home before them, I said to myself, and they’ll never find out that I went out with Jacob. I had told them I’d be window shopping with Molly and Jean.
    “That’s all right,” Jacob said. “I still want to take you home.”
    The bus was clattering to a stop at the street corner just as we got there. A large group of kids elbowed their way up the steps ahead of us. We dropped our tickets into the receptacle and settled into two empty seats. The driver closed the folding doors and was just revving up the motor when through the window I saw Molly and Jean dashing out of the Odeon in our direction.
    “Wait! Wait!” I cried. “My friends are coming.”
    The driver opened the doors again to let them in. Gasping for breath, the girls threw themselves down on seats next to ours.
    “I thought we’d missed the bus for sure,” Molly said. “The next one doesn’t come for another hour.”
    “Alex told the driver to wait for you,” Jacob said.
    “Thanks a million!” Molly beamed at me. “How did you guys like the movie? I loved it! Isn’t Elvis the cutest guy you ever saw? I guess you wouldn’t think so, Alex –
not now”
she said, looking at Jacob and speaking at shotgun speed, as usual.
    Through all this, Jean sat silently peering out of the window, her legs primly