Free Heart of Gold by Beverly Jenkins Page B

being in Henry Adams. From Amari she learned: Never to steal the OG’s truck. From Devon: Never steal money from anyone—especially not Crystal. And most recently: Never try to trick your parents so you can visit bad places on the Internet, like Eli, Preston, Amari, and Crystal tried to do. Thinking of Crystal made her look over discreetly. If anybody in class had something smart-mouthed to say about her running away from home, they were keeping it to themselves, which made sense; no one in their right mind wanted to earn what Amari called the Wrath of Crystal.
    But to her, Crystal looked more distant than wrathful. Since she’d been back only a few days, no one knew anything about the circumstances that made her come home. Had something bad happened? Did she get homesick? Zoey didn’t know. Putting her questions aside, she refocused on her lesson.
    As always, they ate lunch outside. In another few weeks it was going to be too cold, so Zoey planned to enjoy it as long as the fall weather held. Crystal was seated at the big kids’ table, along with Eli and his girlfriend Samantha Dickens. Megan Tripp, Sam’s supposedly BFF, was with them as well, but no one liked Megan, so Zoey pretended she wasn’t there. Amari, Brain, Leah, and Tiffany had a table of their own, and she and Devon had theirs, but she was tired of eating with him, and this was the day she planned to do something about it.
    So she walked right past her old table, where Devon was getting his sandwich out of his bag, and set her lunch down about a half foot away from Amari. Whatever he and the rest had been talking about suddenly stopped when she took a seat. Refusing to make eye contact, she dug in her bag for her sandwich, cookies, and apple. She and Tiffany hadn’t gotten along since their run-in at the football game last Thanksgiving, when Zoey pointed out Tiff’s lack of dance skills, so of course she had something to say.
    â€œWhat are you doing at our table?”
    â€œLeave her alone,” Amari warned. Zoey kept eating her sandwich and smiled inside. Amari always had her back. Always.
    But Tiff ignored him. “This isn’t a table for little kids.”
    â€œThen what are you doing here?” Preston asked before popping a few grapes into his mouth.
    Tiffany glared but kept her opinion to herself.
    Everyone’s smug smiles faded when Devon walked up. He calmly placed his lunch on the table and sat down across from Zoey, which earned her an impatient look of censure from Amari, which sent her urge to sock Devon sky-high.
    Amari opened his mouth to protest. Devon cut him off. “If she can eat here, I can too.”
    Amari’s mouth snapped shut. Shooting daggers at his little brother, he gathered up his stuff and stalked off. When he got about ten feet away, he plopped down in the grass and ate alone.
    â€œYou know you’re giving your brother the blues,” Preston pointed out.
    â€œSo what,” Devon replied disinterestedly.
    Zoey cut him a look and once again fought off the urge to say something mean.
    Over at the Power Plant, which held the town’s administrative offices, Bernadine settled in for her Monday-afternoon visits. Because there was always something going on in and around Henry Adams, she’d instituted a specific day for folks to stop by and fill her in on whatever they felt she needed to know. Having a dedicated time cut down on people just dropping by and interrupting her daily workflow.
    First up was Sheila Payne. As VP of social affairs, she was responsible for pulling together the upcoming Friday-evening soiree celebrating the opening of the new grocery store. The ribbon-cutting ceremony would take place bright and early Saturday morning.
    â€œI have everything in place,” she reported while checking her notes. “Siz and Rocky will handle the catering, Siz’s band will provide the music. I told him to stick to the jazz, no hard rock stuff, and