Free The Cheater by R.L. Stine Page A

good job there?”
    â€œOh, Daddy, I’m sure it will be fine. Stop worrying.” Carter wished she felt as carefree about the whole thing as she sounded.
    â€œWhen will they be ready?” asked the judge. “I’ll pick them up for you. I don’t want you to have to pay for this. After all, those earrings were a gift.”
    â€œNo, you don’t have to do that, Daddy. You and Mother are so busy these days. Besides, I’m at the mall all the time. I’ll pick them up. I don’t mind.”
    Nervously she watched her father, silently begging him to accept her excuses and lies.
    The more he asked her, the more she had to lie. And with each lie she dug herself a deeper hole. She wanted him to believe what she said, but every time he fell for another lie she felt more and more guilty.
    She could tell by the way he was eating, concentrating more on his food and less on her, that he was tired of talking about the earrings.
    â€œAll right, Carter,” he said. He was focusing on his plate, picking out a fish bone. “I’ll give you the money for the repair. Let me know what it comes to.”
    â€œThanks, Daddy. I will.”
    She felt even more guilty now. He was going to give her more money. But she wouldn’t turn it down. She knew she might need it—soon.

    The next morning, on her way back from gym class, Carter passed a knot of kids in front of the cafeteria. Carter recognized most of them—they were in her grade—but she didn’t know them well. They were the girls in secretarial programs, the guys in vocational, or kids who were just in the regular school track, not in honors classes like Carter.
    All except for one. Adam was standing in the center of the group. He had his arm around a skinny, pale, freckled girl with light red hair. Sheila.
    It was the first time Carter had seen them together since she’d gone out with Adam. The sight of them together was a bit of a shock. She wasn’t sure why.
    She’d always known that Sheila was Adam’s girlfriend—Sheila wouldn’t let her forget it. But somehow, she’d thought of the Adam she knew as adifferent person from Sheila’s boyfriend. The Adam she knew wasn’t going out with Sheila—he was going out with Carter.
    He was a brilliant boy from the wrong side of the tracks, who wanted more out of life than his friends did. A boy who lived on the edge, who had a fierce sort of charm. Someone who could teach Carter things she had never learned in her plush, protected world.
    Suddenly Carter saw that the Adam she thought she knew existed only in her mind. She’d made him up. He wasn’t real.
    This
was the real Adam—the guy standing beside the cafeteria door with his shirt unbuttoned and his skinny girlfriend clinging to his chest. The guy surrounded by girls in tight jeans and purple nail polish and guys who cared more about what was under the hood of a car than what was in a girl’s mind. The real Adam had tried to scare her with a bloody heart, to threaten her, and blackmail her, using her for everything he could get.
    Now she hurried past this gang of kids, hoping Adam wouldn’t notice her. She glanced back and saw him laughing and gazing in another direction, apparently unaware of her.
    But then she noticed Sheila, standing cradled in the crook of his arm.
    Sheila was staring at her with smug hatred, her small green cat’s eyes gleaming.
    â€œYou lose, rich girl,” her glare seemed to say.
    Carter hurried down the hall.

    After school that day Carter tucked the envelope full of hundred-dollar bills into her backpack and walked to The Corner. She knew that Adam was working that afternoon.
    Carter took a seat at the counter, and Adam immediately came over to her. “I hope you’ve got something for me,” he said.
    She didn’t answer him. She produced the envelope and slipped it over the counter to him.
    He took it, but didn’t