Free The Chamber of Five by Michael Harmon Page B

throat. “I want you to run for student council with me.”
    He chuckled. “Why would I do that?”
    I looked around, lowering my voice, knowing I was taking a big chance. If word got out too soon, I’d be smoked. “Because I’m running for student council president and I need a majority vote if we win.”
    “Majority vote on what?”
    “To get rid of the Chamber and make it so that regular students are in control of the Youth Leadership Group.” I paused. “And so crap like the food drive doesn’t happen anymore.”
    He hesitated, his hand stopping for just a moment as he grabbed a chip. “You’re part of the Chamber.”
    “I know.”
    “And you want to get rid of it.”
    “Yes.”
    He chuckled again. “Didn’t take you for emo. You like hurting yourself?”
    “It’s wrong.”
    “So you choose a guy who hates you.”
    I smiled. “You hate me because of what I am.”
    “True.”
    “I’m trying to get rid of what I am at this school.”
    “You aren’t as stupid as I thought.”
    “We don’t have to be friends to achieve a common goal, Thomas.”
    “You sound like a politician already.”
    “Comes with the territory. Are you in?”
    “So you have a master plan, huh?”
    “Yes. And it’ll work.”
    “Tell me one thing,” he said.
    “What?”
    “Most people don’t enjoy kicking themselves in the face. You really want to hurt yourself?”
    I cocked an eye at him. “You really want my tongue in your mouth?”
    “No.”
    I nodded. “Then we’re mutually agreed.”
    “So you want me to help you kick yourself in the face.”
    “Yes.”
    “Then I’m in.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    “I ’M DROPPING THE C HAMBER.” I almost barfed when I said it, and two hours of sitting in my room trying to find the guts to do it hadn’t made anything easier. It would start raining bombs now.
    He didn’t turn. “No you’re not.”
    I took a breath, careful with my words. “I don’t fit in with it, Dad. It’s not me.”
    He did turn then, and clasped his hands across his belly. He clenched his jaw, and those sheet-metal eyes, hard and impenetrable, blocked everything. “It’s not you? What does that have to do with what I say?”
    I looked away. I could never look him in the eye when I knew he was really going to get pissed, and I hated myself for it. “Dad, it’s just—”
    “It’s JUST NOTHING!” he bellowed, his neck flushing instantly, like a thermometer stuck in a pit of magma. He stood,jabbing a finger at me. “You sit in this house surrounded by everything a teenager could ever want, and you have the nerve to pull this?” He pointed out the window. “There are people out there with
nothing
, and you just don’t get that, do you? You don’t get that the world isn’t a nice place, Jason, because you’ve never lived on that side of things, have you?” His eyes seared my soul, and his voice boomed through the house. “HAVE YOU?”
    I sighed. “No.”
    “Then shut your mouth.”
    I looked away. “I just—”
    He cut me off. “Why do you think I do this? Why do you think I’m down your throat all the time? You think I like it?”
    “No.”
    “Then why? Tell me, Jason. I know what you see when you look at me, son, so why don’t you tell me why I put myself through this.”
    “I don’t know.”
    He sneered. “Well, I know. It’s because you don’t have courage. I have a coward for a son.”
    “I’m not a coward.”
    He came close, towering over me. “Then look me in the eye and tell me what you think of me.”
    I couldn’t do either. “I just want to go to a regular school.”
    He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “You’re staying in the Chamber.”
    Carter flashed through my mind, and Thomas Singletary tailed along behind him. I felt sick, but I couldn’t look him in the eye. His breath hit my cheek. I swallowed. “No, I’m not.”
    The slap, harsh and sharp and hard, echoed through thesilent room. My eye watered, I saw stars and blackness, and my cheek