EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken by Sally Warner Page B

she says, accepting this.
    Jared and I look at each other for a second, but we don’t say anything until my dad is on the freeway heading north, and Alfie has gone back to sucking her thumb and twiddling the end of a soft black braid. She stares dreamily out the car window at the hills racing by. She is nearly asleep.
    â€œI know you didn’t want me to come,” Jared growls, keeping his voice low.
    I think hard for a couple of minutes about what to tell him, because if I lie and say that I’m really happy he’s here, maybe he will leave me alone for the rest of the year. Or for a few weeks, anyway,
    Or I can tell him the truth and take my chances.
    â€œNot really,” I finally admit.
    â€œWell, I didn’t even want to come, when they told me this morning,” Jared whispers gruffly. “So don’t think you’re doing me any favors. I don’t owe you, EllRay.”
    â€œEverything all right back there?” Dad asks, glancing at us in his rearview mirror.
    â€œEverything’s fine,” I report. “Alfie’s asleep, and we’re just talking quietly.”
    After Dad gets busy driving again, Jared and I exchange glares. “I’m glad Stanley told,” he mutters, his voice even quieter than before. “That’s why all those kids came running to the park yesterday. They wanted to see you get it, EllRay.”
    â€œThey did not,” I tell him, also keeping my voice low. “They didn’t care what they saw, as long as it was something exciting, for a change. And anyway, maybe Stanley told because he likes to do stuff behind your back. And all those kids saw was you , getting a bloody nose. Even Heather Patton saw it,” I remind him. “ You’re welcome ,” I add, trying for a little sarcasm.
    My heart is thunking so hard in my chest that I can practically see it through my San Diego Padres T-shirt, the one Jared wishes he had, but at least I am defending myself again.
    I think the days of me washing my hands for no reason are over.
    Jared scowls, but he doesn’t say anything more.
    This is going to be some weird treat, that’s for sure. My stomach is doing flip-flops already—and not the good, scary-ride kind.
    Great plan, grown-ups! Just when most of the bad feelings between Jared and me were over because of our fight, which we both won, in a way, you went and made things worse by trying to make us have fun together.
    Thanks a lot .

16
    TEMPORARY
    If there is one thing that no one likes about Disneyland, I remember about twenty minutes after we first walk down Main Street, it is the lines you have to wait in to get on the rides.
    Long, boring, zigzagging lines.
    Then, when you finally, finally get to the front of the line, all of a sudden there is a crazy scramble to jump on the ride, and then WHOOSH , the ride is over.
    The whoosh part can be really fun, though—even when Jared Matthews is sitting there next to you like a tree stump, which sometimes happens because of the crazy scramble part.
    Of course, Mom and Dad were probably planning on Jared going with me on every single ride. They probably imagined that we would slowly learn to like each other, and maybe even become friends, but even parents can’t argue when the official ride people shoo you onto a ride when it’s finally your turn. Not when there are a thousand people in line behind you.
    As the morning goes on, though, even I have to admit that the invisible coating of ice that has been covering both Jared and me—like the candy coating on an M&M—is beginning to melt a little.
    But then, just after lunch, “I want Minnie ears,” Alfie starts whining after we have been in line for twenty minutes for the pirates ride, and Jared and I exchange worried looks.

    â€œShe has a meltdown every afternoon,” I tell Jared gloomily. “She still takes naps, that’s the thing.”
    â€œWho are you talking about?” Alfie