Facts of Life by Gary Soto

found herself thinking, noticing that the coat covered a dress that was too, too short. Her fingernails were painted black. And was that a tattoo circling her wrist?
    When her mother clip-clopped into the living room to meet the babysitter, Rachael could see that she was transfixed for a long second before she snapped out of it and said, "You must be Keri."
    "Yeah," the girl answered. That one word revealed a chrome ball on her tongue.
    "What's that?" Freddie asked, pointing.
    "What's what?" his mother peered down at him.
    "In her mouth?" Freddie's own tongue appeared, then quickly retracted as if someone might staple a chrome ball to it.
    Embarrassed, Rachael squeezed her eyes shut and wished the babysitter's arrival could begin again. Her little brother was such a punk! Rachael expected her mother to admonish Freddie, but she only sighed and looked at her watch. She set rules: one movie, the pizza for dinner, no answering the front door, and no use of the telephone. If they played the stereo, they shouldn't turn it on too loudly.
    Soon she was out the door, with a kissy peck for Rachael and two gentle kisses on Freddie's cheek—his lip was still tender. To Keri, she offered a reminder that she should call if there was trouble.
    After the front door closed, Keri sat at the kitchen table, her chin in the palm of her hand. Rachael attempted to liven things up. She showed Keri the scrapes on her elbows and recounted how these injuries had occurred. But this display didn't move Keri. Rachael pondered. She decided to inform this babysitter that they were excellent students. Rachael told Keri that she was ten and that her little brother was seven, but they could—and did—already read novels. She described a book about a boy whose parents had moved away without telling him. Rachael chuckled as she recounted a scene of the boy washing the dog in the bathtub.
    Keri yawned and revealed a second chrome knob in her mouth.
    Rachael then foolishly asked, "What grade are you in?"
    "Grade, like, you mean, school?" Keri's eyes were flat. "I'm, like, outta school." She bit a fingernail.
    "I'm in second," Freddie said. He then displayed his scraped elbows and showed Keri his thumb, which a fishing hook had punctured when he was real little.
    "I'm bored," Keri announced as she brought out a cigarette from the inside of her shirt pocket.
    "You smoke?" Rachael asked.
    Keri lit up and blew a perfect halo of smoke that hung in the air for a few seconds before it broke apart.
    "Smoking's bad," Freddie claimed. "I burned my fingers once."
    Keri inhaled and held the smoke in her lungs. Then she slowly let it unfurl and take shape in the air; for a second it resembled a dragon with a whipping tail. But like the halo, it, too, broke apart. She rose and went to the refrigerator.
    "What do you got to eat?"
    "Pizza!" Freddie screamed.
    "Mom also rented us a movie," said Rachael, who was a little put off by this girl. She was unfriendly and just too weird. Rachael surmised that was why she had dropped out: no friends to hang out with. Who would wear a big black coat when it's not cold or raining? And all those metal things in her face? They reminded Rachael of her dad's fishing tackle.
    Keri brought the pizza out of the freezer. With a fork, she stabbed at the plastic that encased the pizza while the cigarette hung from her mouth. The ash grew and the cap of red brightened each time she stabbed and struggled with the plastic wrapping. Finally, she fit the pizza into the microwave, but discovered that it was too large—she had to bend it slightly.
    Rachael watched as Keri punched in the time and inhaled on her diminishing cigarette. Not wishing to get caught in the stinky smoke, Rachael scooted out of the kitchen and into the living room. Freddie had slid in the DVD and was sitting inches from the screen. He turned and announced, "It's
Nemo.
"
    Rachael could feel her mouth tighten. How many times had they seen that babyish movie? Rachael was