Sophia, Marisa Redhead16 [phonics reader txt] 📗

and I loved her, but...Billy... I called Micheal. I didn't want to talk to Nina. I told him what was going on. "No, don't worry," he said. "Billy couldn't do anything to you because Sophia would kill him. Nina's been telling me she's interested in you. Are you two dating?" His question threw me off. "Toby?" he asked. I answered him. "I wish." I said without thinking. I also noticed the TV was on, he was eating something, and his dad was talking to him. "He's almost done, Dad. Yes I promise I'll be there in five minutes." His dad said something like Please hurry my son and walked off. Mike paused. "Mike?" I asked. "Nina forgave me. But can I forgive myself?" "You should. She loves you, Micheal." "I know." We said Goodbye and got off.

The doorbell rang. A high school girl wearing a blue polo shirt and knee length skirt was at the door. She even wore pantyhose and regular high heels. "Doesn't Tony James Grass live here?" She asked, sounding nervous. "Hang on." I went into Tony's room. "Tony were you expecting anybody."He rolled over onto his stomach."No. I'm staying at Josh's later. Why?" "There's a nervous sounding girl at the door." He leaned up. "Is it Spring?" "Not even close." He got up and walked to the door. I noticed he was watching an old French romantic comedy. I smirked. I knew it was Mom's. My thoughts turned to my father. I hadn't heard from him in a while. Maybe he feels ashamed, like he's let us down, or maybe he's busy, I thought. I asked Mom about it when she passed by. Her lip quivered. Uh oh, I probably shouldn't have brought that up, I thought. "He loves you and Tony, son," she said. She walked off. "Who was that, Tony?" I asked. "She thought I would up her reputation by having sex. I don't want to live in a Playboy mansion or be in a PlayGirl magazine. I don't want to be a whore, Tobias. I still love Spring and I always will." He glanced at his old PlayBoy magazines. He grabbed a shoebox and put them in by year and month. He had just gotten another issue. "But I can't stop." he said, looking at the redhead on the cover. "She's so hot..." he said. I knew he was talking about Spring, not the redhead. But the redhead was hot too.

Tony left for Josh's house an hour before dinner. He brought a few new magazines with him. He decided his reputation was at stake. Mom knew he was having a hard time without Spring. He had done it once since she left him. Mom brought up the thought of going out for dinner. I said okay, so we left soon. "Where do you want to go?" Mom asked. "It's up to you." I said. We ended up going to her favorite sports bar. A smokin hot waitress with mocha-colored skin and red lips walked up to us. She wore a skimpy outfit, fuschia tank top and light really short shorts. I caught myself checking her out. "Hello, ma'am and sir, what can I get for you?" "Cherry margarita." Mom said. "Water." I said. Oh I definitely need a cherry margarita... I thought. A hyper version of 'La Vida Loca' was playing. I recognized it as the version from Shrek.

I ordered a hamburger with mushrooms. Mom ordered the same thing. We finished dinner quickly. I glanced at my stomach. It churned a little bit. Your stomach is almost always going to look fuller after you eat, I reminded myself. I decided to stretch before I went to bed.

Mom paid and tipped the gorgeous waitress, and then we left. "Did you like it?" she asked. "Oh, yes," I said. She grinned. "The waitress' name was Jesse," she said. "She's really nice. And very pretty." As soon as we got home, we noticed a huge mess. "Oh my..." Mom said. We'd been attacked by a possible theif. The milk in the fridge was gone along with Mom's special cheese. Half the beef was gone. Mom's favorite fern was knocked over. Girlfriend and Jazz were outside...and we didn't let them outside before we left. I let them back in and went to check for more stolen stuff. Mom dialed 911. "Yes ma'am....our milk, cheese, and some beef was gone, and our dogs were outside...no one was home..." Or maybe somebody WAS home, I thought, seeing a familiar cell phone. Dad. I called him. I pressed speaker, while Mom listened in."Hello?" "How can you answer without your cell?" "Tobias! Son, I lost my phone two days ago. Do you know where it is? I'm using the hotel phone." I ignored the coincidence and talked to him. "It's on the floor. Dad, we got an intruder." "Oh my god! Are you all right?" "Yeah, Mom and I went to Sniper for dinner." "Where's Tony?" "At a friend's house." "What was stolen?" "Some beef, milk and cheese. Nothing else. And we've got a lot of valuable stuff." "Yeah. I promise somebody framed me,son. I have one enemy, but he wouldn't do something like that. Your mother doesn't have enemies, thank goodness. Your brother has plenty of enemies. Remember when one threw a firecracker in our yard?" "Yeah."

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. A skinny African American cop was at the door. We showed him the house, phone and fridge. He took pictures of us. He reached down to scratch Girlfriend's neck, and pulled his arm back. "What's this?" he asked. He pulled a piece of paper from under her collar. It read 'You have been on TV at least once and have and abusive father. Tony and Tobias Grass must be put out of their misery. "Could it be a woman?" I asked, noticing the neat writing. "Possible. But women tend to be more personal like 'I've been watching you' or 'I have seen you'." the cop said. He said he'll scan it for fingerprints and walked out. He took Dad's cell phone with him. I relaxed on the couch and brushed Jazz. He likes it when I brush him.

For some reason, his favorite is Tony, but he loves when I and only I brush him. He won't let anyone else brush him.


I was feeling content during math class. Mr. Johnson wanted us to create a poster representing pi, a.k.a., 3.14. "But it's October!" someone complained. Mr. Johnson smiled coyly. "I know, it's my job to torture you," he teased. "But Pi Day is months away!" a girl said. "I know. I want to be prepared for that. At least I'm not making you make posters for Earth Day or Valentine's Day." he said. "Can we work with a partner?" someone asked. Mr. Johnson bit his lip. You could tell he hadn't thought about that. "I suppose. You may work with one person." he said firmly. Everybody paired up. "Do you want to be my partner?" Sophia asked. My stomach twisted. "Sure." I said. "But what about Billy?" He was glaring at me and he had to pair up with Ruth. I had to bite my cheeks to keep from smiling. Sophia saw him. "He'll live." she said. She got the supplies and sat down. "Do you want to draw or write?" she asked. "Either one is fine." "Unless you object, you can write. My writing's weird." she said. You're a better drawer than I am anyway. She grinned. "Thanks." she said. I realized I said it out loud. I blushed.

Billy cornered me after class. "I want you to stay away from her for a year!" he snapped. I totally lost it. "How do you know she doesn't want me? I love her so much and you're my biggest problem right now?" He raised an eyebrow. "You're obese and have a moron father and a slut for a mother." "Don't you dare talk about my mother like that, gang banging bitch!" He punched me in the gut and eye. When I walked into English, Mr. Kurl raised his eyes. "How did you get that black eye, son?" he asked. "Uh..." "Never mind. I'll take you to the nurse, sir."

"What happened?" he asked. I told him what happened. "He called your mother a slut?" I nodded. "Now Tobias, listen to me. Your mother is no slut. She's a wonderful and beautiful woman, and I like her very much. I actually had a crush on her in high school." I looked at him. "You did?" He nodded. "You look like you're in you're late twenties." He grinned. "Thanks. I'm actually much older than that. I'm as old as she is."

The nurse examined me closely. "He'll have to go home." was all she said. That was that. My mother was called and the nurse explained what happened. I honestly didn't want to go home. I wanted to stay and not have homework. I told Mr. Kurl this, and he chuckled. "I know son, I know you've been gone a lot lately because of injuries and problems, but you'll have to really go. You know what, I'll just make you read Hamlet. I've also got a few copies of the video, and I'll let you borrow one. I'll talk to your other teachers, see what they think." "What?" It was Mr. Johnson. When he saw my eye his mouth opened. "Good gracious, boy, what on earth...?" He let it hang. Mr. Kurl took him into the hallway to talk to him. I overheard them talking.

"Billy has got to stop hurting him! What if he kills him?" "His mother told me he threw a green smokebomb into their yard while he was taking care of the plants!" "I'm worried about his self esteem and safety. He's nice, quiet, smart, and responsible, and he's pretty overweight. I like him a lot, and I don't want him to get hurt." "No one does. Someone is going to need to protect him." "But we don't want to embarass him. What we put Billy on probation for the rest of the school year without telling him?" "That's a good idea, Curtis. I'll tell his other teachers about the idea. The principal too. He needs to get involved. It's out of or hands right now. I even saw Billy push him sharply against a hand dryer right in front of me. I was done with the urinal and was washing my hands." "Here comes John and Cara right now." The science Mr. Reed and the counselor was walking toward them.

The nurse made me hold an ice pack against my eye and massaged my stomach with whole milk. "You have a nice belly. Not a lot of hair." she said. "Thanks." I saw Mom talking to my teachers and counselors. Mom almost broke down even. She was really upset. "Why? Why is he torturing my son? Haven't you talked to his parents?" "We have. It's out of our hands now, Mrs. Grass. Relax, he'll be fine. His eye looks bad, but not life threatening." Mr. Johnson said. Mom really did break down. Miss Ridda rubbed her back. "We've done all we can. We've all lectured Billy at least once and have given him detention and called his parents so many times I've lost track. His parents are the type of parents who consider their child 'perfect'. I've been yelled at and told 'He wouldn't do that!' by both his father and mother. His mother even said I must be mistaken or lying. She...." She let it hang. Mom wiped a tear away. "I understand. From now on I'm going to be or have some adult near him." "Good idea, Anne." Mr. Kurl said.

I didn't have much homework, since they all knew l was stressed. It took