Son of the Mob (17 page)

I guess my jaw drops, because he continues, “Think, Vince. Why else would you need it? You're a sharp kid who's getting sharper every day. But I want you to admit that you're not smarter than me just yet.”

Suddenly, I know exactly how Barry Bonds must feel when someone pitches him a slow, straight fastball. “Right, Dad,” I agree readily. “I'd better get over to school now. I've got to find Agent Bite-Me's daughter and try to get her to take me back. We've been dating for the last two months—but a smart guy like you must know that already.”

It's such a perfect exit line that I don't even stick around to enjoy the look on his face.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY

T
AL
O
BODIAC AND
A
STRID
Martin are elected Jefferson High School's 2002 Homecoming King and Queen. Both blond, blue-eyed. She's a cheerleader and he plays football. You could switch them with the king and queen from any other school and nobody would even notice.

Alex knows a guy on the committee, so he does a little behind-the-scenes scouting for me.

“Three votes,” he reports.

I'm equal parts impressed and horrified. “That's all we lost by?”

“That's all you got. Three votes.”

“Oh, uh—great,” I manage.

“That weird kid who ran with his cocker spaniel got forty.”

I glare at him. “And I'll bet you were one of them.”

He takes it personally. “I'm a worm, Vince, not a traitor. Besides, do the math. Three votes. You, me, and—”

I shake my head. “No way. Not Kendra. She wouldn't put an X beside my name unless it was to send me to the electric chair.”

“Hey,” he says sternly. “You think it's easy for me to root for you guys? The least you can do is get back together.”

“Because it's your love life too,” I finish.

“No,” he says seriously. “But look at it this way. If you of all people can b.s. an FBI agent's daughter into disbelieving her own father's photographic evidence, it has to bode well for the b.s. master who taught you everything you know.”

Apparently, Galileo was wrong. Everything orbits Alex Tarkanian.

I can't find Kendra anywhere, and she isn't in the cafeteria at lunch. I'm starting to suspect that she heard about our last-place finish in the Homecoming balloting and bolted. I mean, neither of us expected to win—and in view of our breakup, the last thing she'd want is to be my “royal consort.” But to have your nobody-hood confirmed by school-wide vote in a very public forum—that has to hurt. I know I felt it.

I may be a dweeb in the eyes of the school, but in New Media, at least, I get respect as the architect of the supreme site. I spend the class crafting a special message that will appear on iluvmycat.usa whenever somebody tries to enter Meow Marketplace:

Due to overwhelming response, Meow Marketplace is no longer accepting new ads. Enter your five-digit ZIP code and click on the link below to visit the site of the Humane Society branch nearest your home.

Let's see what Tommy has to say to that.

Mr. Mullinicks doesn't approve. “Not a smart idea, Vince. Meow Marketplace is the most successful feature of any site in the class. Without it, you've got practically nothing.”

“That's the whole point,” I say. “Maybe I can divert some business over to Feline Friends Network.”

“It'll drastically reduce your traffic,” he warns. “How can I determine your grade based on how many hits you
might
have gotten if you hadn't made this unwise move?”

I've been waiting an entire semester for that question. “With all due respect, Mr. Mullinicks,” I tell him, “that's your problem.”

I start toying with the idea of calling Kendra when I get home. Her dad will tape the call, but at this point, what harm can it do? That's the one advantage of hitting rock bottom: the situation couldn't possibly get any worse.

So I'm surprised to come around a corner and find her standing right in front of my locker, waiting for me, beautiful and terrifying and no longer mine.

She doesn't say anything, so I fire a cautious salvo. “We didn't win.”

“I heard. Was it close?”

I shake my head. “We got three votes.”

She absorbs the blow. It doesn't seem to bother her.

“I voted for us,” I continue, “and I think Alex did, out of pity. I don't know who was number three.”

“Me.”

I just stare.

“Ray came by before he—left. He told me how you were only trying to help those guys. How you protected him. I'm so sorry for not believing you.”

My heart soars. I've been wrong about a lot of things these last couple of months. But I was bang-on about Ray Francione. I ruined a four-year undercover operation and got him banished to God-knows-where in the witness protection program, and he still took the time to visit my girlfriend and straighten everything out before he had to disappear, thanks to me. If that's a rat, I'm moving to the sewer.

“I want you back,” is all I can think of to say.

“Me, too,” she replies in her husky singing voice, the voice that kept Mom in the kitchen and the Calabrese murder an unsolved crime.

We're in each other's arms now, the last-place finishers in the Homecoming vote, making a scene at dismissal, the most crowded time of the day. We're such an unlikely pair, Mob prince and FBI princess, but we must look like a cliché: the classic locker-front break up/make up. From the double doors at the end of the hall, I catch a glimpse of Alex, flashing me V for victory.

Kendra becomes aware of the scores of eyes on us, and tries to wriggle from my grasp.

I don't let go. “They didn't vote for us. Screw 'em,” I whisper.

She laughs and melts back into me.

“How's your father taking this?” I ask.

“He hates it,” she admits. “What about your family? Do they know yet?”

“I just spilled the beans to my dad, but I didn't stick around for the postgame fireworks. It's not going to be easy, for either of us.”

She looks into my eyes and sighs. “What did Romeo and Juliet do?”

“They died,” I remind her gently. “Some mix-up with the poison—”

She cuts me off. “But what if they'd lived?”

I think it over. “Same as us, I guess. Stay cool, and never bring the folks together for a meet-and-greet.”

 

Gordon Korman
is the author of more than seventy popular young adult and middle grade novels, including
The Juvie Three
;
Schooled
;
Born to Rock
;
Son of the Mob
;
Son of the Mob:
Hollywood Hustle
;
Jake
,
Reinvented
;
No More Dead Dogs
; and
The 6th Grade Nickname Game
.

Gordon lives with his family on Long Island, New York. Visit his Web site at
www.gordonkorman.com
.

Go California scheming with Vince in

Son of the Mob:
Hollywood Hustle
,

as he goes to college to escape his family ties, only to discover that the tentacles of the mob can reach him anywhere.…