Page 244 of Crank (Crank 1)

Leigh. Would she ever know

the pleasure—or terror—of pregnancy?

Does she have a DVD player?

I bobbed my head. “Heather does.

How about a Palm Pilot?”

Great idea! Leigh’s so disorganized!

The ice princess gently stroked

my hair, and for one very scary instant…

There’s the buzzer. More cookies?

I verged on coming clean.

I Opened My Mouth

just as Scott rumbled

through the door,

winding down what

I guessed must have

been a very long ramble:

… out-of-touch politicians …

… the [email protected]#!*#@economy …

… the next round of layoffs …

… the boss’s decision to scale

back raises and Christmas

bonuses, despite signing

off on his own 20% pay hike …

So much for ho-ho-ho.

So much for confessions.

So much for answers.

And then Mom made

the mistake of turning

on the radio as a weather

forecaster announced