"Jesse Harris - The Power - Aidan's FateUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harris Jesse)

Inspired by an old horror movie on TV, her

father, Jimmy, and she had spent one October trying to rig a metal dragon that breathed real fire for Halloween. It never worked. The dragon kept tipping and falling. But they'd had a good time anyway, especially when they gave up and used the lighter fluid to start the outdoor grill. Then they toasted marshmallows. Neighbor kids got wind of the marshmallow toasting and flooded to the yard for the warm treats. Mr. Gold donned the metal dragon head and danced around the barbecue's fire. It was the kind of thing McKenzie loved him for.

The morning paper lay on the kitchen table. She glanced at the day's headlines. Preparations were already beginning for Lakeville's Annual Winter Carnival and Fireworks Festival, which would be held at the end of the month. She was psyched—the winter carnival was an event not to miss!

She carried her cereal bowl into the den, where Jimmy was watching TV. On the screen two Saturday superheroes fought to the death. Her brother wasn't watching, though. He and his friend Nick were playing with toy metal racing cars.

"Watch out!" he snapped at his older sister. "You're right in the middle of the highway."

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"Pardonnez-moi," said McKenzie, stepping to the side.

"GO!" yelled Nick. The two boys zoomed their cars toward each other along the rug.

"BOOM!" yelled Jimmy as the cars crashed.

McKenzie paused in mid-swallow. Jimmy and Nick both raised their cars into the air in a slow-motion accident. Suddenly she was picturing her dream. She saw Aidan at the wheel, driving so fast, that tense look on his face, the pelting snow.

She tried to shake off the image, but it wouldn't go away. It kept playing out, like the slow-motion accident Jimmy and Nick had just staged. It didn't stop until she had recalled it all—until she had remembered seeing Aidan's car blow up, once again, in a shimmering ball of hot, white flame.

"Oh, yeah," Aidan told the group, "before I forget, there's a photo contest I want to tell you guys about."

He sorted through the pile of photos on his desk, looking for the article he had clipped from that morning's Lakeville Times.

This was Aidan's third week running the photo club at the Lakeville Community Center. It

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wasn't as if he didn't have enough to do already. He was studying karate; taking photos for the Guardian, the school paper; working a part-time job at the Gap; playing keyboard in his friend Boz's band; and tutoring math. But when Mr. Grunwald at the center had asked him, he just couldn't resist. The club met twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He liked all of the five kids who had signed up.

"Here we go." He waved the newspaper article. "I'll put this up on the bulletin board so you can all read it. It says they're going to award twenty-five dollars each to the best photos of the winter carnival."

"Do they have age groups or anything?" asked the twelve-year-old in the front row.

Aidan quickly scanned the article. "Yeah. Twelve and under." He looked around at his young club members. "That's all of you, right? Plus thirteen to eighteen. That's me. And nineteen and up."

"What if one of us wins and you don't?" asked another kid.

Aidan smiled. "That'll just prove what an awesome teacher I am."

He glanced at Kevin Larsen, the skinny ten-year-old who always sat in the back row, his

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hands folded tightly on his desk. The boy's expression was serious, attentive.

Aidan tried hard not to make the club meetings like a classroom. He had suffered through too many strict teachers himself. But Kevin seemed to have some self-discipline. Aidan smiled at Kevin; the boy smiled back, revealing a mouthful of slightly crooked teeth that needed braces. There was something about the kid that got to Aidan. He seemed older than his ten years.