12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsRX15oEjD0
Joel held up the cracker-brick like some ancient artifact, flecks of mold drifting onto his jeans. "Here's the deal," he said, voice dropping into that weirdly formal tone he used when negotiating dares. "If I eat three bites of this prehistoric nightmare, you—" he jabbed a finger at Walker, "—have to let me drag you to the fall carnival face-painting booth. Giant rainbow. Forehead. No whining."
Walker's grin faltered for half a second—everyone knew he'd been trying to cultivate a "mysterious loner" vibe since eighth grade started—but Valerie's sudden snort-laugh made his shoulders stiffen. "Deal," he shot back, too fast. "But you puke, you lose."
Oakley made a retching noise and rolled onto his side like a dying walrus. "Dude, those crackers are basically science experiments by now—"
Joel didn't let him finish. He snapped off a corner of the cracker-monolith with a sickening crunch, held it up to the sunlight like a sommelier inspecting wine, then popped it into his mouth. The silence was immediate and total. Even the cicadas seemed to pause.
Joel's face twisted like he'd bitten into a lemon wrapped around a battery. His cheeks bulged for a terrifying second before he forced a swallow, throat working hard enough that Valerie swore she heard his Adam's apple scream. A single green cracker fleck clung to his bottom lip. "Tastes like," he gasped, "someone left a saltine in a gym locker for six years—" Another swallow. "—then sprinkled it with despair."
Walker's grin came back full-force, shark-like. "Two more bites, Shakespeare."
Jovie grabbed Joel's wrist before he could reach for the cracker-brick again. "You're gonna die," she hissed. "Actual death. Like, we'll have to tell your mom you choked on a fossilized snack."
Joel shook her off, eyes watering, but his fingers hesitated over the cracker's crumbling edge. Then he glanced at Walker—at the way Walker's too-cool slouch against the fence had a desperate edge now, like he was mentally calculating how fast he could bolt if Joel gave up. The mental image bloomed: Walker trapped in the carnival face-painting chair, some glitter-covered art student meticulously layering rainbow stripes across his forehead while Joel immortalized it on Snapchat with the caption "MYSTERY SOLVED."
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and then Add to home screen.