Decoded

Decoded — page 7 — Right Grady said and headed for the door See you Mom As he passed by she stopped him But it’s never too late to hug your mom she said with a smile Yeah okay Grady said and couldn’t resist smiling back He gave his mom a quick hug and launched himself out the door Grady raced down the street thankful that Wheatley Middle and Elementary School was only a few blocks away He fumbled in his pocket for his MP3 player and found the play button A couple of good songs would get him pumped and ready to race to the school’s front doors 10

Decoded — page 8 — Immediately he could hear a twangy guitar fill his ears A second later some cowboy-sounding guy with an accent started singing about his tractor and his dog Country music As Grady crossed the street he pushed the double arrow button advancing to the next song More twang A couple of cowboys singing about America What is going on Grady groaned skipping to the next song and the next Every single track was a country song None of them were songs he had on his playlist at all He stopped pulled his player from his pocket and looked at the display The Lasso Ladies Hobie McGurt The Ranch Hand Three All country artists He double-checked to see if he’d grabbed the wrong MP3 player but it was definitely his 11

Decoded — page 9 — Even if it wasn’t he knew that no one in his family liked listening to that kind of music Seriously Grady mumbled turning off the music In his opinion it was better to hear traffic and birds chirping than some ten-gallon-hat-wearing guy complain about his girl leaving him As he was about to tuck the player into his pocket he noticed a small white sticker on the back of the device On it were three strange words LIARS OF LOP What the heck Grady exclaimed The sticker looked as if it had been printed on a laser printer and was small enough to fit on the back of the player As he headed to school later than ever Grady wondered how so many weird things could happen to him in one morning 12

Decoded — page 10 — 2 DUSTED After checking in at the front office and getting himself a nice green tardy slip Grady headed to his locker to drop off his bag and grab his stuff for first-period social studies He spun the dial on his lock and pulled the metal handle to release the latch As the door swung open something sifted out of the bottom and onto the floor Sawdust There was enough sawdust jammed in there that it buried the bottom of his locker and plenty of it dumped onto his shoes 13

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