Excerpt from A List of Cages by Robin Roe, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Other nights it's as if there's something moving just beneath his skin, something crawling and scratching to get out. On those nights it would be better to hear his office door shut. Lonely and locked out, but still better.

His mouth twists to the side in an almost smile. "You misspelled sinister." He drops my notebook to the floor. "Come into the kitchen."

I follow him to the other room, where he opens a take-out container. He stands at the black granite countertop, slicing his steak with a sharp knife and eating dripping red bites. The house is quiet except for the distant metal thumping of the water heater, like the sound the dryer makes if you leave coins in your pocket.

"Your principal called me today." Russell's voice is deep, calm, and steady, but his words prompt a heavy thumping in my chest. Mr. Pearce said he wouldn't call if I promised to go to class, and I'd promised. For just a second the image of my father standing to meet me outside the school flickers behind my eyes.

"Are you listening to me?"

I nod hastily, ashamed. I don't work hard enough. Not like Russell, who works harder than anyone I know. He's had to ever since his dad died when he was seventeen. Again I try to picture a young, frail Russell, but I can't.

He slices the steak and takes another red bite. "How long have you lived here?"

My stomach goes cold, like I've swallowed winter. He's going to kick me out. I've pulled this one too many times, and he's done. "I'm sorry."

"That's not what I asked you."

"Four years."

"In all that time, what's the only thing I've asked of you? What's our only agreement?"

"That you can trust me."

"And?" He takes another bite.

"You can trust me to do the right thing."

"And ? "

"You won't have to look into what I'm doing."

"I don't ask too much of you, do I?" All the feeling that's not in his voice starts jumping in the vein in his neck.

"No."

"I understand your . . . limitations. I don't expect A's from you. I don't even expect B's. But sitting in a classroom isn't too difficult, is it?"

"No."

"I don't like getting called by your school. I want to be able to trust you."

"I'm sorry." I really am.

He sets the knife next to the clean bone. "Go get it.

Excerpted from A List of Cages by Robin Roe. Copyright © 2017 by Robin Roe. Excerpted by permission of Disney-Hyperion. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.