Read Online Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter by Nikki Jefford - Free Book Online Page B

so much better.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “None of your biz.”
    All three girls turned toward me and folded their arms.
    “Wait a minute,” Red said. She lowered her arms. “Are you
the girl who was in a coma?”
    “Yep.” My lips puckered as I formed the word.
    The two other Mouseketeers lowered their arms. They looked
me up and down. “I heard they had to reattach your body parts.”
    “Nope, just replace my organs.”
    “Wicked.”
    Red took a step toward me. For someone so short, she did a
good job of giving me the once-over. “So are you looking to party?”
    I tossed my lipstick inside my pack and picked up my scarf.
“I’m not looking to party. I party.”
    “I’m Whitney,” Red said. “This is Noel and Hope.”
    “Noel,” I repeated, looking at the girl in the hoodie.
“Don’t tell me your parents wanted to give you an ‘Alaskan’ name, too?”
    “I was born on Christmas.”
    “Then I guess you’re in the right place.”
    Whitney lifted her chin as I threw my scarf over my
shoulder. “Where’d you get it?”
    “The mall.”
    She smiled slightly and waited.
    “Crashed a party across town during the holiday.”
    “It wasn’t one of Marcus’s, was it?” Noel asked. “Marcus
throws the best parties.”
    Crap. I hadn’t thought this through enough.
    I rolled one of the red fringes at the end of my scarf
between my fingers as I reached for an answer. “I didn’t get a name. I didn’t
really care, if you know what I mean.”
    “Sure,” Whitney said, though her expression said otherwise.
    “Want to hang with us in the library?” Noel asked.
    I hesitated. This badass group hung out at the library?
    As though reading my thoughts, Whitney laughed. “Hall
monitors don’t bother us in the library. They think our teachers sent us there
to study.”
    “Oh, clever.”
    The four of us started out the door.
    “I like your scarf,” Hope said.
    “Thanks, I’m ironic like that.”
    The juniors, it turned out, had some tricks to teach me. The
library, for instance, was a sanctuary from the humdrum boredom of the
classroom, and no one bothered us there. Believe it or not, the lounge inside
the front office was another safe haven where a student could sit undisturbed,
and if the secretary happened to get off her lethargic ass, you just said you
were there to see your counselor or waiting for a parent to pick you up for a
doctor’s appointment. During third period, the music room was unoccupied, and
we could mess around by creating our own out-of-tune masterpieces or let
Whitney play real music.
    “Are you guys going to winter ball?” I asked as Noel made
her way down her keyboard, pressing each key from left to right.
    “We don’t go to school dances,” Hope said.
    No, of course not.
    Fane Donado didn’t go to school dances, either.
    His loss, ’cause I’d made up my mind to attend winter ball even
if I had to go stag. If he bothered to show up I might have asked him to dance.
    On the walk home he’d proved he had a sensitive side. And if
Fane could dance half as well as he played badminton it could be fun.
    But I’d never seen Fane at a school dance.
    Not once.
    Not ever.
    At least we had gym together. I couldn’t wait to say ‘hi’
now that we were on speaking terms.
    I changed into my gym clothes quickly with the other girls
in the locker room, pulling stray strands of hair out of my scarf into a
ponytail.
    Inside the gymnasium, Mr. Mooney rolled out a cart filled
with basketballs. The eager beavers were already dribbling balls down the
court, warming up.
    I paced the floor, keeping my eyes peeled for Fane. Seconds
before the warning bell rang, he pushed through the double doors, Valerie by
his side. I tried to catch his eye, but Fane ignored me completely. It was as
though I had dreamed the entire encounter of him walking me home in the snow.
    How stupid of me to believe someone at this school might
actually notice what I was going through. Not Fane. Not anyone.
    Fane