Read Online Evernight by Claudia Gray - Free Book Online Page B

electricity seemed to crackle through
the room. Mrs. Bethany pounced. "Do you have a problem with the
assignment, Miss Vargas?"

Her eyes glittered as she fixed her birdlike gaze on Raquel, who looked like
she would have gladly bitten off her tongue to have kept from saying anything.
Already her one uniform sweater had begun to pill and look worn around the
elbows. "No, ma'am."

"It sounded as though you did. Please, Miss Vargas, enlighten us."
Mrs. Bethany folded her arms in front of her chest, amused by whatever joke she
was playing. Her fingernails were thick and strangely grooved. "If Norse
sagas about giant monsters strike you as worthy of your notice, why not novels about
vampires?"

Whatever Raquel said would be wrong. She'd try to answer, and Mrs. Bethany
would shoot her down no matter what, and we could go on like that for most of
the class. That was the way Mrs. Bethany had amused herself during every class
period so far, finding someone to torment, usually for the amusement of the
students whose powerful families she obviously preferred. The smart thing to do
would've been for me to shut up and let Raquel be Mrs. Bethany's whipping boy
for the day, but I couldn't stand watching it.

Tentatively, I raised my hand. Mrs. Bethany barely glanced at me. "Yes,
Miss Olivier?"

" Dracula 's not a very good book, though, is it?" Everyone
stared at me, shocked that somebody else had contradicted Mrs. Bethany.
"It has such flowery language, and all those letters within letters."

"I see that someone disapproves of the epistolary form that so many
distinguished authors employed during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries." The click-click of Mrs. Bethany's shoes on the tile floor
seemed unnaturally loud as she walked toward me, Raquel forgotten. The scent of
lavender grew stronger. "Do you find it antiquated? Out of date?"

Why did I ever raise my hand? "It just isn't a very fast-moving
book. That's all."

"Speed is, of course, the standard by which all literature is to be
judged." A few snickers around the room made me squirm in my seat.
"Perhaps you want your classmates to wonder why anyone would ever study
this?"

"We're studying folklore," Courtney interjected. She wasn't rescuing
me, just showing off. I wondered if that was to put me down or get Balthazar to
look at her. For days she'd been making sure her kilt showed off her legs to
their best advantage every time she sat down, but so far he seemed unmoved.
"One common element in folklore around the world is the vampire."

Mrs. Bethany simply nodded at Courtney. "In modern Western culture no
vampire myth is more famous than that of Dracula. Where better to begin?"

I surprised everyone, including myself, by saying, " The Turn of the
Screw ."

"I beg your pardon?" Mrs. Bethany raised her eyebrows. Nobody in the
room seemed to understand what I was getting at—except Balthazar, who was
obviously biting his lip to keep from laughing.

" The Turn of the Screw . The Henry James novella about ghosts, at
least maybe about ghosts." I wasn't going to start the old debate about
whether or not the main character was insane. I'd always found ghosts really
scary, but they were easier to face in fiction than Mrs. Bethany was in the
flesh. "Ghosts are even more universal in folklore than vampires. And
Henry James is a better writer than Bram Stoker."

"When you are designing the class, Miss Olivier, you may begin with
ghosts." My teacher's voice could have cut glass. I had to suppress a
shiver as she stood over me, more stone-faced than any gargoyle. "Here, we
will begin by studying vampires. We will learn how differently vampires have
been perceived by different cultures over the ages, from the distant past until
today. If you find it dull, take heart. We'll get to ghosts soon enough even
for you."

After that, I knew to shut up and stay quiet.

In the hallway after class, tremulous with that strange weakness that always
follows humiliation, I walked slowly through the throng of