Read Online Naomi Grim by Tiffany Nicole Smith - Free Book Online

the
driveway. "You were spying on me!"
    "I was not. I just
happened to be looking out of the window at the same time he was leaving,"
Bram lied. "Anyway, he's going to die."
    "Yeah, I know," I
mumbled.
    "I told you not to get
involved with them. Just watch from the outside. Now you're going to be all
depressed and it's totally your fault."
    I shoved a spoonful of
Cheerios in my mouth to keep from telling him to shut the hell up.
    "Anyway," Keira
said, "we know time is running out since we're seeing more and more of
them, but we're not sure who's doing it. I've been hanging out with these kids
since we've been here and I haven't heard a thing. I really don't think they
have it in them."
    Bram shrugged. "I
haven't come across anyone suspicious either. Still, stay alert. Be aware of
your surroundings. This can happen any day now."

Chapter 20
     
     
     
    American History turned out
to be the never-ending hour. Ms. G. talked about how the United States was a
democracy—a government ruled by the majority. I wondered what that felt like.
Nowhere was the opposite. Dunningham and the Covenant had the only and final
say. We Grims did what we were told, no questions asked. I   spotted
two more Fated in the class and I was restless. I had no interest in American
History to begin with, but there was absolutely no way I could focus.
    My whole day was spent
dodging Roxy and Hunter. How could I look them in the eye? During PE, I'd
pretended to be sick so I could spend the period in the nurse's office. She
took my temperature because I was so pale, unaware that I always looked that
way. She'd told me to call my mother because my temperature was lower than it
should have been. I realized my mistake and hightailed it out of there.
    When Mr. Mayer assigned us
to answer questions at the end of the chapter in Language Arts, I asked for a
hall pass to use the restroom. I took my sweet time walking down the empty
hallway. It was my intention to take as much time as possible.
    I went into the bathroom and
found it empty. I stared at myself in the mirror for a minute. I had been
playing around with my makeup, following Roxy and Paige's tips. My face didn't
look as good as when they had done it, but it looked okay.
    I went into a stall because
I did kind of have to go. I heard someone enter. Whoever it was didn't go into
a stall. They stopped in front of the mirror. I heard water running from the
sink. I flushed and left the stall.
    The girl at the sink was
washing her face. She had that familiar look I knew all too well—the look of a
Forager. I was confused. Doyle said he had taken care of them.
    The girl looked at my
reflection in the mirror and smiled. "Hello, Grim."
    I went to the sink to wash
my hands. "I don't know what you're talking about."
    The girl had an ashy,
sunken-in face. Although she was young, the girl was beginning to age
prematurely. She wore a cap over her brown dingy-looking hair. I noticed how
Forager's features seemed to lighten. They weren't as dark as ours. She
laughed. "Please, you know what I am, and I know what you are."
    "Why are you
here?"
    "We know. We know there
are many lives to be collected here. Enough to sustain our people for a while.
We need these lives a lot more than you do. You don't need them at all."
    I turned the water off and
grabbed a paper towel. "You won't get to those lives before us."
    "Don't be too sure
about that," the girl said. "This is life or death for us. You'd be
surprised what one would do to survive. Of course, you wouldn't know about
that. You've never had to fight for your life."
    She was right about that.
"How many of you are here?"
    "Enough. A lot more
than five."
     "It doesn't matter.
We're much stronger than you are."
    The girl ran her fingers through
her dirty hair. "That may be, but your group has a weak spot."
    "Yeah, what would that
be?"
    "You," the girl
answered. "You're the weak spot. You think we don't watch you? Follow your
every move?"
    That couldn't be. I was a
Grim. If