Read Online Night School by Mari Mancusi - Free Book Online Page B

Corbin,” Peter says, nudging him with his foot. “You got beat by Home School.”
    The spell seems to break and Corbin scrambles to his feet. He glares at me with vile hatred deep in his emerald eyes. Guess the vampire scent has worn off. And he’s so not looking pleased about the new girl kicking his ass in front of his friends.
    “Good job, Little Slayer,” he manages to grind out, while brushing himself off. “But I’m afraid next time you won’t be so lucky.” He gathers his friends and together they head down the field.
    I watch them go, feeling my fangs finally retract. Lucky? He doesn’t know how lucky he just was. And as for next time? Well, the hunger is growing. And I don’t know how I’m going to be able to stop myself.
    8
    “Oh my God, everything in my entire body hurts,” Sunny moans as she limps down the cafeteria aisle, tray of food in hand. She sits down across from me and Lilli, who has invited us to her table to eat with her and her friends.
    “I thought you were in a class with twelve-year-olds,” I remark, pushing my food around my plate to make it look like I’m eating. I ordered a burger extra, extra rare and tried to suck the blood out of it before the others showed up, but it just made me puke. If I don’t find Blood Synthetic soon, I’m in big trouble.
    “Yeah. Try huge, strong, ridiculously well-trained twelve-year-olds,” she moans, holding out an arm so I can see all the blue-and-black bruises already starting to form. “Who don’t have a drop of respect for their elders.” She sighs.
    “How did you get to be a slayer?” one of the girls at the table asks curiously. “If you’re totally not into the fighting thing?”
    “Long story. Don’t ask,” Sunny mutters, shoveling a big spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth.
    “Hey Rayne, do you want to come grab some more Kool-Aid with me?” Lilli asks, after slurping down the last of her drink. Man, the girl’s addicted to the stuff. “You must be really thirsty after all that practice out on the field.”
    “No thanks, I’m good,” I reply, pretending to take a sip of my water, not wanting to hurt her feelings. Even as a mortal, Kool-Aid was never my thing.
    Lilli shrugs and jumps up from her seat. “Suit yourself,” she says as she skips down the aisle.
    “Don’t look now,” hisses her friend Evelyn to my right, “but Corbin’s looking over here.”
    Of course, she said don’t look , which always makes me automatically turn around to do just that. I see Corbin and his friends sitting a few tables away, their table piled high with food. Sure enough, the Alpha slayer has turned away from the group and is watching me intently with longing green eyes. When he catches me looking, he scowls and turns away.
    I shiver involuntarily. What have I done to him? And is there a way to undo it? If only Jareth were here. He’d know what to do.
    “I heard you took him down this morning,” Evelyn says, forcing my attention back to my new friends. “No one’s ever done that before.”
    “Yeah, everyone at school is talking about it,” adds Amber, another one of the lunchtime gang. “You’re, like, famous already.”
    Great. And here I was supposed to be keeping a low profile. What was I thinking, taking down the big bad Alpha slayer? Seriously, forget slaying—finding trouble should be my full-time job. I’m certainly good at it.

    We spend the afternoon inside, listening to lectures on vampire history, vampire politics, vampires in literature, etc. By the two P.M. study hall break, I’m already all vamped out. I mean, I don’t even think actual vampires know as much about their kind as these monotone Slay School teachers do. Or maybe it’s just that vamps prefer to learn at their leisure, seeing as they’ve got more than a couple lifetimes to soak it all in. Mortal slay students are the ones who have to cram.
    In any case, study hall is held in a beautiful, musty old library with stained-glass windows,