Read Online Silver by Cheree Alsop - Free Book Online Page A

glanced down the hall toward the
teachers’ lounge where they held their meeting. He looked as
stressed as I felt. “Amazed we didn’t get jumped again?” he asked.
He pulled the office door shut and locked it.
    “ The day isn’t over yet,” I
replied grimly. I studied both the long halls visible from the
office, but they were empty. I shook my head. “Let’s get this over
with.”
    I followed him past the desks toward
Principal Stewart’s office; we stopped at a door on the left side
of the hall just before it. The keys jangled more than necessary in
Brock’s hand, and I glanced over to see him bite his lip.
“Nervous?” I asked quietly.
    He grinned and shook his head. “Excited,
actually. I never thought to look in the student files for evidence
about the werewolves. Now’s my chance!”
    I shook my head, not sure we would find
anything helpful. Brock opened the door and flipped on the light.
Neon hummed above, illuminating a tiny room with four filing
cabinets across the left wall and the same on the right. A short
table sat at the far end already piled with files. Brock went
straight to the third cabinet on the left. “These are the Junior
files.”
    “ What about those over
there?” I asked, gesturing to the opposite row.
    “ Those are students who
have already graduated.” He paused, a hand on the cabinet door. “Do
you think we should check those, too?”
    I debated, then shook my head. “We don’t
have time. Let’s just pull files on Chet’s gang and go from
there.”
    He started pulling files alphabetically from
the drawer. When he turned to set a few on the table, I grabbed
Mouse’s out and slipped it behind the ones I held. I fought back a
wry smile. Mouse’s real name, Nicky Strouse, left little to the
imagination as to how he had gotten his nickname.
    I settled on the floor with my back against
a filing cabinet and flipped through Chet’s file. Brock leaned
against the table and did the same. We both searched silently
through the files for several minutes. I was amazed at how many
warnings and detentions Chet had received. But as far as I could
tell, he had never been suspended.
    “ Um,” Brock broke the
silence a few minutes later. “What exactly are we looking
for?”
    I shrugged. “Not sure, but I’m hoping I’ll
know when we find it.”
    Brock turned back to his file and muttered,
“Very helpful.”
    I fought back a grin and grabbed another
file. Two pages in, I stopped. I read the single sentence typed on
a plain white sheet of paper and my heart slowed. I grabbed Chet’s
file, found a similar sheet in his, then dropped it and grabbed
another file. Four pages in, I found the same thing. I dropped all
the files and leaned back against the metal cabinet; bile rose in
my throat.
    “ Jaze, what’s wrong?” Brock
leaned toward me, his eyes bright with concern.
    I closed my eyes and rubbed them hard,
willing the pages in the files to disappear. Only I knew they
wouldn’t. It made too much sense. “I found what we’re looking
for.”
    Brock's eyebrows lifted. “Really? You look
like you found a ghost or something.”
    “ Might as well have,” I
muttered. At his look, I opened Chet’s file and pointed at the
page. “Read this.”
    Brock took it and cleared his throat.
“Parents killed in car accident Sophomore year.”
    “ And this.” I handed him
one of the others I had found.
    “ Mother died in house fire,
Freshman year.”
    Wordlessly, I handed him another.
    His voice grew quieter. “Father, Mother, and
older brother killed in car accident, Sophomore year.” He looked up
at me. “Jaze, what is this?”
    “ There’s one in every file
I’ve looked at.” My throat tightened, but I forced out the words,
“Including my own.”
    Brock stared at me as the implication hit
him. “You mean someone is killing the werewolves?”
    “ The adult werewolves,” I
clarified.
    “ Why would they do
that?”
    My voice dropped as I fought to control the
anger. “Someone is