Read Online Slawter by Darren Shan - Free Book Online Page B

but finally caved in and gave him a small part as a kid who raises the alarm when the demons are about to break through
en masse.
I don’t think Davida gives way too often, so Tump must be good at his job. Which is just as well, because from what I’ve seen of Bo and Abe, they’re awful at theirs!
    The third mini-tyrant is Vanalee Metcalf. Her parents are multimillionaires. Too busy to waste time with their daughter on-set, so she came equipped with her own bodyguard-cum-servant, who glares at anyone who doesn’t grovel at her feet.
    Bo, Abe, and Vanalee took one look at Bill-E and me when we were introduced to them this morning, smirked at each other in a snide, superior way, and turned their noses up to let us know we weren’t worthy of direct notice.
    Our tutor is a sweet but nervous woman named Supatra Jaun. I can tell within ten minutes that she can’t handle Bo and her posse. She lets them talk to each other while she’s teaching and doesn’t ever try to assert her authority. Sometimes she’ll murmur, “Now, now, Bo, please pay attention,” but without any real hope that the blond, ponytailed, stick-thin brat will obey.
    Miss Jaun seems genuinely pleased that Bill-E and I have been added to her class, probably because we’re polite and show some interest. She talks to us warmly, finds out what we’ve been studying, takes a few notes, and promises to bring us up to scratch in next to no time.
    “I bet those dirtbags know a lot about scratching,” Bo sniffs.
    “Meaning?” I growl at her.
    “
Lice,
you moron!” she screeches, and Abe and Vanalee burst out laughing.
    “We’ve found our nemesis,” Bill-E mutters in my ear, pegging it dead-on. “Hate her, Grubbs. Hate her good and proper.”
    “Does her character die in the script?” I ask Emmet.
    “No,” he says. “She ends up saving the town, along with Salit.”
    “A pity,” I sigh.
    “But she does fall into a pit full of demon manure at one stage,” Emmet says, and my day lights right up.
    Our first session lasts two hours, a mix of history, biology, and math. Miss Jaun seems to be confident in all subjects — a smart cookie. Then an assistant director pops in and says they need Bo and Salit. Miss Jaun checks her watch, says we might as well all take a break, and asks those of us not involved in filming to return in an hour. It’s certainly a lot more laid-back than our school in Carcery Vale.
    Emmet wants to practice his lines on Bill-E and me again, but we don’t have the patience, so we leave him with his mom in his trailer. We grab sandwiches from one of the many mobile cafeterias, then go see if anything exciting is happening. There’s not much to keep us amused today. Davida and her crew are setting up a tracking shot on a street, trying to get lots of actors in place and working in sync with each other. Fairly boring to watch. A lot of filming is.
    “I still can’t believe we’re here,” Bill-E says as we wander around. “Maybe this will become Dervish’s full-time job and we’ll travel around the world on film shoots with him.”
    “I doubt it,” I laugh. “Your gran and grandad wouldn’t allow it. I’m surprised they agreed to let Dervish have you for this long. Did he work some magic spells on them?”
    “Nope,” Bill-E says. “They were happy to let me come. Gran loves movies, especially old flicks starring the likes of David Niven and Ingrid Bergman. She thought this was a great opportunity for me. I think she’s hoping I’ll fall in love with a beautiful blind cellist or some such nonsense. She believes that a lot of those old films were based on true stories, that the world’s really like that.”
    “Mind you, a girl would have to be blind to fall in love with you,” I comment. “Otherwise they could never return your love, could they?”
    “Your face,” Bill-E snorts. “My flabby nether regions. Spot the similarity?”
    I get Bill-E in a headlock and rub my knuckles into his skull, but it’s all in