Beastly Read Online Free PDF Page A

still refused to wear it.
    “Hey, you want it?” I said to the girl.
    “That’s not nice,” she said.
    “What?” I tried to remember if I’d ever picked on her. Nah. She wasn’t ugly enough to tease, just a total zero, not worth my time.
    “Goofing on me, pretending you’re going to give it to me, then taking it back.”
    “I wasn’t pretending. You can have it.” It was so weird that she even cared about a stupid rose. “It’s not the right color for my girlfriend’s dress or something, so she won’t wear it. It’s just going to die, so you might as well take it.” I held it out to her.
    “Well, since you put it that way…” She smiled, taking it from me. I tried not to notice her crooked teeth. Why didn’t she just get braces? “Thanks. It’s beautiful.”
    “Hey, enjoy it.”
    I walked away sort of smiling. Why had I done that? I for sure wasn’t in the habit of doing favors for uglies. I wondered if all poor people got that excited over stupid little things like that. I couldn’t remember the last time I was excited about anything. Anyway, it was fun, knowing Sloane would eventually stop whining and want the rose, and I’d be able to say I didn’t have it.
    I looked around for Kendra. I’d almost forgotten about Kendra, but my timing was, as usual, perfect because there she was, slinking into the front entrance. She wore a black and purple dress that looked like a costume for Harry Potter Goes to the Prom and she was looking for me.
    “Hey, where’s your ticket?” one of the ticket-taking drones said to her.
    “Oh… I don’t have… I was looking for someone.”
    I saw a flash of pity on the ticket taker’s face, like she knew exactly what was going down, loser to loser. But she said, “Sorry. I can’t let you in without a ticket.”
    “I’m waiting for my date.”
    Another pitying look. “Okay,” the volunteer said. “Just stand back a little.”
    “Fine.”
    I went to Sloane. I pointed at where Kendra was loserishly standing. “Showtime.” That was when Kendra spotted me.
    Sloane knew just what to do. Even though she was pissed at me, she was the type who’d never miss the opportunity to cause another girl permanent emotional damage. She grabbed me and planted a big kiss on my lips. “I love you, Kyle.”
    Sweet. I kissed her again, not repeating what she’d said.
    When we finished, Kendra was staring at us. I walked over to her.
    “What are you looking at, Ugly?”
    I expected her to cry then. It was fun to kick the nerds, make them cry, then kick them some more.
    I’d been looking forward to this night for a while. It almost made up for the corsage crap.
    But instead she said, “You really did it.”
    “Did what?” I said.
    “Look at her.” Sloane giggled. “She’s all dressed up in that ugly dress. It makes her look even fatter.”
    “Yeah, where’d you find that?” I said. “A trash heap?”
    “It was my grandmother’s,” Kendra said.
    “Around here people buy new dresses for a dance.” I laughed.
    “So you’re actually doing this, then?” she said. “You really did invite me to a dance even though you had another date, just to make me look stupid?”
    I laughed again. “You actually thought someone like me would take someone like you to a dance?”
    “No, I didn’t. But I hoped you wouldn’t make my decision so easy, Kyle.”
    “What decision?” Behind me, Sloane was cackling, chanting, “Loser,” and soon other people started in until finally the whole room was buzzing with the word so I could barely think straight.
    I looked at the girl, Kendra. She wasn’t crying. She didn’t look embarrassed either. She had this intense look in her eyes, like this chick in this old Stephen King movie I once saw, Carrie, where this girl developed telekinetic powers and took her enemies out. And I almost expected Kendra to start doing that
    – killing people just by looking at them.
    But instead she said in a voice only I could hear, “You’ll