Demon Girl (Keeley Thomson Book One) Read Online Free PDF Page A

hoped that by dressing her funny no guy would ever touch her. That wasn't too far from the actual case, she knew.
   They were all red, with white traction feet on the bottom and made her look like a Dr. Seuss character when she wore them. They were also hot to sleep in, so she grabbed a pair of stretch shorts and a tank top as well. In about five minutes they had everything and were back out in the hallway. The house had come with paintings, so they looked at a scene of an old barn with assorted wild flowers around it as they headed down the little hallway toward the front room.
   Amazingly enough Eve sat in the little office space off the living room, working at a flower arrangement with Sherry, just a single vase, a salmon pink ceramic with crackle finish that was given a base of dried babies breath, little white dried flowers, and some fresh cut daisies. This got finished with a very nicely tied yellow ribbon.
   “And there you go!” Sherry said, passing the flowers along to Eve. “It's not that hard, once you have the equipment and know what you're doing. Then, that's most things in life, isn't it?”
   Eve goggled more than a bit and finally nodded her head.
   “Can you do corsages? If you can make them not too expensive I think we can get you some orders for homecoming.” She glanced at Darla who took the vase lovingly for a second.
   “I agree. We can probably deliver more work than you can handle just from Raintree. It's a price thing. Most of the shops in the area charge about forty dollars for an arrangement. If you can bring it in for under twenty...”
   Sherry seemed pleased by the idea, but didn't say anything more about it. Keeley wondered if it was because her mom almost never really did anything with her business? Not that she wasn't good, just that getting the clients was hard for her. Her dad didn't really like her to leave the house, but – surprise – that's where the customers were.
   Sherry walked over and gave her a hug, then passed hugs out to everyone else too, which should have been embarrassing but no one seemed to mind too much. Her mom wasn't OCD about germs, just keeping things in order and of course, doing things in threes or fours. The medicine had really helped there. She almost never had to go back and redo each group of three things three times any more.
   “OK, remember to check in! At least once a day.” She called as Darla practically dragged Keeley out the door by the arm, making pleased sounds as she did it. Giggling.
   Who giggled?
   “Don't worry, I will.” Darla called back as if the woman had been talking to her. It got a laugh though.
   When they resettled back in the car Keeley turned to her and shook her head.
   “OK, that was not normal, what did you do to my mom?” Even drugs wouldn't have explained it. No time for them to be delivered and the control was too precise for that anyway, hitting just the needed area of her mom's brain. So it had to be something else.
   Yes, her mom was always nice, but also overprotective and a bit hesitant when it came to letting Keeley do much of anything. She didn't let her gaze wonder even as Darla sat, looking innocent at first, and then focusing on backing up carefully. She didn't speak until they were on the road.
   “Oh... that.” The blond let the wind blow her hair back, not concerned with losing her hairstyle for some reason.
   “I used an ancient mental trick on her...”
   “Oh?” Keeley suddenly felt electric, like she was on to something new. An actual technique had been used? Before she could even point and yell, “ah ha” accusingly, Darla explained.
   “Yes, it's called “inundating people with the truth.” When I walked in I didn't give her a chance to doubt us or become suspicious, just putting everything up front. Obviously so. When you hit people with that much blunt truth, they tend to trust you instantly. It doesn't make them like you any better