Driver's Dead Read Online Free PDF Page A

kitchen entrance.
    â€œKirrrrrr-sssten …”
    The voice was low and growly.
    In the dining room.
    Just past the kitchen door.
    Kirsten froze. Her hands shaking, she reached for the letter opener on the table.
    Then, with a blood-curdling shriek, a hooded figure leaped into the kitchen.

Chapter 6
    â€œA AAAAAAAAH—!” K IRSTEN SCREAMED.
    But she swallowed it.
    Her attacker was on the floor, laughing. Holding a piece of paper that had been folded into a cone, like a megaphone.
    Kirsten caught her breath. The feeling was beginning to return to her extremities.
    And anger to her brain.
    â€œI hate you, Nat,” Kirsten snapped. “You are a total, hateful, worthless dork.”
    â€œWhatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!” Nat replied.
    â€œAnd immature, too!”
    Kirsten stormed off and wished her mom had given birth to a toad twelve years ago.
    Then again, maybe she had.
    Rrrrrrrrommmm … rrrrrrrommmmm!
    Kirsten and Maria were early for driver’s ed on Wednesday. As they waited for everyone else, they watched the auto shop class busily testing the car they were working on. Someone inside it was gunning the accelerator while another two had their heads in the engine. The rest of the class stood by, nodding knowingly.
    â€œWhy do boys like cars so much?” Kirsten asked.
    â€œOne word: testosterone,” Maria said. “Named after a famous Italian scientist, Giovanni Testosterone. It is secreted by the hormonal gland and makes males interested in loud, pollution-causing objects and unable to follow a beat on a dance floor. You can look it up.”
    Kirsten laughed. The boys were arguing about something over the drone of the engine—gravely tossing around words she had never heard, as if the future of the world depended on it.
    The car’s front door opened. The guy in the driver’s seat had been hidden behind dark-tinted windows. Now Kirsten could see it was Rob.
    As he casually stepped out and shut the door behind him, he seemed worlds away from the grubby, yammering guys around the hood. He was no Tom Cruise, that was for sure, but he had something the others didn’t have. A coolness, a sureness—a grace. He, Kirsten knew, would be able to follow a beat on a dance floor.
    This time, when his eyes met Kirsten’s, they stopped. Before she could look away, she saw the expression change on his face.
    He smiled.
    No doubt about it. He had remembered her from yesterday.
    The smile sent a chill through Kirsten—cool, sharp, almost icy. She felt stung. Shivery. She wasn’t sure she liked it.
    But she wasn’t sure she didn’t.
    When she looked back, he was hunched over the engine with the others. They were hanging on his every word.
    â€œOkay, let’s look lively!”
    Mr. Busk was trotting toward the driver’s ed car. Gwen had already climbed into the front seat, Maria and Sara into the back.
    Kirsten ran to the back door, but Sara pulled it shut. “Would you mind using the other side? I’m tired of sitting on the hump.”
    â€œOh. Okay,” Kirsten replied. She raced around to the other door.
    As she was getting in, she heard a distant low-pitched chuckle.
    She looked over to see Rob, watching her with a grin. This time she returned the smile.
    When Kirsten sat down, Maria glared at her. “Ah-hem. I saw that.”
    â€œStop,” Kirsten said, rolling her eyes.
    Gwen took off a bit suddenly. She steered the car out of the lot and past the school.
    â€œTurn left,” Mr. Busk growled.
    â€œYou bet,” Gwen chirped.
    â€œCross Sunrise and make your first right.”
    â€œOkey-dokey.”
    Gwen signaled, made full stops at the stop signs, accelerated and decelerated gently, and made pleasant chitchat with Mr. Busk.
    When Gwen was done, she parallel-parked perfectly and thanked Mr. Busk for his pointers.
    â€œNo problem,” Mr. Busk replied. “You’re my easiest