Envy - 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

stunt at the dance? It was al I could do to talk them out of firing me.”
    “Hey, don’t look at me, I’m the victim here,” Kaia countered. “According to Mr. Hemp, at least.” Kaia had been reprimanded for her “flagrant disregard of Mr. Powel ’s personal space” and had been sentenced to six weeks’ worth of meetings with the school psychologist, who, she suspected, had received his pseudo degree off the Internet, if not purchased it at Shrinks “R” Us. She would have preferred a prison term.
    “Victim?” He snorted. “I’m warning you, Kaia, if you’re trying to spread some kind of—if you think you can set me up—”
    “Chil out, Jack.” She flashed an insouciant grin. “I think you got my message. This time I come in peace. I want to cal a truce.”
    “A truce?” he repeated dubiously. “So this means you’re going to stop throwing yourself at me and end this apparent quest to get me fired?”
    “Provisional yes to the latter, definite no to the former.” She leaned forward to give him a quick peck on the lips, but he twisted his face away, and instead her lips brushed his coarse stubble. Good enough. “You want me, Mr. Powel . You just don’t know it yet. But you wil .”
    “I want you to get out of here,” he said coldly, “and make sure that no one sees you go. And then I want you to drop French and do me the favor of pretending I don’t exist. Or at least letting me pretend that about you. Let’s start now.”
    He sat down at the desk and began shuffling through a stack of papers, pointedly refusing to look at her.
    Kaia stood before him, hands on her hips, shaking her head and clucking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, like a mother reprimanding her young.
    “Mr. Powel , I thought we’d already established that if I want to, I can make life here very unpleasant for you. You said it yourself—I can be trouble. You’re right. I don’t think you want to be rude to me.”
    Silence. And more paper shuffling.
    “Okay,” Kaia agreed, heading for the door. “You’re lucky I’m in a ‘make love, not war’ mood … for now.”
    After escaping the SAT session, Beth and Adam treated themselves to an impromptu picnic in Dwyer Park (complete with brownish tufts of grass, brownish decaying picket fence, and brownish pond—as desert oases went, it ranked somewhere between Palm Springs and a garbage dump). Once they’d gotten everything set up, Adam ran off to grab them some soda from the nearby drugstore. Beth’s phone rang as soon as he was gone.
    It was Kane. She’d left a message for him just after leaving the school, so she wasn’t surprised to see his name pop up on her cal er ID. Stil , it was strange—he’d never cal ed her before. And if he had, she probably wouldn’t have picked up the phone.
    They only spoke for a few minutes, just enough time to agree on the tutoring and pick a time for their first meeting. But the conversation wasn’t nearly as awkward as she’d feared—and weirdly, Beth found herself almost looking forward to their first encounter.
    She put the phone away with a quizzical frown. Kane had seemed so genuine, so earnest, so pleasant, so … total y un-Kane-like. He’d limited himself to only two sarcastic comments and one sexual innuendo. For a five-minute conversation, it had to be a personal best. And even stranger—he actual y seemed to want her help. He seemed to want to do wel , whatever it would take.
    Kane? Working? Had she walked out of the school this morning and into some alternate universe?
    The Kane she knew—though, granted, she didn’t know him very wel and had never wanted to change that—thought hard work meant applying a little extra torque when opening a stuck bottle lid. And even that was only worth it if the bottle contained some kind of alcoholic beverage or was handed to him by a weak and soon to be very grateful cheerleader. Back before she and Adam had gotten together, Kane had chased after her, as he did