Freaks of Greenfield High Read Online Free PDF Page B

to trot along behind them like so much window-dressing. Now Shawn’s reliance on Bettina was coming back to bite him in the ass.
     
    “Hey,” Shawn said, a note of panic infusing his voice. “If you’re wondering about Bettina and me? As if! You know what I’m saying?”
     
    Dude. Even Tyler winced at the brutal dismissal of Bettina’s charms.
     
    Bettina threw Shawn a look that would have shriveled his balls if he’d been paying her the slightest bit of attention, and intervened before he could dig himself an ever bigger hole. She slid from her stool and sidled over to command the newcomer’s attention with a hand on her arm.
     
    “Hi,” she said. “I’m Bettina.” Cue wide, doll-like eyes and cutesy pursing of her gloss-slicked lips. “And isn’t that, like, such a coincidence about me and Eloise deciding to partner up? It means you and Shawn can be—”
     
    “Mr. Gilbert has already assigned me a lab partner.” Hot-Chick dropped her backpack on the floor and plunked her butt on the stool next to Tyler.
     
    Was it his imagination, or had the whole class gasped with collective shock and ground to a halt? He bit his lip to hide his grin. This new girl was something else. Shawn was many things, but ignored by girls was not one of them. And Bettina? Tyler doubted anyone had dared cut her off since she’d graced the world with her first complete sentence. They were so out of their depth he almost felt sorry for them both. Then again—
     
    Nah. Shawn was a grade-A asshole. And Bettina did a stellar impression of Miss Toxicality. They deserved whatever they got.
     
    The grin slid off Tyler’s face. Hot-Chick would soon learn the consequences for not following “The Rules”. He wondered how long it would take her to give in to the pressure and conform. And whether he should do the right thing and clue her in that at Greenfield High, dissing Bettina and ignoring Shawn’s overtures equaled social suicide. Maybe if he did, she’d be grateful enough not to give him hell if— when —she joined Bettina’s crew.
     
    “Is your name really Emo-Freak-Boy?” Tyler’s totally hot new lab partner asked. “It is a very unusual name.”
     
    Hot-Chick either had a weird sense of humor or she was smart enough to realize the best way to redeem herself in Shawn and Bettina’s eyes was to treat him like pond-scum.
     
    A lump of disappointment settled in his gut but he managed to force a laugh. “Ah, nope. Just their pathetic idea of a joke.”
     
    She cocked her head to one side. “Then you do not listen to emotive hardcore bands, and have lots of kinky sex?”
     
    He gaped at her. “Huh?”
     
    “According to my sources, those are accepted slang definitions of the words ‘emo’ and ‘freak’.”
     
    “Explains a lot,” Tyler heard Bettina say to Shawn.
     
    He cursed the flush he could feel heating his cheeks. “Not really my scene.”
     
    “Oh,” she said. “Then why would they call you Emo-Freak-Boy?”
     
    “They call me a lot of stuff—none of it flattering.” He bit his tongue before he could clue her in on geek-freak, freakazoid, and a bunch of other unimaginative things he’d been called. Why did he feel so compelled to spill his guts rather than fob her off with an evasion? His blush turned into a wave of mortification that spread down his body. Funny how his love of drawing and music—the two things responsible for the “geek” label being added to the list of insults—hadn’t been an issue when he’d been a jock at the top of his game.
     
    “Why?” she asked.
     
    “Why?” He scratched his temple. “Uh, it’s because I write songs and—”
     
    “ Songs ? That’s a stretch. Emo crap no one would be caught dead listening to.” Bettina, typically, had made damn sure her “whisper” carried.
     
    Appreciative giggles rippled through the room.
     
    Wait for it—
     
    “And don’t forget his other little hobby,” Shawn said, not to be outdone by his