Live and Let Shop Read Online Free PDF

stood up and followed him. No witty comeback. No wisecracks. Whoever this guy was, my first impression had been wrong. He wasn’t going to be easy. He was even making me do gym on my first day.
    As we walked down another long corridor, my mind was full of so many thoughts that I couldn’t grab one to focus on. I noticed now that the school actually looked pretty nice on the inside. Everything was spotlessly clean and the walls were brightly painted. There were lots of pastels and cool colors, like you’d find in a Gap store. If Mr. Kim was in charge of the decorating, I had to give him points for his good color sense.
    Mr. Kim’s office had been off the atrium, and it seemed now that the interior of the school was laid out like the spokes of a wheel, cut into a quarter section. Hallways led off from the atrium in all directions and the atrium rose up to the full five stories of the school, like something you’d see in a really fancy hotel. That’s it. I’d just start thinking of it as a hotel. I wondered if they had room service here.
    The hallways looked like they went back quite a ways, and now that I was inside the building I could see that the school was built so that it flowed up the side of the mountain. In the atrium a series of ramps that cut back and forth led to the other floors, and in the hallways every so often there was a doorway marked “Stairs.” And as big as the school had looked from the outside, it seemed even bigger once you were inside.
    Mr. Kim hummed quietly to himself as we strolled. Now and then we would pass people in the hall, most of them my age, some younger. Apparently I wasn’t the only one here after all. Mr. Kim would call each one by name and ask them how they were doing on this glorious day. And the strangest thing was, all of the students seemed to light up when they saw Mr. Kim, like he was a rock star or a celebrity or something. And he made every greeting sound so sincere and genuine.
    After we’d walked for a couple of minutes, we rounded a corner and Mr. Kim stopped to say hello to a boy about my age. He was maybe six feet tall with short brown hair and dark eyes. He looked a little like Colin Farrell, actually. Okay, cool colors and cute boys—another point in Blackthorn’s favor.
    “Brent Christian,” said Mr. Kim, “I’d like you to meet our newest student, Rachel Buchanan.”
    Brent didn’t say hi or anything, he just kind of waved at me. I decided not to be rude and waved back.
    “Brent is one of our finest students,” Mr. Kim said. “I’m sure you will have a lot in common.” Brent turned red and looked away. Mr. Kim told him we were on our way to my room. Brent nodded, then just turned and walked away in the direction he’d been going. He hadn’t said a word the whole time. I guessed he was probably going off to have a lengthy conversation with Mrs. Marquardt.
    Mr. Kim was trying hard to make me feel welcome. And I was doing everything I could to make that as difficult as possible for him. All I could think of was that I wanted to get far away from him and this school as fast as I could. I couldn’t picture myself ever being happy to see him in the hallway like the other students. No sir. Not me. I wasn’t going to let this guy get to me. I would hold out until I was out of here, and then he could take all of his empathy and praise and little pseudo-parenting tips and use them on the next loser that came through this place.
    And the funny thing is, those feelings didn’t change all that much for the first couple of weeks that I spent at Blackthorn Academy. Right up until the time Mr. Kim disappeared.

Ain’t No Party Like a Detroit Party
    After what seemed like an hour walk, we finally got to a corridor that led to the girls’ wing of the academy. Most of the doors in the corridor were closed, but as we walked past I could hear voices and music. So this place wasn’t totally dead. About halfway down the hall, Mr. Kim knocked on a door and swung it