Night School Read Online Free PDF Page A

scrolls of flowers and hearts. She had been on the edge of something deep and important, but the thoughts, or Autumn herself, were lost.
    Mariah did not notice that the school was dark, because her own headlights illuminated the drive. When she saw Andrew and Autumn vanishing inside the front door, Mariah was exalted. Was that the fourth name? The one she had not been able to read? How wonderful! Not only would she really and truly be in a class with Andrew Todd, but the other girl would be Autumn, with whom Mariah most wanted to be friends!
    Oh, this was perfection! This was a dream come true!
    Mariah did not bother to drive all the way around to the student parking lot. Instead she stopped right in front of the entry, deciding that parking rules were suspended under the circumstances.
    She had no idea that other rules … rules of the night … these, too, had been suspended under the circumstances.

Chapter 3
    A NDREW WAS USUALLY FULL of himself, but tonight Autumn sensed that he was way beyond that. Andrew was wired, the electricity inside him zinging through the halls as if he could light them on his own generator. Something wonderful had happened to Andrew. “Good day?” she asked.
    Andrew did a cute little dance step in the middle of the hall. It was completely unlike him. He was so careful to be photogenic, and in fact, the step was a little clumsy. Autumn was touched. Andrew was too tickled with himself to care about his clumsiness.
    “Is it night school?” she asked. “Are you expecting great things?”
    Andrew shook his head. “No. Guess what, Autumn. I’m not expecting great things anymore! That’s the good news. Tonight on my way over here, a wonderful thing happened. I saw how it will be. Ordinary. Cameras and television stations.”
    This hardly seemed ordinary to Autumn. It sounded like the usual starstruck hopes of the usual half-talented teenager. But he was cute, bouncy like this, and she liked him.
    Vaguely, Autumn was aware of the rest of the building as they passed. Science labs on the left, doors tightly locked. Stairwells. Janitorial closets. Library, a single patron still there, surprising at such a late hour. She glanced over to identify the figure.
    It was only Mr. Phillips, a substitute teacher. Most of the student body regarded Mr. Phillips as a substitute human as well; somebody with so little personality and worth that you could easily forget he had any at all.
    Deep inside the library, at a long study table where he sat alone, Mr. Phillips did not look up. The two teenagers in the hall might have been invisible and soundless.
    He’s so pathetic, thought Autumn, rejoicing not to be pathetic like Mr. Phillips. Then she forgot him, because Andrew was bowing as deeply as a courtier, gesturing to the door through which she would pass.
    “After you, Autumn Ivers,” said Andrew, as if announcing her to the world, emcee of their own personal television show, and Autumn beamed at him, and never saw the threshold over which she passed.
    Mariah bolted out of the car, barely remembering to lock up, and bounded toward the door through which Autumn and Andrew had passed. She found herself in a hallway that should have been completely familiar. After all, she was there five days a week. She knew its scent and its doors and its stairs. Tonight her feet continued to know, walking confidently along.
    But only her feet.
    There was something very, very wrong in the building.
    Her body knew.
    Her lungs were afraid. Her lungs ran out of air and gasped for breath. Her eyes were afraid, too, and opened painfully wide, and then narrowed, struggling to focus. Her heart lurched against her shrinking lungs. Her back wanted to press up against a wall, in case knives or eyes were behind her.
    Her feet continued walking along, as if they knew nothing of what was going on in her heart and mind.
    It was dark. So dark. Too dark.
    The door closed behind her with a metallic slice, like a falling guillotine. Mariah