Perception Read Online Free PDF Page A

Beelzebub until she sprouted boobs.
    Evil must love company, though, because Cody worshipped Queen Tiffany and performed any demented task she requested of her minion. And it wasn’t because he was getting in her pants. No way. Even his athletic prowess couldn’t help him in the looks department. And looks were priority numero uno to Tiffany’s pants.
    I opened my locker, half expecting to find a dead fish or apipe bomb. Nothing immediately jumped out at me, so I breathed a little easier. I rifled through my stuff and found nothing. Whatever prank Tiffany and Cody had planned, they hadn’t had time to do it. Or maybe he was just coincidentally standing in front of my locker.
    Yeah, right.
    I pulled out my physics book, shut the locker door, then started in surprise.
    Mallory smiled. “Scare ya?”
    “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting someone to be standing there.”
    “Sorry.” Mallory hefted her messenger bag onto her shoulder. It was bright pink and bore the names of about ten bands I’d never heard of. “So what’s up?”
    “Heading to physics,” I said, and started walking. “You?”
    She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Phys ed. The bane of my existence.”
    “Picked last?”
    “Every time. So it’s Friday. Got any hot dates tonight?”
    I chuckled. “No.”
    “Come on. You have two interested guys. Pick one and tell me all the deets so I can live vicariously through you.”
    “Get a date of your own!” I said, chuckling.
    “I wish. There is someone I’m thinking of for the Ladies’ Choice dance, but … we’ll see how that goes. What are you up to this weekend?”
    I groaned. “It’s the first weekend of October. Which means I have hours of Halloween decorating ahead of me.”
    “Decorating where?”
    “Like every room in the house and then the yard. Halloween’s my mother’s favorite holiday. Plus she feels it’s good for business. Like seeing Christmas decorations in the mall makes people want to buy stuff, seeing papier-mâché ghosts in our tree might make people want to talk to the dead.”
    Normally, I’d be embarrassed revealing so much about my family business, but I felt comfortable with Mallory.
    She shrugged. “My mom is addicted to scrapbooking. One entire room in our house is filled with scrapbook crap.” She shook her head at the tragedy of it. “We all have our vices.”
    Kendra ran up, wedged herself between us, and faced me, ignoring Mallory. “Did you hear?”
    By the way she was bouncing up and down, she either had exciting gossip or desperately had to pee.
    “No,” I said. “What’s up?”
    “The cops are here!” Kendra said it delightedly, like it was good news.
    “What for?” Mallory asked, stepping toward us.
    Kendra frowned at her and turned toward me, as if I had asked. “It’s about Sierra Waldman. Pass it on! I’ve got to find Brooke and Tiffany!”
    She bounced off, and I turned to Mallory, ready to apologize for Kendra’s shunning of her. But Mallory’s face was turning a light shade of green and I immediately forgot about Kendra.
    “Are you okay?” I put a hand on her shoulder.
    “No,” she croaked, covering her mouth. “I don’t feel so good. I’ve got to go.”
     
    I slid into my seat at the black lab table I shared with Brooke, who surprisingly wasn’t as annoying on a one-on-one basis as she was when Kendra was around. And over the last month, I’d gotten to know a secret only her lab partner could know.
    Brooke wasn’t exactly dumb.
    When we became lab partners, I shuddered inside, thinking of all the extra work I’d have to do. To my amazement, she handled her own. And she did pretty well on our first test, too, from the peek I’d taken before she stuffed the paper into her bag.
    I didn’t know why she kept it a secret. Maybe she acted like a bimbo because she thought guys liked it. Or maybe she feared the wrath of Kendra and Tiffany if she were found out. All I knew was, it was one more thing I didn’t respect about that