Poison Ink Read Online Free PDF Page B

right up the street, girls.”
    For a second they all brightened. This time it was Letty who shot it down.
    “Not gonna work. T.Q., you’re the only one with a driver’s license, but you can’t drive anyone under eighteen without an adult in the car. If we got pulled over, you’d be screwed.”
    “We’ll do it ourselves,” Katsuko said, darkly serious.
    They all stared at her.
    “Seriously,” she went on. “We take the right precautions and we’ll be fine.”
    “No way,” Sammi said. “If I’m going to have ink on my body for the rest of my life, I want it to be something beautiful. Even if it’s Caryn’s design, who’s going to actually carve it into my flesh? Somehow I’ve got a feeling it’s not going to be a work of art by then.”
    “Plus, infection,” T.Q. said.
    They all looked at Letty, who had gone very quiet. When she realized they were staring at her, a sly smile spread across her face.
    “What?” Caryn asked.
    Letty lay sideways on the bed, lounging like Cleopatra, her grin broadening. “There’s a new place in my neighborhood. The guy’s got the windows blacked out and the only sign is the one that says Open in, like, blue neon. It’s always on, day or night, as far as I can tell. The guy, Dante, does tattoos. My cousin Ana says his work is beautiful. Not that it makes a difference to me, but Ana also said the guy’s a total smokin’ hottie. I say we go by there and talk to him.”
    They all looked at each other, each waiting for someone else to object.
    “No harm in talking,” Sammi said.
    Letty smiled.
    Sammi felt a sudden rush of fear, as though she had just reached the top of the roller coaster and whatever happened now was completely out of her control. The pain of the needle wasn’t what bothered her. But the idea of her parents’ finding out troubled her deeply. They had always trusted her, and if she shattered that trust, she knew how hurt they would be. She had always been honest with them, and it frightened her to think about throwing that away.
    But when Letty put her hand into the middle of the circle they had formed, and one by one the other girls followed suit, Sammi took a breath and put her hand in as well. Their bond had been made deeper just by the idea of what they were planning, and by the secrecy that would be required of all of them.
    The pact had been made.

 

    3
    T he buses were late on the first afternoon of school. Sammi stepped out through the metal doors and saw the mess of kids milling around on the grass and walkways in front of Covington High. The teachers were trying to keep some kind of order, as if there had been a fire drill, but with the excitement at the end of the first day, their efforts were hopeless.
    Sammi peered over the tops of people’s heads, searching for red hair. At her height and with that hair, T.Q. was hard to miss. She weaved her way through the hordes as they laughed and shouted to one another, but saw no sign of T.Q. anywhere.
    “Hey, Holland!”
    She turned to find Caryn striding toward her, dressed impeccably, as always. Sammi knew her friend could take just about any piece of clothing and make it look great—today’s combination of sheer blouse over tank top and slit-leg skirt presented a perfect example—but she could never figure out how Caryn managed not to spill any food on her clothes at lunchtime. Only the first day of school, and she’d already managed to dribble Sloppy Joe sauce on her chin and tray without getting it on her clothes.
    Superpowers. The only answer.
    “How was the rest of your day?” Sammi asked.
    “Very cool,” Caryn replied with a half nod. “I could live without the bio class. Mr. Pucillo bores me out of my skull, and just the thought of the lab sessions grosses me out. Other than that, it’s kinda good to be back.”
    “Thumbs-up from me, too,” Sammi said. “I’ve got Intro to Psych. I think I’m gonna like that, as long as there aren’t too many papers.”
    With a groaning