Shades of Red Read Online Free PDF Page B

seeParis grinning at her. In spite of her disappointment with the missing principal, it was impossible not to grin back. Paris had a very catching sort of smile. “Is it still alive?”
    Kate slid around one of the long heavy tables that apparently took the place of desks in the room and sidled up to the front. She stuck her nose right up to the face of the stranger and hazarded a guess. “Sir?” she whispered. “Excuse me — sir?”
    A gentle snore was her only response.
    Paris bounded up, delight oozing from every pore. “Not dead, I guess,” he said, barely able to contain his glee. “Reminds me a bit of Lily for some reason.” There was a haughty sniff from the back of the room.
    Darrell grinned. “Leave Lily out of this, Paris.”
    Paris ignored her and spoke to Kate, who was still hissing in the apparition’s ear. “I think you are underestimating the depth of the sleep involved here, Kate.” He put his mouth right beside the ear that wasn’t pressed into the desk. “Hello there,” he bellowed.
    Nothing.
    The entire class looked on in silence, collective breath held, awaiting a response.
    â€œSnnnnrrrrggghhhhh ...”
    â€œNot dead, but certainly unconscious,” Paris noted, his eyes sparkling. “Perhaps — undead?”
    â€œNonsense, dear.”
    A shadow at the classroom door gathered itself into the person of Mrs. Follett, the school secretary. She bustled to the front of the room and smiled apologetically at the class. “I was a bit worried this might happen, so I thought I’d best pop down here and make sure Professor Grampian managed to get himself settled in.”
    Paris leaned over the table and whispered to Kate. “What a pair!”
    Mrs. Follett reached down and shook the teacher briskly by the shoulders. “Professor Grampian,” she trilled, her voice taking on a curiously piercing tone.
    The effect was immediate. Professor Grampian lifted his fuzzy head from the desk top and looked inquiringly around the classroom. “Ah yes,” he said, as though continuing a long conversation, “now as I was saying ...”
    â€œLovely to see you, Professor Grampian,” warbled Mrs. Follett, aiming her voice directly into one of the professor’s large ears. “Here is your first-year history class, all ready to go.” She beamed at the group fondly. “Professor Grampian has kindly agreed to join us until Professor Tooth is able to return,” she said brightly.
    Darrell’s heart fluttered a little, and everything that had been bothering her since her arrival at Eagle Glen seemed to fall into her stomach with a solid thump. Where was Professor Tooth?
    Paris leaned forward. “This is going to be fun,” he whispered, but Darrell was in no mood for jokes.
    â€œBe good,” she hissed, as Mrs. Follett began to address the class again.
    â€œNow my dears, Professor Thaddeus Grampian has been an honoured teacher at schools all around the country for years, and we are delighted to have him. Please join me in welcoming him to Eagle Glen.”
    There was a polite spatter of applause, and Mrs. Follett blushed pinkly and scurried out of the room.
    Professor Grampian cleared his throat and began to make his way around to the front of the teacher’s desk. It was a painfully slow process, made even longer when the thought apparently struck him that he had forgotten something. He returned, a deeply thoughtful expression on his face, to his original spot behind the desk and retrieved the single sheet of slightly damp paper upon which his head had been resting. With agonizing slowness, he shuffled back to face the students.
    In his chosen spot at last, Professor Grampian once again cleared his throat ponderously and, as though he were announcing the coronation, began to read off the class roll.
    Taking attendance was done in every class at Eagle Glen, but as the groups were