A Demon Made Me Do It by Penelope King Read Free Book Online Page B

notice several
girls, including Corrine, watching us like blood-thirsty hawks. I
give her what I hope is a reassuring smile but I can tell she’s not
buying it. Even though her next class is in the opposite direction,
she falls into step beside Kieron.
    “ Kieron, have you met my
friend Corrine Olsen?” I ask, hoping to diffuse any awkwardness.
She stares at him in awe and I groan inwardly. I’m trying not to be
embarrassed for her, but she’s just acting so swoony . I’ve never seen her like this
before.
    But if Kieron notices anything odd
about her behavior, he makes no indication of it. “Yes, I believe
we quite literally ran into each other the other day, but weren’t
properly introduced. Hello, Corrine, my name is Kieron Ambrose. How
do you do?”
    “ F-fine,” Corrine stutters.
Her face is beet red. She gapes at both of us for a moment before
abruptly turning and rushing in the other direction. Kieron smiles
down at me.
    “ Friendly people here,” he
says.
    “ Yeah, a little too friendly,” I mutter
as Drusilla swoops in and touches his arm.
    “ Oh, Kieron, there y’ar,”
she says, exaggerating her southern drawl. I’ve noticed she does
this whenever she talks to cute guys. She must’ve heard somewhere
they like it. Tramp. “I was hopin’ to have ya escort me to biology.
Give us a chance to chat.” She pronounces it bah-awl-gy, bats her false eyelashes,
and smiles coyly. Great. Now she’s morphed into Scarlett
O’Hara.
    “ Can we do it later? I need
to talk with Liora for a moment,” he says, matching her phony
smile, eye-bat and all. Score one for Rhett Butler.
    Drusilla is not used to boys saying
no to her. Her face freezes and at first she’s confused. Then her
gaze flickers over to me. For the first half-second, it seems like
she’s never seen me before; for the second, like I’m a fly in her
nonfat yogurt. But she quickly recovers. “Why, certainly, I
understand,” she says as if she’s never heard of anything more
ludicrous. “Find me at lunch. I’ll save us a seat by the fountains
where we can have some privacy…and not be bothered .”
    Kieron nods. “Sounds good,” he says. I
want to punch him. And her. Drusilla spins on an inappropriately
high heel and stalks away, but not before flashing me a death-ray
glare.
    Walking down a hallway with Kieron is
an entirely new experience for me. Even when it’s filled with
bustling bodies scurrying between classrooms and lockers, I’m
usually given a pretty wide berth. But Kieron seems to have the
exact opposite effect on people. They’re all moving closer, trying
to be as near him as possible, hoping to meet his gaze, or, if
really lucky, ‘accidentally’ touch him on their way past. It’s sort
of like being with a celebrity. I’m thinking how the only thing
missing is the flashing light bulbs of paparazzi when I catch
Carrie Stevens snapping a picture of him with her cell phone. And
now I’m embarrassed for my entire gender.
    “ So, I don’t want to impose
myself on you, but I was serious when I asked if you wouldn’t mind
helping me catch up to speed on the reading. Mr. Sodenberg excused
me from the paper due next week, but I’m not a dumb guy, and I’d
really like to pull my own weight. Get started off on the right
foot, if you know what I mean.”
    “ If you want to get started
off on the right foot I don’t really recommend hanging around me,”
I say quietly. Right now the only thing outnumbering the desirous
looks sent Kieron’s way are the hateful ones being sent toward
me.
    He stops and places his hand lightly
on my arm. My stomach threatens to leap into my chest and I avert
my eyes from his intense stare. “Why would you say that? I asked
several people who the smartest person in our class was and they
all said you.”
    “ I’m sure that’s not all
they said,” I mumble, very aware of his hand still resting on my
arm.
    “ That’s the only part I
listened to,” he says with a small smile. Our eyes