Compromised by Heidi Ayarbe Read Free Book Online

won’t have to worry about finding a way to get my next bottle. Science experiments come with all sorts of bonus results.
    Now it’s time to put things to the test. A perfect pre-Halloween prank.
    I smile. Supposedly every scientist should do the test several times, but I don’t really think I’ll need more than one.
    There’s nothing like trust. That’s how Dad screws people over. I hate using Mr. Hunter’s keys to get into the science supplies. He gave them to me so I could open early in case I wanted to study in the mornings before he got there. But I just need a few things—things he probably won’t even notice are gone. And one day I’ll replace them. It’s not like I’m becoming my dad.
    I search the shelves of the supply closet and find the one labeled bhut jolokia. Mr. Hunter ordered it from a supply shop in India. We saw how long it took different hot sauces to corrode iron. Not long. Same day I got it on my finger.
    With just a few drops, the Triad will be done.
    That afternoon Kids Place is like any other day. Nothing has happened. I can tell. There’s no buzz. The boy eats dinner at the same table, bangs covering his eyes.
    I wait until lights-out and listen as the last shift of security guards locks up. I slip into the boys’ locker room first—two locks to pick there—and find the lockers. It doesn’t take long to get them open and get a few drops out of the vial onto their brushes. I worry for a second. What if they don’t brush their teeth every morning? That’s a variable I hadn’t thought of before.
    I push the thought away. With all the informationout there on dental hygiene, I can’t imagine anybody not brushing.
    I repeat the same thing in the girls’ locker room.
    Then I lie on the bunk and wait for morning. Odd-numbered rooms have the second bathroom shift today. Luckily the Triad all bunk in even-numbered rooms. That really worked to my advantage. Hey. I never said luck wasn’t a little part of science. Think penicillin.
    When the sun comes up, I pretend to read. Kids shuffle down the hallway in bathrobes. The water pipes whine awake.
    Then we hear the first shriek, followed by two more. Rose’s heavy footsteps pound down the hallway, followed by more screams and chaos. Shelly and Jess run out the doorway. Everybody floods the halls, wondering what’s happening.
    â€œHey, Jeops, don’t you want to know what’s going on?” Nicole eyes me.
    I shrug. “Answer in the category Kids Place: This is the region that grows bhut jolokia, the hottest pepper in the world.” I force a smile and go back to reading Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries. Dad bought it for me the week before the repo guys came. It was like he had finally paidattention to what I liked, not what he thought I should like. Too little, too late. I close the book.
    Kids Place staff sweep the three of them down the hall. I watch them suffer. And in a horrible way, I feel glad, glad that they hurt as much as I did when they stuffed me in the Dumpster—glad that they’re the prey and I’m the predator.
    Shelly returns, breathless. Her eyes bulge so much it looks like she has developed a major thyroid problem. “Oh. My. God. You won’t believe what has happened,” she says between sniffles, then tells us a pretty blown-up version of what happened, including some kind of explosive device in lockers.
    Jess rolls her eyes and says, “It was just Tabasco sauce or something. Anybody could’ve done that.” Then she says, “But I don’t know who would’ve had the nads to do it. I mean messing with the Triad is suicide.” Then she looks at Nicole.
    I jump off my bunk and get ready for school. We’re all corralled into the cafeteria for breakfast. A kind of electric expectation fills the air. Everybody’s a lot quieter than normal.
    My