Eat'em by Chase Webster Read Free Book Online Page B

The air caught in my throat. My chest squeezed out an answer. “Nothing.”
    “You’re done for the day?” Her turquoise eyes glittered so close.
    “Yep.” I tasted her breath on my lips. “Got a few hours to waste until my uncle… uh… cousin gets off.”
    “Good!” she wrapped her hand over mine on my lap. I wanted to wipe my sweaty palms on my pants, but hoped instead she wouldn’t notice. “While you’re waiting on your uncle-cousin you can come to my class then? I have Biology… another hard one. Not for you, of course, since you’re a genius, but for the rest of the world… it’s a tough one. I have Kempter. She’s an absolute science nut. Pretty much, if you don’t like biology as much as she does, you can expect a big goose egg on all of your tests.”
    “Goose egg?”
    “Yep,” she raised her narrow eyebrows. The follicles where she plucked them were beginning to grow back. “A big fat zero.”
    Eat’em whispered in my ear as if anyone would hear him even had he marched up and down the library playing a small bugle and banging a snare drum against his head. “I don’t like her, Jacob. Does she have to sit so close? Tell her to go away, yes.”
    “We wouldn’t want you to get a zero, would we?” No greater confidence boost existed than doing the opposite of what the demon wanted me to do.
    Dixie wrapped her arms around my neck, hurtling Eat’em to the floor. He landed with a thump and cursed loudly.
    “Maybe afterward you can fill me in on what I missed in class today?”
    “It’s a date,” Dixie smiled and stood, pulling me up behind her by the hand. “I sure hope Leibniz does it for you. If so, we’re going to have a lot to talk about.”
    Eat’em perked up at the mention of Leibniz. He trotted up my side until he perched on my shoulder again. “Leibniz first, then she goes away, yes!”
    I followed Dixie out of the library. The philosopher seemed as good a topic as any. Anything that could keep my mind off the missing planetarium employee and keep Eat’em quiet for a few minutes I’d meet with open arms.
     
    Still the first week of school, the class was primarily a meet and greet, with a silly name game as a way to introduce ourselves to our lab partners for the semester. Professor Kempter noticed my name not on the roster and almost sent me packing, but instead offered to let me continue the class if I went and added the course “with immediacy.” With Dixie pressing to be my lab partner, I couldn’t say no.
    Using the letters of our first names we had to come up with words that described ourselves. It went around the room with people using the same words over and over with little variety. It got to me:
    “Just” – I believed in fairness. Justice.
    “Arlington” – I was born in Arlington, Virginia… and, of course, I’m in Arlington now.
    “Caring” – I don’t know… Maybe “Copout” would be better. Everyone else seemed to be caring, so I guess I’m caring too.
    “Obstacle” – Sure. Why not?
    “Brave” – I must have sounded like an idiot. No more than anyone else.
    “Daring, Intelligent, eXtraverted, Impressive, Earthy.”
    “Hey!” Eat’em stood stoic on the large black table that made up our desk. It was fitted with built-in sinks and Bunsen burners. Eat’em pricked up and growled at Dixie. “She skipped me! Yes! Ugh… Jacob. You got to get rid of her. I hate her so much, yes. My name is Eat’em! Energy, Amp, Throttle, Emerge, Monster!” It might have sounded deep had he not just been listing the brands of his favorite energy drinks.
    We continued around the room, learning how we were all a bunch of sweet, caring individuals and then we played a few more nauseating games to set everyone’s names to heart.
    After the grade school introduction, Kempter finally handed out the curriculum. It contained a range of material grouped by macro and microbiological studies. A month would be devoted to each of three fields, the last of which