Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer Read Free Book Online Page A

he realized it was he who’d made it. At the moment, he couldn’t think of a more pleasant word to read, and so he read it once again. Werewolf.
    He could do werewolf. Howling at the moon, fear of all things silver, inexplicable urge to sniff the butts of people he met on the street. Oh yeah, piece of cake.
    Mr. Otis’s hand clenched into a tight fist. Then, just as Vlad’s muscles relaxed, the letters scrawled on the small rectangle of paper blurred. At first Vlad thought his eyes were simply losing focus, so he squeezed them closed, but when he opened them again, the letters were rearranging themselves, moving about the piece of paper like tiny figure skaters. Some of the lines blended with others, forming new letters.
    Vlad’s jaw dropped, and as if on command, the letters stopped moving. Vlad read the new word they’d formed aloud. “Vampire?”
    He couldn’t do vampire! Fear of the sun, craving for blood, inability to enjoy Italian food, everything that he really was? This was going to suck.
    Mr. Otis relaxed his fist and leaned in toward Vlad. His smile, kind and warm at the front of the class, seemed sly and twisted up close. “A wise choice, Vladimir. I’ll be looking forward to reading your perception of vampires.”
    As if they shared a secret, Mr. Otis tapped his forefinger against his temple and pointed to Vlad, who looked quickly back at the paper he’d chosen and read the word once again: vampire. There it was, in plain English. Could he have misread it? No way. It just wasn’t possible. Werewolf and vampire weren’t similar at all. He could understand the mistake if the paper had said something like vumpine , but werewolf looked nothing like vampire.
    And what about the moving letters? Had he imagined it? Aunt Nelly would say he’d been under a lot of stress lately, that it had been a trick of the mind, that handwriting couldn’t move around on its own. She’d probably be right, but the entire event, imagined or real, still freaked Vlad out.
    â€œNow, back to zombies,” Mr. Otis began as he returned to the front of the class. “Any guesses on what their diet consists of?”
    Morning passed quickly into afternoon and Vlad entered the lunchroom, finding Henry sitting at the table near the window, waving him over. Henry shoved an entire Hostess cupcake into his mouth and grinned. The white filling squished out between Henry’s teeth, eliciting a chuckle from Vlad.
    Vlad sat across from Henry and slid the sandwich out from his brown paper sack. He bit into the bread and one of the capsules of blood burst open, spraying the roof of his mouth with crimson sweetness. He swallowed the liquid and finished his meal. After tossing the empty bag and stained, soggy plastic wrap into the garbage, he let out a loud burp. “Excuse me.”
    Henry laughed and offered him a cupcake, which Vlad immediately stuffed into his mouth. Sure, human food didn’t help him out nutritionally, but some of it just tasted good.
    Henry asked, “So when are you asking Meredith to the Snow Ball? It’s coming up soon, you know.”
    Principal Snelgrove passed behind Henry and slowed his steps, peering over Henry’s shoulder at Vlad.
    Vlad shrugged. “I’m not sure I’m going to.”
    Henry said, “Why not? You’ve only been crushing on her since the third grade. And a girl like Meredith you have to ask well in advance.”
    Behind Henry, Vlad could see Meredith talking with her girlfriends. When she looked over at Henry, her blush deepened. Vlad shrugged again. “Better to be crushing on her than have my heart crushed by her. Besides, I think she likes someone else.”
    Henry slanted his eyes. “Like who? You’re making excuses again. Just ask her, Vlad. She’s just a girl. Worst thing she can do is say no.”
    But that wasn’t the worst thing Meredith could do. She could laugh. She could