Ninth Grade Slays by Heather Brewer Read Free Book Online Page B

recognized the one in the middle and felt a rush of guilt at having scared the kid last year, all for want of impressing Henry and the promise of sticky sweet treats.
    Henry nudged Vlad with his elbow. “You okay?”
    Vlad adjusted the hood over his head and shrugged. “Yeah, fine.”
    At the end of the street, cars were pausing in front of an excessively decorated house. It looked like Matthew’s mom had gone all out this year. Standing on the porch was a group of girls. At the center stood a sparkly red devil, complete with glitter-covered horns. Meredith brushed her hair from her face with one of the tines of her plastic pitchfork. Vlad felt his heart punch his insides, as if it might tear free at any moment. He placed his hand against his chest, just in case.
    Henry smirked. “Meredith looks pretty tonight.”
    Meredith did look pretty. Breathtaking, in fact. But that didn’t mean Vlad was any closer to having any clue what to say to her.
    Unfortunately, Joss had also noticed how great Meredith looked. “Wow . . .”
    Both Vlad and Henry shot Joss a warning look, but he either ignored them or didn’t notice, because he moved forward and stepped up onto the porch. He was smiling at Meredith, who in turn smiled at Henry, when Henry grabbed Joss by the sleeve and pulled him into the house. Vlad ducked behind them and went inside as well.
    Maybe next year he’d save them all a lot of trouble and come as the invisible man.
    Matthew’s parents had set up most of the party in their newly refurbished basement—a large room with two couches, a pool table, and a dartboard. His father had plugged in some DJ equipment and, thankfully, was playing what must have been music from Matthew’s CD collection when the boys made their way downstairs.
    Black and orange streamers draped overhead in long, twisted lines. Black and orange balloons were floating everywhere and bumping against the ceiling with every thump of bass. A few kids were dancing, but most were hovering around the punch bowl and laughing. Every few seconds, someone would wave frantically and shout Henry’s name. Vlad wondered how long it would take for Henry to abandon him, but to Henry’s credit, he stuck fairly close to Vlad and Joss for the next hour.
    Unfortunately, popularity is a lot like gravity. There’s no use fighting it. So Vlad understood when Henry mumbled that he’d be right back, which was code for I’ll see you after the party , and disappeared into the growing crowd. It didn’t take long before Joss disappeared into the crowd as well, leaving Vlad alone in a room full of about thirty people.
    It was hard sometimes, trying to discern whether Henry had continued to be his friend over the years despite their differences because Henry really liked him, or because Henry felt a weird bound-by-blood, his-duty-as-a-drudge connection to him. Vlad didn’t like to think about it much. Because if Henry wasn’t his real friend, if all the stuff they’d gone through was nothing but some vampire-controlling hoax, then he really didn’t want to know.
    Still . . . it did make him wonder sometimes.
    Vlad finished his punch, wishing the red liquid were more than just syrupy, sugary water, and navigated his way through the crowd until he was upstairs and outside, in the cool quiet of evening. All of the laughter, talking, and noise was going to give him a headache if he didn’t take in the revelry in small doses. He stepped off the porch and walked around the side of the house.
    A gawky, skinny boy with an old 35 mm camera hanging around his neck was sitting on a picnic table bench in the backyard. Vlad considered ducking back around the front of the house, but the boy looked positively miserable, and Vlad knew what it felt like when you were struggling to fit in. He moved closer and managed a smile. “Hey, Eddie.”
    Eddie barely lifted his head to glance at Vlad. His