Team Human by Justine Larbalestier Read Free Book Online

feet.
    â€œRats. Scurrying over my toes.”
    We all three shuddered.
    â€œMy plan coming home was: slam door, have four thousand showers.”
    â€œThe rats made you angry?” Dad asked. “Me, I would have been scared.”
    â€œI was. No, Cathy made me angry.”
    My parents looked at each other. The last time Cathy and I had had a fight, we’d been about five. I’d given her favorite doll a haircut. Cathy had not appreciated Barbie’s new mohawk.
    â€œShe’s in love with a vampire.”
    â€œThe new vampire student?” Dad asked, as if there were some other vampire Cathy could have gone gaga over.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œBut you knew that,” Mom said. “You told me about it last week.”
    â€œYes, but now it might be more than just a crush. She’s got that he’s-the-One look in her eye. And stupid Francis the vampire is encouraging her now. He’s so much older than her. They have nothing in common. Francis is going to break Cathy’s heart.”
    â€œAnd that’s why you slammed the door?” Mom asked.
    I nodded.
    â€œOh, sweetie,” she said. “That’s just how love is when you’re young. You get hurt. All you can do is be there for her, like she’s been there for you.”
    Okay, so I knew from personal experience that dating a normal guy can go badly wrong as well.
    I nodded reluctantly. “But he’s a vampire. Don’t you think that makes it a little bit different than any other guy?”
    â€œNot really,” Dad said. “Love is love. It’s painful for everyone.”
    â€œWell,” Mom said, “it has its upsides too.” She and Dad exchanged one of their you-are-the-love-of-my-life looks. I tried not to be ill.
    She gave me a brief hug. “Is that all that’s bothering you?”
    â€œPretty much.”
    â€œIt’s just Cathy’s love life? Not anything else?” Dad inquired. “How’s Anna doing?”
    I flinched before I could stop myself. I’d been trying not to think of Anna’s pale face and withdrawal from us all, of Dr. Saunders standing at her door like an avenging angel or her terrified stare at Francis today.
    But I had to think about it. It was me Anna had come to for help. If Francis was involved in whatever was upsetting Principal Saunders …
    Mom’s voice went soft. “Are you that worried about her?”
    â€œI’m handling it,” I said.
    I was going to handle it. I just wasn’t sure how yet.
    â€œCan we change the subject?” I continued. “Want to know what college I’m going to? What I’m going to do with my life? Wait—I can’t tell you. Because I still don’t know.”
    â€œHoney,” Dad said, leaning forward to ruffle my hair. “As we’ve both told you, at seventeen it’s perfectly normal not to know what you want to do with your life. I didn’t decide to be a lawyer until I’d been in IT for almost five years.”
    I’d heard all this before. “I know, Dad. I’m not that worried,” I lied.
    â€œYou shouldn’t be,” Mom said. “You’ll do great no matter what you decide to do. Including cleaning up the kitchen, which is your punishment for assaulting the door and our ears. I made lasagna for dinner. Kitchen’s a bit of a mess.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Books as Camouflage
    I tried to talk to Cathy alone at school the next day, but Francis was with her at all times. Solicitously carrying her bag. Talking with her about history and philosophy and—even worse—poetry! Why couldn’t he go back to interrogating Cathy about her childhood asthma? He hung about her like a bad smell—a fantastically handsome, blond bad smell.
    I had to lie in wait to catch her in the one place that I knew Francis would never go.
    By which I mean the girls’ bathroom.
    I was leaning against the bathroom sink as Cathy