Team Human by Justine Larbalestier Read Free Book Online Page A

came out of the stalls. My whole air was extremely casual, as if to say, I like this bathroom sink. Got nowhere else to be. Could lean here all day.
    Cathy went to the sink beside mine. She gave me a little side eye as she squirted soap onto her hands. It was possible my casual lean was slightly spoiled by my fixed stare.
    â€œSo,” I said. “Yesterday. Crazy, huh?”
    Cathy smiled her usual faint smile. “It was.”
    â€œA plague of rats descended on us,” I said. “I’m sure we all said some things, or possibly screamed some things”—or fell for some vampires—“we didn’t really mean.”
    â€œI’m so sorry that those rats touched you,” Cathy said. “So horrible.”
    â€œIt was. But enough about me,” I said. “Let’s talk about you! And Francis.”
    â€œWasn’t he amazing?” Cathy said at once, as if she couldn’t hold in her admiration a moment longer. Her eyes shone. “He lifted me as if I weighed nothing. But he was so careful. Like he was afraid he’d break me. He’s such a gentleman. He saved me.” She sighed.
    â€œYeah, so I just wanted to check on that,” I said. “I mean, yes, obviously you’re grateful and it’s easy to confuse gratitude with something else. But we’ve already established that you don’t like him like that, right?”
    Smooth. I was so smooth.
    Cathy blushed.
    â€œWell,” she said, “I did say I wasn’t in love with him.”
    â€œYes,” I said. “Yes, you did!”
    â€œI tried not to like him that way,” Cathy said. “I really tried. He’s older, he’s a vampire, he’s so handsome and charming, and he knows so much. It just seemed impossible.”
    I nodded my head at the impossible bit, and shook my head about the Francis being charming part. It must have looked like I was having neck spasms.
    Cathy frowned for a second and then resumed washing her hands. Her cheeks were still pink.
    â€œI’m not saying he definitely likes me back or anything,” she muttered. “But yesterday I thought—I thought maybe.”
    â€œBut,” I began, and that was as far as I got before Cathy looked at me.
    â€œHave you ever felt kind of …” She paused. “Detached from the world? As if you didn’t fit in, and you weren’t interested in what everyone else was interested in? As if you belonged in a whole different world?”
    â€œEveryone feels that way sometimes,” I said. “But you eat chocolate until the endorphins kick in, and the crazy thoughts go away.” I grinned at her.
    â€œI feel that way a lot,” Cathy said. “I never feel that way with Francis. He’s interested in the same things I’m interested in. He’s seen different times, with different manners and morals. He’s able to understand history as if he lived it because he did live some of it. He truly feels the great classics the way people in the past did. With Francis, I’m always interested. I never want to be in some other world.”
    â€œAnd by that you mean …”
    â€œYes,” Cathy said. She looked at the floor, as if she could not look me in the face while she made her confession. “I’m in love with him.”
    â€œSo Cathy and Francis are in love,” said Anna, from behind her book fortress.
    â€œI didn’t realize the news had reached you here in your secret lair.” I stood on tippy-toes to pick up one of the books on top of her pile. “ A Natural History of the Appalachias ? What class is that for?”
    â€œI like trees,” Anna told me. “A lot. The Cathy-and-Francis gossip is all over school. Everyone’s seen them, drifting around, talking about eighteenth-century literature.”
    â€œHot,” I said, and sighed. “Francis hasn’t even whipped it out in front of her today. And by