Team Human by Justine Larbalestier Read Free Book Online Page B

‘it,’ I mean his notebook.”
    Anna whistled. “His newfound love has made him forget to take notes? Sounds serious.”
    â€œLike Francis is ever anything else.” I put my feet up on a chair. “So I bet you’re thinking to yourself, Why, Mel, in spite of the Ratastrophe and the fact that much of the school smells like industrial cleaners and all this vampirish romantic disaster, are you looking so cheerful?”
    â€œUm,” Anna said. “I guess I’d be thinking that if I could see you.”
    I began disassembling her book fortress at the spot where her voice was loudest in order to treat her to the sight of my smiling face.
    â€œ Underwater Acoustics Handbook ? Songs of Poverty and Death ? Weird, Anna, very weird. Not seeing a common thread in all these books.”
    â€œI am a woman of many interests.”
    â€œOr a woman who grabbed whatever books were around to build a fort.”
    Anna’s face was now revealed. She looked paler than usual.
    â€œHere’s my theory about your mom,” I said. “I think he’s threatening her or something.”
    I wasn’t entirely clear on why Francis might be threatening Principal Saunders, or what he might want. But I really liked the idea of Francis being involved in evil goings-on.
    â€œWhy would Francis be threatening my mom?”
    I told her about the look on Principal Saunders’s face after the rat stampede. “Pretty suspicious, huh?”
    Anna was unimpressed by my powers of deduction. “Not especially. Mom really, really doesn’t like vampires. She didn’t even before Dad ran away. But she’s much worse now.”
    â€œOh,” I said. “That does make sense.”
    â€œYou know how my parents were, Mel.” She lowered her voice. “Before he left.”
    According to Anna, her parents had the love to end all loves. They had been together since their first year of college, and to quote Anna, every passing year only saw them more in love. To be honest, they didn’t seem that much more in love than my parents. They weren’t superdemonstrative around each other. I’d seen them hold hands a few times and smile at each other, but that was Mom and Dad pretty much every night of the week. But Anna was convinced it was the love of the ages.
    Until her dad ran off. With a vampire.
    â€œWhat if Francis caused the Ratocalypse as, I don’t know, a warning? And what I witnessed was him telling her so with his steely blue eyes and her freaking out?”
    Anna spluttered. I couldn’t tell if it was laughter or not. “Your worry about Cathy has broken your brain, Mel. You’re saying you think Francis is responsible for a plague of rats and scaring my mom,” Anna said slowly. “As opposed to oh, say, the plague of rats being the thing that scared her. I hear she was not alone in being upset.”
    I shuddered, trying not to remember the feel of them scurrying over my toes.
    My theory did sound unlikely when she put it like that.
    â€œDon’t worry about Cathy,” Anna said. “Love doesn’t last. Francis isn’t going to stick around. He’s a vampire who’s a million years older than her. He’ll be bored very soon.”
    I stared at Anna in appalled silence for what felt like hours. Anna somehow intuited that she had not entirely reassured me.
    She cleared her throat. “Besides, Mom’s doing what she can to get him thrown out.”
    â€œReally?” I said too loudly. The studious freshmen at the next table over glared. The library was fuller than it usually was. Maybe because the cafeteria smelled of solvents. No rats had made it into the library.
    â€œMom fought the enrollment,” Anna said quietly. “Said it was inappropriate to have a vampire at the school, that it put the students in danger. She hasn’t given up, even though he’s here. She warned me to stay away from Francis,