Under the Bridge Read Free Page B

natural
protection for her vulnerable throat. She could feel the menace of
his voice, and it was all she could do not to stand up and answer
it. Her instincts were crying for her to empty the class and deal
with the menace before her.
    Poor Carrie must be terrified.
    Mr. Duncan was grudgingly
respectful as he said, “Very good, Mr. Bergtagen. It seems
you do have a passing acquaintance with Mr. Poe. You may have a
seat.
    “As for the rest of you…” He launched into a
very boring and exceedingly wordy description of the late poet’s
life.
    Billy could hardly focus. Her attention was
fixed on the monster, seated within troll’s arm reach of her
cousin. All the while she ran scenarios through her head, going
through the ways she could incapacitate the troll before it killed
everyone in the class.
    All around her, students sat oblivious. They
doodled, drooled and nodded off, jerking awake to pointed questions
from Mr. Duncan. A few of the diligent ones took notes, secure in
the knowledge that they would live to see tomorrow, and yes, there
would be a test. ARGH! She wanted to scream as the minutes plodded
by.
    Finally the class was dismissed. Billy was up
out of her seat and by her cousin’s side before anyone else could
rise from their chair.
    “Carrie. I wanted to talk to you about this
morning,” she said, giving her cousin a meaningful look. “Let me
walk you to your locker and we can talk about it.” Out of the
corner of her eye, she saw the troll cock his head in interest. He
took his time about rising, clearly listening in.
    “Later. I wanted to welcome our newest
student,” Carrie said impatiently. She looked around Billy and
smiled flirtatiously. “Hi, there! I’m—hey!” she protested when
Billy blocked her way. “What’s your problem?”
    “Troll,” Billy mouthed.
    “What?” Carrie’s gaze followed the troll
distractedly as he strolled out of the room,
smiling over his shoulder.
    Billy shuddered at the flash of his teeth.
She couldn’t discuss this here, though, not with Mr. Duncan looking
at them curiously.
    Carrie wasn’t waiting in any case. She
grabbed her books and headed for the door, in hot pursuit of the
monster. Billy caught up to her outside the room and grabbed her
arm. “Wait a minute, will you? I’m trying to tell you that
he’s—”
    “Mine!” Carrie bit out, pulling out of her
grasp with surprising strength. “He’s a hottie, and I saw him
first. You got that?”
    Billy gaped at her. It took
her precious seconds, but she finally found her tongue. “Are
you stupid ? Don’t
you realize what that is?”
    “Yeah. He’s taken, that’s what he is, so you
just keep your hands off.” Carrie poked her with a long pink nail
in emphasis. “I don’t want you getting anywhere near him.”
    Billy was so dumbfounded that she actually
watched Carrie walk away and didn’t try to stop her. Was it
possible that anyone could be that stupid?
     
     
    4. Stupid Cupid
     
    Billy finally caught up to Carrie again in
gym. They didn’t share a math class, and Billy had spent the last
hour fretting, willing the clock to move. She’d seen the troll go
into the math class with Carrie, and wondered if he’d arranged to
be in all of her classes. By the time she’d tracked Carrie down on
the basketball court, she’d worked herself into a froth.
    Carrie sent her a look of disdain as Billy
strode up to her, while her friends looked at her as if she were
some kind of nasty frog. “What do you want?” She didn’t wait for an
answer before leaning over to whisper to her friend Terra, “Have
you ever seen a backside like that? I just want to squeeze it.”
They were looking at the troll, of course.
    “We have to talk,” Billy interrupted their
giggles by grabbing Carrie’s arm. She tried to get close enough to
whisper, but Carrie kept leaning away. When her friends came to her
aid, Billy had no choice but to use big guns. She muttered in the
Old Tongue to their underwear, “You’re far