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beat, pulling off his shirt slowly, revealing his muscular chest. The girls scream and squeal as they realize
what's going on. Their idol, the number-one rock star in the country, is doing a striptease, just for them.
"I can't believe Race agreed to do this," Sunny whispers.
"Actually, he looks like he's enjoying himself."
"Just make sure he doesn't take a bite out of one of the girls. Magnus says he's always hoping to add a
pretty face to his harem of blood donors."
I laugh. "Look, Sun, I think it's working!"
We switch our focus from the stripper rock star to his squealing fans. Sure enough, some of them are
starting to sprout hair. Just a bit here and there and none of the others have noticed yet. A few tufts
billowing from their chests, a few hairs sprouting from their cheeks.
"Oh, Race!" Mandy cries. She's the hairiest of them all at this point. She's even started growing a snout.
"You rock my world!"
The others laugh and turn to look at her. Then they freeze.
"Oh my God, Mandy!" cries Shantel. "You're you're!" She stares at her, horrified. "What a big nose
you have!"
Mandy looks back at her, equal horror on her snouty face. "Shantel! What big teeth you have!"
Panic ensues. Girls are running, screaming, freaking out. Each thinking they look normal, but their squad
mate has be-come a monster.
"Now!" I cry to Sunny. My twin hits the remote, effec-tively locking everyone in the house. I climb up on
a chair and put a lighter to the sprinkler system. A moment later the place is raining werewolf antidote,
which David installed in the plumbing. There's more shrieking as the girls are doused with the cure.
They're running around, trying to escape. But even their werewolf strength can't break David's locks. We
should keep the system installed after this whole thing is over. You never know when an airtight house
might come in handy.
Luckily the antidote works quickly and moments later everyone's back to their old selves again. No
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more hair, teeth, claws, or snouts. Just soaking wet cheerleaders, staring at a soaking wet, half-naked
Race Jameson. They all look around, completely confused, not remembering how or why they got all
wet.
"W00t! Wet T-shirt contest!" Race cries. "And I'm judging!"
It's more than an effective distraction and soon all the girls are strutting their stuff, hoping to impress the
rock star in my living room. Well, some things never change.
I cheer, slapping high fives with Cait and Sunny. Once again Rayne McDonald saves the day.
Damn, I'm good.
25
We're down by three, fourth quarter, fourth down, and Trevor has the ball. Only seconds to go and the
clock on the scoreboard counts down relentlessly. Trevor backs up, looks for an opening . . .
We're screaming, we're yelling, we're jumping up and down. "Go, Wolves!" The fans in the packed
bleachers echo our cheer. There's a crackling of electricity in the air. A roar from the crowd. It's now or
never.
Trevor sees Mike Stevens enter the end zone. He's wide open.
As red uniforms converge on our quarterback, Trevor throws. Mike leaps into the air and manages to
catch the ball a split second before he's tackled to the ground.
The Wolves win the homecoming game.
The crowd leaps up in unison, a chaos of blue jackets, hats, and sweaters cheering and clapping and
whooping the old Wolf pack howl.
"Whoo! Yeah! Go Mike and Trevor!" we yell. Mandy does a back flip. Shantel and Nancy jump up and
down.
I yell, too, even pulling off a pretty good round-off, com-ing back up with pom-poms still in place.
Yes, I, Rayne McDonald, am still a Wolves cheerleader. At least for now. After all, I couldn't just
abandon my squad simply because I was done with my mission impossible. Homecoming's an important
game and I can't have them basket-tossing Nancy without me there to make sure she gets caught.
So I'm a Goth. A vampire. And now a cheerleader. And no one's going to tell me it's not okay to be all
three. After all, I've always prided myself as an individual. If I enjoy cheering, then I'll cheer. And if
anyone wants to make anything of that, short skirt or not, I'll totally kick their ass across the football field.
Even Mandy admitted, during her pep talk before the game, that I'd come a long way since day one of
practice. Now that she's cured, she and I have settled into at least a temporary truce. We may never be
best friends again, but at least now we have a grudging respect for one another and both understand a
little better where the other is coming from.
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"Rayne! Rayne!" My mom's beaming as she runs over to me, waving like a lunatic. Once I finally told her
I was a cheerleader she insisted on coming to watch me. Which is pretty cool, I guess. Though slightly
embarrassing.
"Hey, Mom," I greet, waving a pom-pom in her direction. She embraces me tightly and I hug her back.
My hippie, dip-pie mom. I love her so much. And like David, I will do any-thing to protect her.
"Wow, Rayne. You were amazing. Really amazing. I'm so impressed. I had no idea you could do those
kinds of moves."
"Well, it did take some practice."
"Yeah, you were really something," David says, walking up behind Mom. "A total natural."
"Isn't she?" Sunny asks, joining the group. "I keep telling her that but she refuses to believe me."
I feel my face heat at all the compliments. I'm so used to being the bad girl. The one everyone's annoyed
at or afraid of. It's weird being the center of positive attention. But I guess I can deal with it. At least for
tonight.
"Can I speak to you for a minute, Rayne?" A voice makes me turn around. It's Mr. Teifert. Wow, does
everyone and their mother come to these things?
"Well," I say, glancing over at my family. I'm not quite ready for the Rayne adoration to stop.
"We'll be right over here," David assures me, probably figuring Teifert wants to talk Slayer shop. He and
Mom and Sunny take a few steps back. I can tell Sunny's trying to keep an ear open though.
"What's up, T?" I ask, wondering if he has another mis-sion for me. Whatever it is, this time I won't
argue. Whatever he wants me to do, no matter how crazy it sounds, I'm his girl. I'm Rayne McDonald.
I'm the slayer.
"You're no longer the slayer."
I stare at him. "What?" I cry. "What do you mean?"
He smiles. "Bertha's back. She's undergone an extensive diet and exercise rehabilitation program and is
now ready to resume her role as slayer. So you're off the hook."
I can't believe it. The girl's been out of commission since she dustedLucifent and Magnus became coven
leader. Been spend-ing time at a fat farm ever since. And now she's back? I know I should be thrilled to
hear I'll no longer be required to perform as a slayer, but for some reason I feel disappointed instead. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]