Page 17 of Inferno

Manning smiled at her. “I got lucky.” When he noticed that she was struggling to keep pace with his long-legged stride, he automatically slowed down. “What’s your name, shorty?”

She smiled shyly. “Taylor Chastain.”

He shook her small, proffered hand. “Manning—”

“Wolf. I know.” She laughed. “Mr. Langenkamp must have called your name a hundred times today. He probably regrets that now.”

Manning chuckled, discreetly checking out Taylor’s appearance. She wore a baggy beige sweater over a plaid wool skirt that fell past her knees. The frumpy outfit was topped off by ugly wooden clogs that made an annoyingclip-clopsound as she walked. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and black horn-rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. On the plus side, her skin was smooth, without a trace of the acne that plagued many of their peers. The color reminded Manning of his great-grandmother’s brown sugar pecan pie.

Between the bulky sweater Taylor wore and the books clutched to her chest, he couldn’t tell how big her breasts were. But he knew they couldn’t compare to Caitlyn’s bodacious boobs, which he’d ogled the entire ride to school that morning.

“So,” Taylor interrupted before his mind began to wander, “did Mr. Langenkamp ask you to be a math tutor?”

“Yeah.”Manning shot her a surprised look. “How’d you know?”

Taylor grinned mysteriously. “I know everything.”

Manning laughed. “I’m starting to believe that.”

Taylor’s grin widened. Looking at her, Manning had a sudden urge to pluck her glasses off her face so he could see her eyes better.

“I was just kidding,” she continued. “I knew because Mr. Langenkamp asked me the same thing before class started.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“That I’d get back to him tomorrow.”

“You wanna be a tutor?”

“Maybe.”She shrugged.“Beats babysitting my little brother after school every day.”

Manning pulled a wry face. “I know what you mean.”

“Really?Do you have any sib—” She broke off at the sight of three pretty cheerleaders coming toward them. As the girls drew near, Taylor smiled brightly.“Hey, Janelle.How’s it—”

Rudely ignoring Taylor’s greeting, Janelle beamed at Manning and cooed, “Hiii, Manning.”

He nodded briefly at her.“Wassup.”

Taylor looked crestfallen as Janelle and her giggling companions continued down the hallway without acknowledging her presence.

Manning eyed Taylor sympathetically.“Friend of yours?”

“Used to be,” she mumbled.

“What happened?”

A small, humorless smile twisted Taylor’s mouth. “She sprouted breasts and made the junior varsity cheerleading squad.”

“Ah.” Manning nodded understandingly. Deciding it was best to change the subject, he said curiously, “By the way, what were you writing in your notebook at the end of class?”

Taylor looked surprised. “You saw me?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” She hesitated, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “Well, I was, um, copying your answer off the board.”

Now it was Manning’s turn to be surprised. “Why’d you do that?”