Eighth Grade Bites Read Online Free Page A

don’t normally just up and burst into flames.” Vlad took on a casual tone, but secretly wished Henry would forget the entire ordeal. He picked up his controller and reached for the console’s reset button. “Let’s play again, but this time I get to be the blue android.”
    â€œI’m hungry.”
    Apparently Vlad wasn’t the only one with mind-reading abilities. “There’s fried chicken in the fridge.”
    Henry disappeared into the kitchen and returned a moment later with a plate of chicken in his hands and a drum-stick in his mouth. “I wuff Newwy’s chippen.”
    Vlad wrinkled his nose, suppressing his growing nausea at the smell of cooked flesh. “Speaking of Nelly . . . I’d better work on that family tree. If I get another D in history, she’ll kill me. When’s it due, anyway?”
    â€œFriday.” Henry dropped a clean bone on the plate and looked at Vlad. “How much have you done?”
    Vlad raised his eyebrows and smirked. “Does writing my name at the top of the page count?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œDoesn’t matter. I haven’t done that yet anyway.”
    Â 
    It didn’t take long to find the hidden door to the attic. Vlad grabbed the flashlight from his dresser and slid in first, with Henry following close behind him. Narrow stairs hugged the wall and curved upward, leading them to the attic room above. At the top, Vlad reached up, hoping a string to a light would be dangling down somewhere nearby. Finding one, he tugged it once and illuminated the room with a soft glow.
    Henry wrinkled his nose. “Dude, what smells like cat pee?”
    â€œYou mean besides your breath?”
    â€œDon’t make me get the holy water, Vlad.”
    Boxes lined the walls in various towering stacks. Vlad lugged one of the boxes off a stack and placed it on the floor at Henry’s feet. He reached for another, and Henry asked, “What are we looking for exactly?”
    â€œPhoto albums and birth certificates. And if we’re lucky, a family tree.” Vlad pulled another box down and crouched on the wood floor. He tore the packing tape away from the seam and flipped open the flaps. The top was filled with nothing of interest. Tax papers, mostly, and the occasional folder of receipts. But toward the bottom Vlad found several shoe boxes overflowing with family photos. He set them to the side and reached for another box.
    By the tenth box, they’d discovered several photo albums; two small velvet boxes containing his parents’ wedding bands; and a leather-bound book with a strange symbol on the front, held securely in place by thick leather straps and two brass locks. Exhausted from the search, Vlad brushed a thin coat of dust from his knees. “I guess these will have to do.”
    With a nod, Henry wiped a cobweb from his ear, picked up a stack of photo albums, and disappeared into the passageway.
    Vlad was two steps from joining him when he spotted a cylinder poking out of a small box atop one of the stacks. He picked it up and turned it over in his hand. It was small, no more than six inches long, smooth and completely black, except for the strange gold symbol engraved at one end: three slanted lines slashed across the bottom, encased in what looked like parentheses. He slid the cylinder into his pocket before turning off the light and making his way down the stairs in the dark.
    Henry was waiting for him in the bedroom, but before Vlad could show off his curious find, Aunt Nelly called up to them, “I’m home. Who wants hamburgers?” They bolted down the stairs, stomachs growling, and proceeded to help Nelly prepare their evening meal. Once the table was set and the fries had come out of the oven, she placed a bottle labeled KETCHUP on the table. When Henry reached for it, she stopped him and handed him a different bottle. “Use this one, dear. That one’s for