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Dangerous Designs
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Dangerous Designs
Book #1
Dangerous Designs
Tuesday's Child
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidences either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 Dale Mayer
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
I.Chapter 1
II.Chapter 2
III.Chapter 3
IV.Chapter 4
V.Chapter 5
VI.Chapter 6
VII.Chapter 7
VIII.Chapter 8
IX.Chapter 9
X.Chapter 10
XI.Chapter 11
XII.Chapter 12
XIII.Chapter 13
XIV.Chapter 14
XV.Chapter 15
XVI.Chapter 16
XVII.Chapter 17
XVIII.Chapter 18
XIX.Vampire in Denial
XX.About the author
Dangerous Designs
Book #1
Copyright 2010 Dale Mayer
Tuesday's Child
CHAPTER ONE
Some days just sucked. Then there was today. Storey Dalton, sixteen, was now boyfriendless.
Jeff had moved away from Bankhead six months ago, but in her mind, they were still a couple – until her Facebook message this morning. Like what was she supposed to do with that? He had a new girlfriend and wanted her to be happy for him. She stomped a hapless weed in front of her. The girl's name was Pam. Who called their kid Pam? Sounded like her mother's cooking spray.
The sun shone down so brightly its reflection off the creek blinded her. And of course she'd forgotten her sunglasses. Swearing, she headed to the shady side of the path through the woods where the poplars grew tall and straight. Halfway to school meant halfway to nowhere today.
Jeff had been her best friend first and then finally her boyfriend. But only for the last couple of months. They'd no sooner made that magical crossing in their relationship when she found out his family was moving. So what if they were apart? Wasn't true love supposed to survive everything? Even she couldn't hold back a snicker at that. True love my ass. The only truth here was that Jeff was no longer hers. She could spit she was so mad.
She kicked a rock in her way, then kicked it again when the first attempt failed to make it move. Just like her relationships. The town of Bankhead was dying. The mine had closed, and everyone cute or interesting had moved away. The place was a ghost town. There were fewer than a couple of hundred kids in school now. And that covered all twelve grades.
Her prospects weren't looking too bright at finding a replacement boyfriend. Tall and slim to the point of being almost skinny, she wasn't exactly a raving beauty - all elbows and knees. Jeff had called her unique - an artist with an interesting perspective on life.
She pulled her leg back and kicked a bigger rock-hard. Damn, that felt good. Grinning, she went a little wild and kicked the shit out of a good half dozen stones. Revelling in the solid slap on her foot and the hefty force she could apply, Storey kicked out at life, her friends, or lack of them, and most of all at her current boyfriendless state.
The last kick did it. A pressure gauge in her chest released and she laughed as a weight slid off her shoulders. "He's found someone else, fine. I'll find someone, too. So it may not be today or tomorrow. Maybe not this month or next year, but I'll find someone too."
As she passed another big rock she seriously thought about giving it a good whack, when a glint beside it caught her eye.
A pencil. She grinned in delight. She loved pencils. Had a shoebox in her bedroom full. Picking it up, she brushed some loose dirt off. Unusually flat with a well-loved look to it, the bare nub of lead showing spoke to the artist in her. "Cool. We're a well-matched pair. Both tossed away by those we love." With a sense of kinship, she zipped it safely into the side pocket of her backpack and headed off to school.