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    Dead-End Job
    Dead-End Job
    Dead-End Job
    Ebook71 pages41 minutes

    Dead-End Job

    By Vicki Grant

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Frances works the night shift at a local convenience store, dividing her time between restocking shelves and working on her art. Her routine is broken one night when Devin comes into the store. He claims to be the son of a famous local artist and offers her advice on her drawings. Although he seems to know way too much about her, Frances decides, against the advice of her boyfriend, that he is odd but harmless. By the time she realizes the danger she is in, Devin is completely obsessed with her and convinced that if he can't have her, no one will. Frances will be forced to use all her strength to escape from Devin.

    Also available in Spanish.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateApr 1, 2005
    ISBN9781554696017
    Dead-End Job
    Author

    Vicki Grant

    VICKI GRANT left her career in advertising and television to write her first novel, The Puppet Wrangler, in 2004. She has written many books for young readers, including Not Suitable for Family Viewing, winner of the Red Maple Award, Quid Pro Quo, winner of the Author Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime Fiction, Betsy Wickwire’s Dirty Secret, Pig Boy and B Negative. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Web: vickigrant.com Twitter: @VickiGrantYA Instagram: @vicki_grantya  

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    Reviews for Dead-End Job

    4/5

    14 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I like that book because devin likes to paint good pictures.The worst part was devin works at a convience store and she has to restock some shelves and clean everything on the counter.
    • 5/5
      great book, really caught my attention the whole time. I just wanted to keep on reading it to see what would happen.I loved it and i recommend it to everybody. very easy and short book but super good and makes sense. It is about a boy who is obsessed with the main character, Frances, who works at a gas station. He came to the gas station one night and after that he stalked here everywhere she went, took pictures of her and sent them to her, went to her house, etc. He was a real creep but he was so nice Frances didn't realize he was stalking her until the night he came to the gas station and tried to kill her ....
    • 4/5
      Francis loves her boyfriend Leo very much. Then she meets Devin. Devin is perfect for her. They have so much in common, it's scary. But Francis realizes that she really does love Leo, and that's when things with Devin become really scary.Great quick read. Will appeal to extremely reluctant and avid readers alike. Pace is nice, the plot is more or less realistic. Will appeal to older teenagers.

    Book preview

    Dead-End Job - Vicki Grant

    us.

    Chapter One

    There was something really weird about that bag of cheese doodles. It was too fat at the bottom or too pointy at the corners or something. I stared at it for ages, but I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. It was making me crazy.

    I grabbed my hair and screamed.

    Someone said, Are you all right?

    I nearly jumped out of my skin. I hadn’t even heard the guy come in. I tried to casually put my hand over my drawing. I didn’t want him to see it. I said, Oh. Yeah. I’m fine. Can I help you?

    He put a chocolate bar on the counter. He said, I just came in to buy this. Then he smiled in a way he probably thought was cute and whispered, But now I’d really like to see your picture too.

    I sort of smiled back. He was a customer after all. I didn’t want to be rude. But I didn’t want to encourage him either—especially since he was nowhere near as hot as he thought he was. He was just sort of normal. Your average eighteen-year old with the hoodie, the jeans, and the earphones hooked around his neck. He was sort of pale, sort of skinny and could have used a shave too. (I only noticed that because I was trapped behind the counter looking at him. Normally I wouldn’t have noticed him at all.)

    Pleeeease? he said. He gave me that cheesy smile again. This was getting embarrassing. Even more embarrassing than me screaming.

    I said, Ah, no. I don’t think so. I pulled a box of bubble gum over my drawing.

    C’mon. Don’t be shy, he said and tried to take a peek.

    That will be $1.07 for the bar, I said. I covered the rest of the picture with a copy of the week’s Lotto numbers.

    Okay, okay. He shrugged like it was no big deal. Here’s one and a quarter. Keep the change.

    Oooh. All that charm and a big tipper too. I threw the money in the cash and then we both just sort of stood there. I found it really awkward, but it didn’t seem to bug him at all. He took a bite of his Krispy Bits and said, Mmmm. Good bar. As if I had something to do with it. He leaned against the counter until he finished eating. Then he wiped his hand on his jacket and said, Well, I guess I better get going.

    No kidding, I thought.

    Thanks for coming in, I said.

    He was on his way out past the magazine rack when the phone rang. What a relief. It was almost midnight. It had to be my boyfriend. I crouched down behind the cigarette rack and acted like the perfect little receptionist.

    Highway Buyway Convenience Store. This is Frances. How may I direct your call?

    Leo demanded to speak with the head of Customer Relations immediately! He was appalled at the shabby treatment he’d received that day from one of our sales-people. He didn’t catch her name, but he could describe her. She had scraggy blond hair, brown old-lady glasses and size eleven feet. (It sounded a lot like me, but I wasn’t going to admit to anything.)

    According to Leo, she had refused to sneak out of biology class with him that day. He’d even promised to give her a biology lesson himself in the back of his way cool 1985 Impala. If this behavior did not stop, he said, he would be forced to report the Highway Buyway to the Better Business Bureau!

    We had been goofing around like that for a while when I heard someone in the store. I figured it was the owner coming in to do the nightshift. I whispered, See you at the usual time, and hung up. Mr. Abdul’s a niceguy and everything, but he still doesn’t want me flirting with my boyfriend on company time.

    I hopped up from behind the counter and said Hi! in this really bouncy cheerleader voice. I wanted to sound like your ideal employee. The type of person who just loves spending her Friday nights restocking the cigarette shelves.

    Well, hello there! It was Mr. Krispy Bits again.

    Great.

    Can I help you? I said.

    Yeah. Mind if I stay here for a few minutes? It’s really starting to rain outside.

    I did mind, but what could I say?

    I guess not, I said and actually started to restock the cigarettes.

    He said, You don’t have to sound so happy about it. I mean, I could help you.

    Oh right. Just what I wanted.

    "No

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