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"That's fine," Ms. Peters says. "And the rest of you will stay in pairs."
I don't move. Chairs are being dragged all around me. I don't want to mess up Gavin
and Kayla's perfect twosome. I would give anything to be invisible right now.
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"Come on, Tere. Move your desk up." Kayla found a seat in front of Gavin and has
turned herself around to face us. She doesn't look like his type. She takes photos for the
school paper and is really upbeat. She's wearing all pink, even her shoes.
"Okay, I'll do it for you." Kayla shoots up and grabs hold of my desk. I stand up inside it
and walk as she slides it closer to her.
Ms. Peters places the assignment on Kayla's desk. Kayla reads aloud, "Each of you needs
to pick an author, living or dead, that you admire. Of course, each choice is subject to
my approval ..."
"Geez, even teachers have disclaimers these days," Gavin grumbles.
Kayla and I both laugh--she like a lion. Me like a kitten.
Kayla continues reading, "The next step is to read one of their books and find out as
much as you can about them. You will prepare your finding in a two-page paper. See
attached handout."
Kayla stops reading. "What does this have to do with a group project?"
Ms. Peters is walking around the class and stops in front of her. "Read on."
"Oh, right." Kayla smiles. "You will then become this author and decide what would
happen if your two choices met in person. You can perform a short scene, write a poem,
sing a song, but whatever you choose, it needs to be done orally. Twelve to fifteen
minutes for each project."
Okay, my brain froze when she said perform. No. Way. Do they
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have any mute authors? Because otherwise I'm not doing this assignment. I can't.
"This'll be fun!" Kayla puts down the paper and pulls a book out of her bag. "I'm Judy
Blume, all the way." She holds up the author's photo to her face. "See, we even have the
same haircut."
Scary.
"What about you guys?" Kayla asks.
"Definitely Stephen King." Gavin pushes a strand of hair from his face. I watch it fall right
back.
Kayla makes a gagging sound. "That guy is gruesome."
"I know." Gavin grins.
Kayla and Gavin definitely don't like each other. I grin, too. "So what about you?" Kayla
jabs me lightly with the corner of Judy Blume's Summer Sisters.
"No performance." I shake my head.
Kayla looks at Gavin and rolls her eyes. "I hope there's not a problem here. I need to
keep my 5.0. I'm still waiting to hear from Duke. It's my first choice."
Maybe they shouldn't have let me in their group. I don't want to be the reason that
Kayla has to go to community college instead of her dream school.
Gavin doesn't catch her eye rolls because he's busy drawing. Looks like he's as thrilled as
me about this project. "Well, I'm already in at the University of Central Florida, so I'll just
take the F." He looks up from his paper with a smirk.
Kayla narrows her eyes. "Not funny."
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"We'll figure something out," Gavin says.
"Like what?" Kayla asks.
"Mute," I offer.
"No, you're not." Kayla sighs.
Gavin stifles a laugh. "Helen Keller."
"You want her to be Helen Keller?" Kayla points to me, like she can't figure out who
Gavin's talking about.
I don't know why I never thought of Helen Keller before in all my years of losing sleep
and throwing up over oral reports. "Okay." I tap my hand on my desk.
Gavin looks up from his drawing. An enormous dog is spread over the page. It's eyes are
fierce. "Cujo."
"God, help us," Kayla murmurs and flips to a fresh notebook page. She writes down the
names of our author picks in big bubbly letters. "This is going to be one weird meeting."
I stare down at the dog. It's a Saint Bernard.
***
Good evening, Miami. This is Sweet T on 92.7 WEMD The SLAM. It's Wednesday night,
hump day, and if you've made it this far, you can survive the rest of the week. Still in
doubt? Be caller number ninety-two and I'll hook you up with a pair of tickets to see
Maltese on Saturday night at Club Zen. Here's Maltese with "Melt Down." He can melt me
down anytime. Have you seen the abs on this guy?
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chapter TEN
It would be cool if I could fast-forward the school day to English class. We're working on
our group projects today. That means no one's going to call on me and hopefully no
one's going to humiliate me. I know eventually we'll have to stand up in front of the
class to deliver our presentations, but as long as I don't have to talk, I can hack it. And in
the meantime, I get to scoot my desk next to Gavin---the highlight of my day.
My morning classes blur by with a sub left over from the Dark Ages in pre-calc and a
sociology pop quiz designed to stump even the reigning Jeopardy! champ. I hope Ms.
Collins pities us and uses a huge sliding scale when she grades the quizzes.
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I'm not looking forward to lunch because Audrey's absent today, which means I have to
eat alone. How dare she get a sore throat? Definitely poor planning! I should really think
about getting a backup friend. There are a couple of girls in my pre-calc class that I
could sit with, but they usually end up droning on about the homework. Not a relaxing
way to spend lunch.
I chow my blueberry muffin at my locker. Now what? I still have twenty-eight minutes
left until class starts. It's time to loosen my vocal cords so I can talk to Gavin and Kayla. I
want to seem at least halfway intelligent in our group discussion, so I head to the
language lab.
On the way, I pass the band room. Maria, one of the French-horn players, is standing at
the door. She waves me over. "Hi, Tere. Where's Audrey?"
"Sick."
"Is she okay?" Maria's brows connect. I mean, really connect. I fold my arms. "Sore
throat."
"We need her to prepare for competition this weekend." Maria sighs. "Hope it's not
strep."
Doug pops his head out of the band room. "I called her last night. She sounded bad."
"Hope you don't get it." Maria smirks. Doug asked Audrey to the prom months ago. Not
that he needed to ask her, because they've basically attended every school function
together since they met in ninth grade band. It's like they have a mutual understanding
that unless one of them finds their soul mate, they're
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going to be together. I wonder what will happen next year when they're at separate
colleges.
Doug makes kissy sounds and steps closer to Maria.
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