“Which groundbreaking theory,” Amir spoke slowly and carefully to the dead-silent room, “was directly influenced by the work of Edwin Hubble of telescope fame, who stated that the universe is in a constant state of expans—?”
And Marianne slammed the buzzer.
10
MARIANNE ENTERED HOMEROOM ON Monday morning to applause.
Kylie skipped up to her, pointed to her head, and said, “What have you been hiding in there this whole time?”
Her homeroom teacher, Ms. Robbie, the health teacher at all other hours of the day, stood in front of her creepily detailed poster of the human body and held up a newspaper. “Look who made the Brookdale Gazette!”
There they were on page C6. Smiling those smiles that look fake because it’s the eighth or ninth time someone’s taken your picture. They wore medals around their necks.
Marianne had never won a medal before.
A couple of kids went, “Whoo!”
“We’ll post it on the bulletin board outside the main office, mmkay?” Ms. Robbie said. Then she went right on into “goals planning” for high school.
Under the desk, Marianne used one thumb to text Lillian:
ppl r so into the winning thing.
i didnt even get close to as many right answers as
any other person there.
theyre just shocked i didnt totally blow it.
A couple of minutes later, her phone glowed.
three cheers for not blowing it? Lillian responded with a goofy emoji face.
youre into the winning thing too i guess, Marianne wrote back, feeling an anger in her chest coming out through her thumbs. is it better having a little sister who isnt a loser?
“Marianne, how’s the goal setting?” Ms. Robbie asked, and they both knew she’d been texting, so she practically threw the phone into her backpack and started writing.
Get to high school
Do better in high school than in middle school
Zoology?
In the hallway, Ms. Clarke held Marianne by both of her upper arms and said, “I am so very proud of you,” articulating each word with so much intensity and support that Marianne could hardly stand it.
“Thanks!” she twittered, and she wanted so badly to get away that when she noticed Julie and Zara out of the corner of her eye, she practically jumped on them. She needed somewhere to go.
“HORSE! HORSE! HORSE!” a loud boy named Tripp Layson chanted her way as he walked backward through the hall, but he immediately moved on to slamming someone’s locker shut and knocking a stack of papers out of another girl’s hands, the Horse Girl quickly forgotten.
“Eeek!” Julie hugged her. “Yay! Congrats! It’s so weird because Skyla said you were really struggling!”
Why would she say that?
“Ha. Get one answer right and I’m Einstein, I guess,” she joked to Julie.
She thought of how Vi had told her she shouldn’t be a joke to the Lucases of the world. Julie was a Lucas. How could Skyla like her?!
She found herself searching the hallways for Vi, but she didn’t see her. She spotted Dan and scurried to his side.