BooksBarbecue
Back The Copycat Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Chapter One
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Chapter Two
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Chapter Three
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Chapter Four
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Chapter Five
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Chapter Six
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Chapter Seven
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Chapter Eight
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Chapter Nine
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Chapter Ten
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Chapter Eleven
  46. Thirty-Two
  47. Thirty-Three
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Chapter Twelve
  51. Thirty-Six
  52. Thirty-Seven
  53. Thirty-Eight
  54. Chapter Thirteen
  55. Thirty-Nine
  56. Forty
  57. Forty-One
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Chapter Fourteen
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Chapter Fifteen
  66. The Following Summer
  67. About the Author
  68. About the Publisher

Emily fixed her brightest smile on the class. “For our project, Ali and I did an inventory of all of the living creatures in a one-block radius of King’s Square in order to see how many of the kingdoms we could observe.”

ALI’S RULES FOR PRESENTATIONS

  1. Try not to do them.
  2. Actually help.
  3. Seriously, don’t do them.

Ali was next, but her nerves made it impossible to deliver an Emily-worthy performance. Her words came out in a monotonous ramble. “We discovered that even though Emily lives in the heart of the city, she’s surrounded by tons of different organisms. For example, we saw almost a hundred people. Each of them was covered in bacteria, fungi, and archaea, which are single-celled organisms. We have ninety trillion of them in and on our bodies, which means that those hundred people had nine quadrillion things crawling on them.”

“I’m going to throw up,” said Tom.

“Cool,” said Cassie.

“Anyone else feel itchy?” asked Mr. Corby. The whole class, including Emily and Ali, cracked up.

Emily clicked through the presentation. She and Ali went back and forth, describing what they’d seen and identifying the correct classifications. Every time Emily spoke, people paid attention. They loved her funny pictures and videos. Ali didn’t get the same reaction. The longer she stood at the front of the classroom, the more rattled she became. Her delivery was so flat that during her last slide, a couple of kids yawned and Emily appeared ready to cry.

Still, if anyone could save the day, it was Emily with their closing remarks. “I guess to sum up, when we first started studying the classification system in class, it was kind of dull.” She grinned at Mr. Corby, who pretended to look offended. “But once we started to look around, we realized how cool it is to be able to organize the world into categories. Science helps us make sense of the world around us and allows us to talk in a common language.”

“Excellent,” said Mr. Corby, “Ali, anything to add?”

Ali shook her head and smiled weakly at Emily.

“Who was responsible for which part of the project?” Mr. Corby asked.

Emily took a deep breath. “We did the inventory together,” she began.

Ali waited. This wasn’t going to be good.

“And . . . ,” Mr. Corby said.

Had Emily already told him that she hadn’t pulled her weight? Emily paused. “And I did the rest.” She said it fast, like it pained her to say it.

Taylor gasped dramatically. Mr. Corby, face inscrutable, thanked them and told them to sit down.

“Can I say one last thing?” Emily asked.

“Of course.”