for a family reunion, and Mr. Hubble has arranged for that person to visit the school and judge the competition.” Ms. Bourgeois peered nearsightedly at the card in her hand, completely unaware of our excitement.
“Oh, please let it be Dr. Kelsey!” Breanna whispered.
“It’s just got to be!” I whispered back. Dr. Kelsey was beautiful! She was brave! She was… the Star Warrior. Breanna and I played Star Warrior every recess, and whenever Breanna came to my house, we took turns being Dr. Kelsey. Sometimes we played with our dress-up dolls and pretended that one was Dr. Kelsey and that one was Captain Stone Griffith, her handsome astronaut boyfriend. Okay, so Jessica and Katie think dolls are totally uncool, but that’s why I love Breanna. We like to play with them sometimes, and she doesn’t care what those guys think at all. And now we were both chanting together under our breath: “Dr. Kelsey, Dr. Kelsey…”
We got our wish! “The actor,” Ms. Bourgeois said, “is a… Renee… Lastrapes, who plays Dr. Kelsey… um… Strangeheart.”
“Strongheart!” we all yelled.
“Oh, I see… Strongheart. In any event, the actor will personally present an autographed picture of herself at the assembly, as well as a… virtual crysto-laser. Yes, I think that’s what this says, a… virtual crysto-laser, to the student who has given the best presentation.”
“Oooh, I want to meet her!” exclaimed Jessica. “Will we get to talk to her, Ms. Bourgeois?”
“Only one or two children will have that privilege,” replied our teacher. “Ms. Lastrapes has to leave right after the assembly, and only one of you—that is, the student with the highest grade—will be on the stage with her.” She smiled. “So if you really want to meet her, I suggest that you do a good job on your paper!”
Breanna turned around, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. “Did you hear that?” she gasped. “Dr. Kelsey is coming to our school!”
“I heard it,” I said, shaking my head in wonderment. “But I can hardly believe it!” Right then and there, I knew I wanted to win that prize more than anything else in the whole world. I just had to write the best paper. I imagined Dr. Kelsey pinning my virtual crysto-laser on my shirt in front of everyone at Probst Elementary. Nobody would ever call me “spacey” again.
“I want to win so bad!” I sighed out loud.
Jessica heard me. She turned around to Katie and giggled. “As if!” she said. “Anyway, Katie and I are the best writers in this class. One of us is sure to win. Hey, Katie,” she said, turning to her friend. “Let’s pledge each other, here and now, that whoever wins, we’ll share the crysto-laser with the other. Deal?”
Nodding excitedly and shaking Jessica’s hand, Katie said, “Deal!”
Breanna turned around and gave me a look that said, “Can you believe how stuck up they are?” I made a gagging motion with my finger and rolled my eyes. But when Breanna turned around again I felt a momentary uneasiness. What if Jessica was right?… No! I thought. I can do this. I can. I don’t know how, but I’ve just got to win that contest!
2 Peevers and Other Crew Mates
After lunch, Ms. Bourgeois assigned us topics for our research papers. Planets went to the first nine children, with Jessica getting Earth. (Somehow, that didn’t seem fair.) Will Schiffer was eighth, and he got Neptune. After Breanna was assigned Pluto, the rest of the kids got their assignments one by one: the sun, moon, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, constellations, satellites, and telescopes. Finally, she assigned stars to me.
Stars! I thought. I’ve got a head start! After all, Breanna and I have seen every single episode of Star Warrior at least once.
That, of course, is just another one of the reasons I like Breanna so much. Unlike Jessica, Breanna doesn’t think I am dumb. In fact, she says I’m funny and that I have good ideas. She has pretty black hair, which she wears in cornrows or in a ponytail, with bangs like mine. (My hair, however, is curly reddish-brown and “impossible” according to my mom, so she always puts it in braids.)
Breanna is very smart, and she almost never gets in trouble.
Unlike me.
Take what happened in geography class today, for instance. After the big announcement, Ms. Bourgeois told us to use colored pencils to make a map of the United States as part of our geography lesson. Somewhere between Mississippi and Texas I slipped into my own thoughts. I decided to add the state capitals for extra credit.
Then I found out that if you added a few extra capitals in the right places, it made a beautiful web, especially if you marked them with stars. Hmmm. Stars reminded me of the opening scene of my favorite program. I started thinking about Dr. Kelsey sitting on the auditorium stage with the virtual crysto-laser in her lap. I imagined sitting right next to her and thinking of what I would say to her. I lifted my head, brushed my hair out of my eyes, and leaned back in my seat to admire my star-spangled country.
“Paige.” Seeing Ms. Bourgeois standing over my desk made me jump. I hadn’t even noticed her coming.
“Uh… yes, ma’am?” Full of dread, I waited for her to say something about the map, but she didn’t.
“I’d like for you to go see Mr. Rodriguez.” Breanna and I looked at each other, and her eyes were full of sympathy.
My heart sank. I must really be in trouble. Mr. Rodriguez is the assistant principal. Actually, if I wasn’t in trouble, going to see him would not have been so bad. He’s tall with black hair and kind, dark eyes, and Breanna thinks he looks just like Captain Stone Griffith. If you squint at him a certain way, he kind of does. We used to pretend that he really was Captain Stone, and one day Breanna even wrote in the dust on his car window, “BB loves CSG” (for Captain Stone Griffith).
Nevertheless, this trip to see him could mean nothing but bad news. What had I done wrong? I tried to read Ms. Bourgeois’ face. She didn’t look like she was upset with me at all; in fact, she looked like she was trying to be nice.
I could hear the kids whispering, “Paige has to see Mr. Rodriguez!”
I did what any self-respecting kid would do under the circumstances: I stalled for time. “Um… Go see Mr. Rodriguez? Why?” My voice sounded funny in my ears. “Is it because I didn’t do my map right?”
Ms. Bourgeois looked down at my work and frowned like she was noticing my map for the first time, but she said, “No, Paige. He would like to have a little talk with you. He’ll send you right back to class when you’re done.”
She stood there waiting. It was no use. I got up feeling like I was going off to my doom, just like Dr. Kelsey must have felt that time she was on Planet Priamus and she allowed the Grumblions to capture her in order to save her
