A Year in the Life of a Complete and Total Genius Read Online Free PDF Page B

be so nice!
    Kennedy :)
    â€¢ • •
    Peer Tutoring Program—Progress Report
    Session: November 23rd
    Worked On: Shakespeare’s Time
    Ms. W, even tho his hair looked really dumb today, artie was kind of helpful in checking my Shakspear assinement for misstakes.
    â€”Robbie
    Robert spent a lot of time today either talking to his friends at other tables or insulting my new haircut and coming up with rude words that rhyme with Artie.
    â€”Arthur

    â€¢ • •
    November 24th
    Dear RJ,
    I’ve been reading a lot of terrible things recently, so I thought I would tell you about them.
    The first one was Robbie’s “Life in Shakespeare’s Time” assignment. His writing is really, really bad, but his ideas are kind of interesting. He wrote this whole thing about being poor and not being able to get into the show, but listening to it while begging on the street. It was kind of sad, because his character couldn’t have what he wanted, which was actually just to watch a play. But then he makes these stupid mistakes, like saying that the beggar would go to the food bank. Everyone knows that there was no food bank in the Middle Ages. Like I said, stupid. But I liked his idea. He seems to have all these stories ready all the time. I guess that’s what makes him such a good liar. Maybe that’s why I can’t write any stories these days.
    So that was the first terrible thing I had to read. The second thing was in the newspaper at school. Kennedy’s boyfriend put in this like…ad-thing…saying that he thought she was cute and nice. Those were the words he used! Cute and nice! Those are words I use to describe Pickles. And Pickles is a nine-year-old cat. It’s so lame! Then in gym class, she was all giggly about it, and I saw the newspaper cut out and hanging up in her locker the other day. Although it was underneath her movie poster of District 9 , so at least it’s not surrounded by hearts or anything.
    Then I read Kennedy’s email asking for my mom to read her story. That made me pretty sad, and then I felt bad that I made her sad too. I just don’t know what to say about it. It’s not like there’s a magical way to tell people. It hadn’t come up in conversation. I’m not going to be running laps beside Kennedy and casually say, “Oh, hi, Kennedy! Did I ever mention that my mom is dead? How many laps is this for you? Oh, nine? Yeah, I’m on my fourth. Well, see you around…the track.” Ha-ha-ha.
    That little joke was for you, RJ. I know you like a good one-liner. Nicole says that joking about death makes people uncomfortable, but I don’t know how else to talk about it. You know me, RJ. I’m a joker! I’m just glad that Kennedy didn’t seem weirded out by my email. She’s so awesome. I kind of love that she admitted that she’s not perfect. It makes her even more perfect.
    And the last terrible thing I read was the first act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream .
    Ms. Whitehead is all “This is the greatest” and she laughs fakely at what Shakespeare called jokes. But I don’t get it. It’s all “thou” and “thee,” and I know people think it’s brilliant, but I think they just want to feel smart. I can’t believe we have to study this all the way until Christmas break. How am I supposed to get any inspiration for my own award-winning story from crappy plays like this one?
    Yours truly,
    Arthur Bean
    â€¢ • •
    From: Kennedy Laurel ([email protected])
    To: Arthur Bean ([email protected])
    Sent: November 28, 21:21
    Hi, Arthur!!!
    OK, below is the BEGINNING of my story for the competition! I changed to a girl main character like you suggested, and she is AWESOME! Let me know your opinions—be HONEST! I want to win LOL!!! Can’t wait to read your beginning too! Send it to me whenever and I will read it post-haste LOL! (We’re