Being Teddy Roosevelt Read Online Free PDF Page B

gown, with a crisp, stiff ruff around her neck. A crown sat on her newly red hair—a wig, Riley guessed. In her right hand she held a royal scepter.
    Riley almost leaped to his feet to bow, but he stopped himself in time.
    “What’s happening? Who came in?” Sophie asked Riley. She had her blindfold on, but not her earplugs. Riley was glad Sophie wasn’t trying to be blind and deaf simultaneously. Maybe she would alternate: blind for thirty minutes, deaf for thirty minutes.
    “Erika has a great Queen Elizabeth outfit,” Riley told her.
    “Does she have a crown?”
    “A crown
and
a wig. And she’s carrying a scepter.”
    Sophie clicked her teeth in frustration. Riley understood. It was one thing to be blind while doing homework at the library. It was another thing to be blind at the biography tea.
    Socrates entered, looking embarrassed in a toga. Marie Curie bustled by in a lab coat.
    “Has anyone seen Grant?” Mrs. Harrow asked Shakespeare and Isaac Newton, who had just emerged from the boys’ room in their costumes. “He’s the only one we’re still missing.”
    “He’s coming,” Shakespeare said. Isaac Newton gave a chuckle that came out sounding more like a snort.
    Riley flipped through his note cards one last time. He wanted to have all his facts straight in case anyone asked Teddy Roosevelt any hard questions.
    Suddenly the room exploded into shrieks of laughter. Riley looked up, startled.
    Mahatma Gandhi had entered.
    In a loincloth.
    And completely bald.
    “Grant!” Mrs. Harrow cried out.

    “The name is Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi.”
    “Your hair!”
    “I shaved it off. I brought in my dad’s electric razor and plugged it into an outlet in the boys’ room.”
    “Do your parents know about this?” Mrs. Harrow asked faintly.
    Grant nodded. “I told them I needed to do it to get an A. So do I get an A?”
    Mrs. Harrow visibly pulled herself back together. “The grade for our biography unit is based on the written report, which I’ll hand back in a minute, and on the costume, and on how well you act as your character at the tea party. But for your costume today, yes, you get an A.”
    Riley felt a tiny bit hurt that Grant hadn’t told him about his head-shaving plan. But he also felt glad that he had the coolest best friend of anyone.
    Most of all, he felt nervous about his grade on the report. His mother would never let him do instrumental music if he ended up with a C or a D. But if he got a B—or even better than a B …
    “All right, class,” Mrs. Harrow said. “I’ll give you your reports, and then we’ll move into the library, where our room mothers have set up for our tea party.”
    She handed back the reports in alphabetical order. Grant got his before Riley.
    “A,” he signaled to Riley.
    Mrs. Harrow laid Riley’s report on his desk. He could hardly bear to make himself look at the grade at the end, but he did.
    A-!
    Mrs. Harrow had written, “Great job, Riley! Lots of interesting details, especially about the Roosevelt family’s hikes. Next time, check your spelling.” It was the best grade Riley had gotten on a report, ever.
    “I can’t see my grade!” Sophie wailed when Mrs. Harrow placed Sophie’s report on her desk.
    As if Sophie needed to look to know she had gotten an A+.
    Riley’s own A–made him feel generous. “Do you want me to look for you?” he offered.
    She hesitated. “Okay.”
    Riley peeked. “A-plus.”
    Sophie sighed with satisfaction. “Thanks, Riley.”
    “Hey,” Riley said, since Sophie was being so friendly. “I have over forty dollars saved up so far, to buy your brother’s saxophone.”
    She didn’t reply.
    “The one I saw at your yard sale?” Riley said, to remind her.
    With her blindfold on, Riley couldn’t see Sophie’s eyes. But her mouth looked stricken. “He already sold it,” Sophie said.
    “No!” Riley couldn’t believe it. His one best chance at a sax, gone just like that.
    “Two days ago. I didn’t know you were