Counting to D Read Online Free PDF Page A

making Macbeth the new king.”
    “Yeah, I get that part, but who’s Macduff?”
    “He’s the Thane of Fife, another nobleman. He isn’t in the direct line for the throne, or at least he’s far enough down the line that a lot of people would have to die for him to become king.”
    Eli leaned forward slightly, silently indicated he was listening, and possibly even learning, so I continued.
    “Macduff discovers King Duncan is dead and notices the lucky coincidence that the king died in Macbeth’s home shortly after Macbeth became second in line and helps to uncover the treachery.”
    “So Macduff’s the bad guy?” Eli furrowed his brow.
    “Bad guy? Good guy? It’s hard to say sometimes in Shakespearean tragedy. But Macduff is Macbeth’s downfall.”
    “Why does Macduff care, if he’s not next in line?”
    “Probably because Macbeth killed Macduff’s wife and kids as a part of the whole kingly takeover and cover-up. After it happened, Macduff was pretty pissed. I think his words were:
    Cut short all intermission; front to front,
    Bring though this fiend of Scotland and myself;
    Within my sword’s length set him; if he ’scape,
    Heaven forgive him too!”
    “And that’s old-timey-confusing-as-hell for he’s really pissed off?”
    Eli wasn’t Arden, but he was trying. “Yeah, that’s old-timey for really pissed off.”
    The blond chick glanced up long enough to notice the closed book on my desk. “New kid, do you have this whole play memorized or something?”
    Oops, I should have opened my book before I started quoting. I shrugged lamely.
    Kaitlyn coughed, “Loser.” It wasn’t remotely subtle. I looked back toward Eli, wondering whose side he’d take.
    He pretended not to hear Kaitlyn and flipped the page in his book. “So who’s Malcolm?”
    We had a calc exam on the Thursday of my first week at Kennedy High. Thankfully, a derivative is a derivative regardless of what state you live in. The test was straightforward and blissfully devoid of story problems. It had always pissed me off the way math teachers tried to squeeze reading into their exams. I’d gotten good at skimming the questions for numbers and attempting to deduce the nature of the questions. But there’s no mystery in ∫ sec xdx . It equals ln | sec x + tan x | + C every time.
    When Ms. Russle passed back our exams the next day, she paused at my desk. “Nice job, Samantha.”
    I glanced down at the 100% written across the top in red pen. “Thanks.” Haroon and Graham both turned to face me. I blushed and slid my paper into my notebook.
    At lunch, Graham practically attacked me. “Spill it, baby brain.”
    “What?”
    “Let us see your calculus exam. We’re letting you sit at our table on faith. Now we want the proof.”
    I glanced at Lissa and Nate for reassurance before asking Graham, “Are you serious?”
    Lissa smiled. “It’s not a big deal. We do this after every test.” She pulled her own test out of her bag and dropped it on the table. “Ninety-seven percent, tah dah.”
    Miles, Haroon, Nate, and Graham all tossed their papers onto the table as well: 96 percent, 94 percent, 95 percent, and 98 percent.
    “It looks like Graham’s the winner again.” Miles retrieved his exam from the stack.
    The smirk on Graham’s face made my blood boil. Like him getting a 98 percent on a stupid math test somehow made him better than everyone else. I wanted to slap that smug smile off his face. Suddenly, I didn’t want Graham to win. It might have been mean and vindictive, but I wasn’t the one who started this stupid competition. I slid my exam out of my notebook and dropped it on top of Graham’s. “Or not.”
    Lissa raised her pierced eyebrow at me. “It appears our baby does have a brain. You’re not scared, are you, Graham?”
    He grumbled something under his breath and snatched his exam. Apparently, I’d passed my first test. So why did my chest feel hollow? I stared at my turkey sandwich, no longer in the mood to