Counting to D Read Online Free PDF Page B

Arden’s crazy ramblings only made me feel more lost and alone.
    A week later, Señor Gonzales gave me my first Spanish test. Since I’d failed to understand a single thing he’d said since I’d moved, it wasn’t a repeat performance from calculus.
    When Nate and I walked out together he announced, “Ninety-four. You beat me for sure.”
    “Nope.” I shoved my hands into my pockets, balling them into fists, and looked straight ahead.
    “You got an A−?”
    I shook my head and kept on walking. “A B? How is that even possible?”
    Why did he care? I should have been allowed to pass and fail whatever classes I wanted to. It was none of Nate’s business. Except Nate was the closest thing I had to a friend in this town. And pretty soon, he wouldn’t be anymore.
    In the back of my mind, I heard Kaitlyn coughing, “Loser.” She’d made it more than clear that I could never pass for normal, and now the brainiacs were going to reject me too. Two weeks of marginal companionship was all I’d get. Everything was falling apart already. I didn’t want to think about Spanish or my serious lack of friends or anything else. 3, 9, 27…2,187; 6,561; 19,683…
    “Sam?” Nate reached out and touched my shoulder.
    I slowly unclenched my fists and looked up at him. “What do you want?”
    “To be your friend. Talk to me.” His voice was pleading, like I’d done something to hurt him, not the other way around.
    “I didn’t get a B either. I got a D.”
    Nate started laughing. Laughing. “Good one.”
    “I’m not kidding.” I stopped and leaned against a locker. Sliding my bag off my shoulder, I fished inside until I came up with my exam. My hand was shaking as I pulled the paper out and handed it to Nate.
    The number 62 screamed across its cover. He flipped through pages of illegible handwriting overwritten with red pen. “How is this possible?” He shook his head in confusion. “Sam, you’re the smartest chick at this school. You’re even smarter than Lissa, which is just insane. You’re not a D student.”
    My knees buckled, and I slid to the floor. 531,441; 1,594,323; 4,782,969… “I am a D. A giant D.”
    Nate sat down in the middle of the hallway facing me. Masses of students skirted around us on their way toward the cafeteria. “What are you talking about?”

Chapter 5
    N ate faced me in the crowded hallway. I could still turn back. I could still make up a lie. I knew how — I’d been doing it for years. But I didn’t. “D as in dyslexic. There’s a reason I waited until my sophomore year to start taking Spanish. I still haven’t even figured out how to read English.”
    He brushed back his shaggy black hair and blinked at me with those giant brown eyes. “You can’t have a learning disability. How are you taking so many APs?”
    I swallowed the lump growing in my throat and tossed my MP3 player to him. Then I leaned forward to flip it on. I ran my thumb across the menu and pulled up our chemistry text. Nate sat there blinking as his eyes darted from me to my MP3 player.
    “I’m not stupid. I’m just illiterate, and as it turns out, it’s a lot easier to get audio versions of college textbooks than high school ones. Last year, I convinced the administration at my school in San Diego to let me start taking AP classes without any prerequisites. When I moved up here, Kennedy let me transfer my schedule. Since I’ve never attempted to take a foreign language before, I didn’t have any major hex marks on my transcript…yet.”
    Nate rested his hand on my knee. It was gentle and warm, just like the rest of him. “Sorry, apparently I’m slow. You can’t read?”
    “Not really,” I shrugged. “I endured something like five hundred hours of private tutoring back in elementary school that supposedly taught me how to read. I can usually sound out the questions on my exams and stuff now. But the last novel I read was written by the good Dr. Seuss.”
    Nate studied my MP3 player more carefully.