Egg-Drop Blues Read Online Free PDF

real novel. It's the only thing he's consistently mentioned since about the fourth grade. As I looked at him, I suspected that he was somewhere far away, inside one of his plots.
    "A picture would last longer."
    "What?"
    "Stop staring at me. What do you want?"
    "We're supposed to be brainstorming," I said.
    "What is there to brainstorm about? We build a better mousetrap and the world beats a path to our door." After saying that he got up and left.
    He was always saying confusing things, and I wasn't sure if he'd finally slipped over the edge or if that was another cliché.
    I went into the kitchen and asked my mother; she told me it was an old saying.
    "It's a pretty good one, too," she added.
    "Why do you say that?"
    "It's your brother's way of saying he plans to win the rally."
    I just nodded and went upstairs. I'm sure she had read too much into it. All it meant to me was that he didn't plan to do his part.

    Things started heating up the next day. For some reason, Faye suddenly had nearly as much
enthusiasm for the rally as my mother. I asked Tommy about it since he and Angela were part of Faye's question bowl group.
    "I think she likes Jeff Sewell this week," he said quietly. When it comes to friends, Tommy's the best. He has a way of telling you stuff that I'm trying to copy. He just says what he wants to say; you never know how he feels about it unless you ask him. Jury says I "wear my heart on my sleeve." That's Jury's way of telling me that people always know what I'm thinking.
    If Jury and Faye hadn't had a big argument about Jeff Sewell, I wouldn't have known what Faye's crush had to do with anything.
    Faye asked us if she could put one of us down as the alternate for her group.
    "That's cool," I said. "Use Jury's name. I don't do well under pressure. That's when my dyslexia really kicks in."
    "Is that okay with you, Jury?" Faye asked.
    "I'd like to know why you asked Jeff in the first place. I didn't hear Ms. Hennessey say anything about GATE teams. In fact, she made an announcement during our regular class. Am I right?" Jury said.
    "Yes, but..."
    "But what?" he interrupted. "What's up with you asking Jeff ? It would be different if you went
and asked somebody who's obviously smarter, but my grades are better than Jeff's. And Jeff can't talk!"
    They went back and forth like that. Angela even got involved in it. Finally Angela and Tommy said that Jury could be the main selection if it meant that much to him.
    It was pretty confusing. I didn't think he wanted to be in the event he was already in, much less two.
    "I didn't say I wanted to be the main selection," he finally said, after everybody had joined in the argument. "I just want to know why my best friends never asked."
    That really set Angela off. She accused him of jerking them around and making the rally a test of friendship. You'd have to know Angela to know that she's not a person you test.
    Angela jumped up in his face and asked him if it was just some kind of test. They were nose to nose, and to some people it probably looked like they were getting ready to fight. I looked at Tommy and we both started cracking up. That started Jury and Angela laughing too. Faye ran off, which is normal for her; she can be a little too dramatic sometimes.
    There were four other egg-drop groups—each was made up of kids I know and like. The
really great part was that we were using the top of the multipurpose building. The building is really just one huge room. There's a stage and chairs, like an auditorium, but most of the time it's used as an extra classroom for music or a special assembly. I guess it was chosen because the top is flat.
    Mr. C. (Carlisle), the vice principal, showed us how to get to the roof by pulling down a kind of ladder from the top of the storage closet. My grandparents have the same kind of setup to get into their attic. Mr. C. was nervous about letting us be up there. He spent fifteen or twenty minutes giving us a bunch of rules to follow.