Midnight Howl Read Online Free PDF

curls went to the front of the room and shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Um,” she said. “Well, black holes are places with such strong gravity that nothing can escape, not even light.”
    She went on, and, as she talked, she relaxed and spoke more easily. She knew a lot about her topic, and had even brought illustrations from the Hubble Space Telescope website.
    The amazing thing was how interested everyone was. No one was whispering, or napping, or passing notes. They were listening and raising their hands to ask questions. Back home, kids at a science clubmeeting would have been mostly interested, but someone probably would have been zoning out, and someone else would have been passing notes. It wasn’t always easy to pay attention after a long day of school.
    Because my dad and I studied it together, astronomy was really special to me, even back when I was a little kid. My friends in science club back home
liked
science, and a lot of them were
interested
in astronomy, but not like I was.
    I felt a thrill of delight. Here in Montana, I had fallen into some kind of alternate universe, where everyone liked science just as much as I did.
    When Becka finished talking, we applauded, and Lily got up. “That was awesome,” she said. “Thanks, Becka. Next week, Tyler’s talking about exoplanets. Yay!” She gathered up some of the papers on her desk. “Okay, moving on to announcements. As you know, our trip to Glacier National Park is two weeks from Friday. If friends want to join us, that’s great. It’s lots of fun, and the more people who go, the cheaper the trip is for everyone. There’s a full moon tonight, so it should be waxing gibbous and almost full again then. If it’s not raining, that’ll be nice.”
    Now that we were talking about a field trip instead of black holes, Mr. Samuels got to his feet. “If you haven’t gotten a permission slip, see me,” he said sternly. “No one can attend the field trip without a signed form from their parents. And remember — only students who attend this school can join us on the field trip. No friends from outside.” Everyone started getting their stuff together, and I hurried over to Mr. Samuels to get a permission slip. When I finished talking to him, I found Lily waiting for me.
    “So, what’d you think?” she said.
    “It was great,” I answered enthusiastically. “I can tell I’m going to have to find out a lot about comets if I’m going to talk without totally embarrassing myself, though.”
    “Are you taking the activities bus?” Lily asked as she picked up her pink backpack.
    “Yup,” I said. “Are you?”
    She nodded. “We’d better hurry to catch it.”
    I felt ridiculously pleased with myself: At the beginning of the day, I hadn’t known anyone but Jack and Hailey, and now I was walking down the hall with a potential friend after a club meeting, just as if I’d been at this school forever.
    “Tell me about the camping trip,” I said.
    “It’s awesome,” Lily replied, her eyes sparkling. “We take a ton of kids for a weekend in Glacier National Park. We bring telescopes and look at constellations, the moon, Jupiter, Venus — everything that’s visible. Last year, we also read myths about the moon and stars. A bunch of teachers chaperone, and we roast marshmallows and do the whole campout thing. I’m pretty sure Jack and his friends are already signed up, and so are Amber and Bonnie. You should totally come.”
    “I definitely will,” I said. “I mean, assuming my mom lets me, but I don’t know why she wouldn’t.”
    The skinny boy with the braces who’d been all “new girl, new girl” caught up and walked with us. “I can’t
wait
for the trip,” he said. “I’ve got a ghost story I’ve been working on. It’s going to have the sixth graders running home to their mommies.”
    Lily sighed. “Anderson, do you mind? We’re having a conversation here.” I couldn’t believe it, but he actually stopped talking.