My Year of Epic Rock Read Online Free PDF Page B

cool myself off. It felt nice. The bell rang, and Shelley stood up fast, with Brianna popping up right after her.
    Ethan walked by with some kids from his soccer team. He was barely out of earshot when Shelley whispered to Brianna, “Ethan got totally cute, right?” in the loudest voice a whisper can make, like she didn’t mind at all if someone heard her. They both giggled again and were already walking off before they heard me call out, “Good-bye.”

Chapter 6
    â€œHold this, Orlando,” Mrs. Cook strode into our classroom the following morning with two jumbo-sized white plastic jars labeled “1” and “2”—they looked like they used to hold about fifty gallons of mayonnaise—and handed them to Orlando Rodriguez, who got so startled his glasses slid off his nose.
    â€œPick one piece of paper from each,” she instructed him. “Tell us what each ones says.”
    Orlando reached in to the “1” jar. “Shane McCormick.” Orlando looked over to where the new kid in school was sitting. Shane lifted up his hand and gave the class a “Yo.”
    Then Orlando pulled a scrap from the second jar. “ Tinker v. Des Moines. ”
    Mrs. Cook handed the buckets to Shelley, who was sitting next to Orlando. Shelley unfolded her paper. “Ethan Chan,” she read out loud and smiled at Ethan—all her teeth showing.
    â€œPresent,” said Ethan. Shelley giggled and actually blinked her eyelashes a bunch of times. She read the second scrap: “ Gideon v. Wainwright. ”
    Mrs. Cook went around the room, letting the first half of the class pick names. As I waited for the bucket to get to me, I crossed my fingers that I’d get Brianna, but when I unfolded the little piece of paper, I saw that I’d picked Tiernan Albert instead.
    â€œTiernan.” My voice sounded squeaky when I said his name out loud. “ Marbury v. Madison. ” I slunk lower into my seat as Mrs. Cook finished going around the seats, pairing up the whole class.
    I had no clue what our teacher was planning, but already I didn’t like it. Chrissy picked Brianna. Shelley was clearly psyched when she said Ethan’s name—I would have been too. But I was stuck with Tiernan Albert! I had to admit, Tiernan was perfectly…fine. And super smart. He was just a bit different. He wore crazy hats and carried a rolled up comic book in his back pocket every day, and he and his friends all hung out after school and played some insane game that took about six years to finish. Years. Not hours.
    Tiernan’s mom and my mom were friends. When we were babies, they met at the park while Tiernan and I were on the swings. His mom has white hair even though she’s not that old, and she leaves it long and loose and curly. It’s really pretty. Mrs. Albert cracks my mom up. I can always tell when they’re on the phone together, since my mom is usually not cracking up otherwise.
    Still, I’d been hoping to get paired up with Brianna. But at least she wasn’t with Shelley, so I could take comfort in knowing they weren’t going to be plotting their social takeover of the school in the immediate future.
    â€œOkay, move your seats around. Sit with your partner,” Mrs. Cook instructed us, pulling out the chair from underneath Orlando so he almost fell backward. She didn’t seem to notice. “Up! Up!” The room was filled with laughing and noise for a few minutes as we all got up to find a spot next to the right person.
    â€œHi, Nina,” Tiernan said cheerfully. His reddish-brown hair was curly and wild and bushy, and he had on a black T-shirt that read, Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think . I didn’t even understand what that meant.
    â€œHey,” I replied. I felt like being rude because that was the kind of mood I was in. I had to force myself to smile—even though I could only manage a grimace.
    Mrs. Cook