The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt Read Online Free PDF Page B

signup, conveniently located on the ground level in Sage Living Room.
    During my admissions interview, I’d been told in great detail about the Educational Enrichment program, usually just called EE. Eaton was very proud of its unique EE, and offered choices ranging from yoga to public speaking, with a wide variety of strange options in between. I had thought that maybe with the special course of study I had planned with Mr. Tate for piano, that I’d be exempt. My admissions packet had indicated I was not to be so lucky. It was crucial that I make an EE choice that could work with any number of possible personalities. I didn’t want to end up deciding on Detached, Unique, Coolly Knowing Individual when I’d signed up for Square Dancing. Or going for Mysterious Earth Goddess, for example, when I’d signed up for Young Capitalists. You see my point.
    I would have preferred to go to signup with Spinky along as my armor, but it was already 3:30. For all I knew, she had already been to signup. I left my room quickly, passing a waif of a girl with dark silky hair and spacey eyes who smelled like patchouli and who was also heading for the stairs.
    I found the entrance to Sage Living Room between the twin staircases that faced the painting of the somber doily-faced lady I was beginning to think of as Auntie Sparkles. There was already a group of girls there, standing by long tables containing sheets of information and clipboards. I resisted the impulse to rush to the tables. I made myself saunter instead, and it seemed to take twenty minutes for my casual amble to transport me to the nearest EE information sheet and signup clipboard. I was momentarily paralyzed by choices.
    The first one I saw was called The Tao of Dance. Definitely no. Dancing did not enter into any of my potential personalities; it only lingered in their collective nightmares. Next was Faith: the Individual Pursuit and World Religions. That actually sounded kind of interesting, but I couldn’t think how it would relate to me personally. That is, any of my personalities. I moved on. Green You: Living Harmoniously with the Planet. I made a note of its location—table two, clipboard farthest to the right. That one might work. There was enough latitude to fit DUCKI, MEG, and definitely Assertive Revolutionary Activist. I worried a lot about the state of the planet, especially the things living on it. I once planned to sneak into a fish shop and liberate all the lobsters they kept in the tank. Maybe I could resurrect that dream in Green You.
    The next selection was Self-Confidence Through Comedy: Release Your Inner Stand-Up.Yikes.That sounded pathetic.
    As I moved farther down the tables, none of the subjects seemed like good candidates. Cooking. Chess. History of music—definitely not. I was trying to escape the boring old Moxie, not reinforce my doofus-level knowledge of composers. Poetry. Poetry? Was it possible Spinky would take that one? Knowing what EE my roommate would want would be a huge help. But so far, I hadn’t caught a glimpse of her lawn-topped head.
    I got a sudden whiff of patchouli, and turned to find the silky-haired girl I’d seen back on the hallway. Her eyes were very wide, and an unusually pale shade of blue.
    “Hey,” she said. “Didn’t I see you back on Sage 3?”
    I nodded. I felt like I might have run into her before that. Had she been behind me at the Mavix’s registration table?
    “Room 303,” I said. “I’m Spinky’s roommate,” I added, then instantly regretted my gooberish self-important tone.
    “305,” she said. “My name’s Haven. Your roommate is excellent. She tried to help me rig up an incense burner outside my window. Lighting it up inside is an expellable offense, apparently. It wouldn’t stay put because the brass base is pretty heavy, but she said she was going to find some duct tape and a counterweight to strap it down. Cool girl.”
    That’s why she looked familiar. She was the owner of the mysterious