The Son of Someone Famous Read Online Free PDF Page B

disapproval.”
    He laughed and sauntered away, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll see you in Science.”
    Then Christine Cutler came up behind me and said, “Do you want to be my partner in Science?”
    I kept my face turned from hers. “Why do I need a partner?”
    â€œYou’ve been absent,” she said. “We’re working on experiments for the principle of conservation of mass.”
    â€œI don’t like to work as a team,” I said. Any other time I would have given my right arm to be her partner, but not in the condition I was in.
    â€œWe have to work as partners,” she said. “How about it?”
    â€œOkay,” I said giving up. “O-kay.” I took off my muffler and faced her.
    She didn’t blink an eye; she didn’t notice anything different about my face.
    â€œDon’t forget,” she said. “We’re partners. See you after Homeroom.”
    I mumbled something back and purposely headed in the opposite direction, toward the drinking fountain. I heard about six male voices shout out, “Hey, Christine, wait for me!” and over my shoulder I saw them scrambling forward to walk with her.
    I began to wonder why she was suddenly interested in me. All through Homeroom, I feared the worst. Was it possible that Christine Cutler sensed some dreadful change taking place in my body? Since she was never known to show any interest in females, was it possible she was picking up weird vibrations?
    Our Science teacher was named Ella Early. She always made me uncomfortable because I sometimes thought I’d wind up exactly like her. She was the kind of person it didn’t matter how old she was, she was old, if you know what I mean: She was never young. She never wore colors, just black. She always had chalk dust on her dresses, and she wore her hair back in a bun, and her face looked as if it would break if she ever smiled, which she never did. You just knew that no one had ever said to her, “Ella, I love you,” and that no one ever waited for her to come, or cared if she wasn’t there. She lived by herself in a room at Miss Jameson’s boarding house, and noons she ate at a table by herself in the cafeteria. She was the type you could never imagine having a father or mother or sisters or brothers. She was cranky and mean, and she was the only teacher who never put up decorations in her classroom at Christmas time. There were lots of nicknames for her: “The Robot,” “Ella Late Who Has No Fate” and “E.E., The Worker Bee.”
    She was an example of what can happen to a person who nobody cares about, and I could see myself ending up that way after my mother and my aunt disowned me for never marrying. I’d probably get a job teaching in New York City where nobody knew me, and when I wasn’t in school, I’d wander around the streets of the city talking to myself like a crazy.
    Ella Early instructed us to place copper and sulphur in a sealed test tube; then we were supposed to weigh the mixture. I was concentrating on the assignment when Christine Cutler said to me, “Adam Blessing is certainly trying to get your attention, Brenda Belle.”
    Every time I looked up, he was grinning at me across the room.
    â€œI can’t help that,” I said.
    â€œYou’re not like I thought you were,” she said.
    I blushed with apprehension and fear. I was afraid of what she would say next. (“Brenda Belle, have you had a sex change?”)
    â€œWhat did you think I was like, anyway?” I muttered as we heated the copper and sulphur.
    â€œI didn’t think you were very cool,” Christine said.
    â€œAm I?” I said, trying to raise my voice an octave.
    â€œYeah,” she answered in her best breathless tone. She was busy tossing back her long yellow hair and watching Adam watch me. He just kept watching me that way, and it began to make me nervous. I figured that