Transcendence Read Online Free PDF Page A

class.”
    “Weird.” He looked at me like I’d lost my
mind and shut the book, handing it back to me before standing. “But
anyway, what do you say we go to dinner to celebrate my
victory?”
    Even though I was tired, I smiled in
agreement, allowing him to pull me out of the chair. I wasn’t about
to ruin his good day by whining about how terrible mine was, and my
mom wouldn’t mind if I went to dinner with Jeremy instead of eating
with her. Unlike some of the other kids my age, I’d never been the
type to get into trouble or make irrational decisions, so I was
pretty much allowed to do what I wanted.
    I packed my books in my bag and decided that
for Jeremy’s sake, I would pretend everything was the same as it
had always been. It pretty much was, minus his recent attitude
change and the new table at lunch. But it was impossible to deny
the biggest change of them all—that no matter how hard I tried, I
couldn’t seem to get Drew Carmichael out of my head.
    However, judging from his actions today, I
doubted he felt the same.

Chapter 4
     
    Drew ignored me for the next two weeks.
Although maybe “ignored” wasn’t the right term. Is it possible to
ignore someone if you don’t know them in the first place? It’s not
like one conversation meant we were friends. Still, I couldn’t
shake the feeling that he was going out of his way to avoid
speaking to me. He always came to first period right before the
late bell and sat as far as possible from Chelsea and me. It was
the same in French class—he was always the last one there, rushing
in before Mrs. Evans began the lesson. I lingered around Jeremy’s
desk and talked with him before class, walking to my seat just
before the bell to avoid any unnecessary interaction with Drew.
Well, it was more like a lack of interaction, since he didn’t seem
to notice my existence.
    When I did sit in my assigned seat next to
him, my skin prickled like it was absorbing a radioactive force
emitted from his body. There were times when I felt like he watched
me out of the corner of his eye, especially when I stumbled over my
words when Mrs. Evans called on me to answer a question. When I
walked around school or ate with friends in the cafeteria, I could
always tell when he was near, like I was tuned into a frequency
that picked up waves in his presence. I tried telling myself it was
nothing but a high school crush and I would get over it, but I knew
my feelings for him weren’t something I could turn off like a light
switch, no matter how hard I tried.
     
    * * *
     
    “ In general, the quizzes were good ,”
Mrs. Evans spoke in French as she walked around the room, handing
back the pop-quiz she’d sprung on us earlier that week. “ The
average was an A-, and most of you received grades in that
range .”
    She looked at me for a second longer than
the other students before placing my quiz facedown on my desk.
Slowly lifting the corner of the paper, I peeked at the grade
written on the top. A bright red D stared back at me, laughing at
my near-failure.
    A slight movement on my right caught my
attention, and I glanced over to catch Drew sneaking a quick look
at my grade. I shoved the quiz into my bag so he couldn’t see it,
but the sunlight from the window shined through the paper, making
the red ink visible from the other side. No one else cared enough
to try to peek at my grade, but the concerned look in Drew’s eyes
let me know he’d seen it, and he turned his attention to the front
of the room without saying anything. My cheeks flushed at the fact
that he knew how poorly I’d done, and not wanting to be more
embarrassed than I already was, I blinked away tears of frustration
and prepared to focus on the lesson for the day.
    “ As you know, the reading from last night
discussed vacations ,” Mrs. Evans began in French. “ So let’s
hear about some vacations you’ve been on and anything interesting
you saw or learned .”
    Lindsay Newman, a girl I’d only spoken to