KIDS: (silence)
HENRY: If I ever run for president, I want you to be my campaign manager.
AVIVA
Date: September 23
As long as I’ve known Kayley, she’s never had a puppy. She never even pets Yoda when she comes over to my house. Out of the four of us, I was the only one who knew Kayley well enough to know that pinkie swearing on her puppy’s grave meant she was lying. But I didn’t say anything. Kayley would never forgive me if I called her out in front of everyone.
Kayley marched around cutting up a pair of her mother’s hose, her face all twisted up like she’d eaten some sour yogurt.
I didn’t feel right about it all afternoon. The thing was, when we dumped it off the balcony, the egg didn’t break. But by the time we got home, my stomach hurt like I was the one who ate the sour yogurt.
BLAKE
KAI
Hey, Frog!
I messed up. It was for a good reason, though, so maybe the bad and the good cancel each other out. Remember how I accidentally took Blake’s journal a while back? Today I did it on purpose. I blame it all on my pencil.
The tip broke in the middle of Reflection Time. Blake sits next to the sharpener, and his drawings were practically right in front of me when I sharpened—I couldn’t help seeing them. I didn’t expect something so sad, though.
It made me worry for him. He’s kind of a loner, you know? Most teachers don’t like him much, because he causes problems. So I thought if I could figure out what was going on, then maybe I could help. That’s why I took his journal home tonight.
I’m a nice guy. I can’t see how this will hurt—Harry Potter broke all kinds of rules to save the world. That kind of thing works out okay in books.
BLAKE
KAI
Hey, Frog!
I’m pretty sure Blake’s group is going to steal our egg strategy, but I can’t tell anyone, because then it’ll be obvious that I snagged his journal. Of course, stealing our strategy is wrong…but so is me taking his journal. Plus I saw way more important things in his journal than some stupid egg drop.
I went to talk to Blake today, but I couldn’t figure out how to start. I packed a double lunch on purpose, and I tried to give some to him. I don’t know how bad things are for him at home, but I figured extra food would help.
Only Blake already had a hot lunch. Maybe he gets it for free. Although they’d have to pay me to eat the cafeteria food. Meatloaf Surprise looks like something that should be flushed down a toilet, not set on a plate.
I decided the best thing to do is to send a letter to Ms. Graham. That way I can do it anonymously. I won’t get in trouble…Blake will get help…it’s the best solution I can figure out.
* * *
—
Ms. Graham,
Blake Benson needs help. I think he has problems at home. Someone should talk to him. A grown-up someone, not a kid someone.
—Anonymous
AVIVA
Date: September 26
Ever since Kayley told Emily about La Ventana, Emily barely even looks at me. It’s like I turned invisible. And now Kayley’s stealing her team’s egg drop idea, and I’m doing nothing to stop it. I wish I could fix things with Emily and maybe go back to walking to school together, but I can’t ask her now.
I’m scared of seeing Tattoo Man again. I asked Ima if she would drive me to school for a while, but she said, “Exercise is good for you!” I wanted to say, “Yeah, but getting kidnapped is not!” I didn’t, though. I want to tell her what happened, but I know how overprotective she and Aba are. If they think there’s a bad guy in our neighborhood, they’ll probably move us to Nebraska or never let me go outside. Instead, I’ve been riding my bike.
Only, yesterday after school I realized I’d forgotten my science book when I was already out unlocking my bike. I wheeled it back to the classroom with me and propped it against the wall. When I stepped inside, I saw Ms. Graham talking to Blake Benson. And he was crying. Not a sad crying but a mad crying. “Are you looking at my journal? I thought they were supposed to be private!”
And then he stormed past Kermit’s tank and out the door. What was that about?
BLAKE
KAYLEY
Dear Ms. Graham,
I don’t get the best grades, but I know I’m smart. My mother even had me tested for the gifted program. It’s because I’m smart that I figure things out.
This is what I know: Kai took Blake’s journal.
This is what I don’t know: Why?
Here’s how I know: I saw Kai trying to sneak a journal into the lockbox, and it was bugging me. I mean, we’re allowed to take the journals home, so why the creeping around? I went over a couple of minutes later and pretended to be looking for my own journal. Really I was looking to see which journals were on top of the pile. Clever, huh? Blake’s was right on top, but I had to dig deep to find Kai’s.
And what makes this situation even weirder is that Blake is going around telling everyone that YOU read his journal. Not that this surprises me. Did I call that…or what? He must’ve written something really juicy if you talked to him about it. It drives me bananas not to know what it is.
Why does everyone care so much about what Blake is writing? He’s not that interesting, believe me. I sit across from the guy every day and he hardly says a word. And half the time he’s drawing frogs or other equally disgusting creatures.
Give me a day or two, Ms. Graham. I’ll figure this out.
PS Can’t WAIT for the Egg Drop!!!! We’re gonna rock it!
* * *
—
Dear Ms. Graham,
You have a Thief in your class.
Someone IS reading the journals (besides you, that is).
I’m not going to rat him out. I just want to make sure you know.
—Anonymous
BLAKE
SHARON
Classroom lecture, Graham-style.
Normally Ms. Graham’s eyes
Smile all the time,
But today her eyes are not
Crinkling in the corners,
And her mouth is flat.
She sits on her stool to tell us that
Journals are private
Trust is sacred
Rumors are flying
And SHE would never-ever-never-ever-never-ever violate privacy.
And she hopes WE would never-ever-never-ever-never-ever violate privacy either.
It is up to US, as a class, to mend this.
KAI
Hey, Frog!
It’s kind of hard not to feel guilty, even though I think I did the right thing. I didn’t mean for Blake to accuse Ms. Graham of reading his journal. My face got blazing hot when Ms. Graham explained that she’d gotten an anonymous note to talk to a student. I stared hard at my fingernails.
We’re going to vote on how to store the journals. That’s kind of a relief—I sort of regret snagging it in the first place, because now I’m worried about Blake, but I don’t know what to do about it.
I tried to talk my egg group into changing our strategy. I don’t want our group and Blake’s group to do the exact same thing. What if Ms. Graham thinks our group is the one that stole the idea? But no one else wants to change. They all think the nylon will work, and I can’t tell them why I want to swap it out.
HENRY
SCENE: Students preparing to vote. Handsome, brilliant, and athletic Henry is passing around slips of paper for voting. He’s ripped like Mr. Olympia, so his muscles bulge every time he moves his arms.
MS. GRAHAM: Henry is passing around your voting slips. I realize some students feel like their journals are not entirely private, so we’ll vote on how best to store them.
HENRY: (whispers) Kermit for president! Vote for the frog.
KAYLEY: (whispers) Shut up.
MS. GRAHAM: I will remind you of your options. Option number one—keep the journals locked up and I hold the key. Option number two—keep them locked and nominate a student to hold the key.
HENRY: (whispers) Ooh, that one. Vote for Henry as the key holder. (taps Aviva on the shoulder) Look at this face. Doesn’t it scream Trustworthy?
MS. GRAHAM: Henry—I don’t believe the task of passing out slips of paper requires talking.
HENRY: (freezes in place with winning smile) Sorry, Ms. Graham.
MS. GRAHAM: Option number three—keep your journals in your desks or backpacks. Option number four—you each choose individually either to keep it in your desk or backpack or to keep it in the lockbox, whatever makes you most comfortable.
HENRY: (sits down quietly like the good, responsible student he is)
MS. GRAHAM: Please vote on your slips of paper, and then fold them in half before they are collected.
HENRY: (holds back what he really wants to say, which is “Option number five—order takeout for the whole class. Curly fries and chocolate shakes for everyone!”)
Five minutes pass. Camera zooms in on tally written on chalkboard. Option number four wins.
BLAKE
SHARON
I find it suspicious
That out of a thousand and one
Different ways to package an egg,
Two of our groups in class had the
Exact. Same. Idea.
* * *
—
Dear Ms. Graham—
These assignments are fun, but people are stealing ideas.
Just saying.
—Anonymous
CECILIA
Hola Abuelita,
You’d be so proud, Abuelita! Our egg didn’t break, and neither did the eggs from three other groups. Ms. Graham is having an “Egg-Off!” In order to find a true winner, she’s going to give us each a box of supplies. She’ll put us in different rooms and give us an hour to design another egg drop container. If more than one egg doesn’t break, the winner will be the container that’s the lightest weight.
Here’s what we’ve got in our box (I’m going to give you all the Spanish translations):
string = cuerda
plastic bag = bolsa de plástico
balloons = globos
glue = pegamento
duct tape = cinta adhesiva
cotton balls = bolas de algodón
potato chips = papas fritas
small apple = manzana pequeña
100 straws = cien popotes
Silly Putty = plastilina
a roll of toilet paper = un rollo de papel de baño
scissors = tijeras
gift bag = bolsa de regalo
popcorn = palomitas de maiz
box (we can use the box itself) = caja
Our team got right to work, making a parachute out of the trash bag and string. Then we tied the parachute to the gift bag handles. We wrapped the egg in toilet paper and set it inside the gift bag. We brought Kermit over to our work area for good luck. I can’t wait until we test it later this afternoon! Wish me luck, Abuelita!
Besos y abrazos,
Cecilia
HENRY
SCENE: Kayley, Aviva, Henry, and Blake sit in a small teacher workroom, trying to rig a container. Kayley is shrieking and running around the room. Apparently she thinks this is helpful.
KAYLEY: (shrieks) Focus! We only have thirty more minutes!
BLAKE: (ignores her, tapes straws together in a structure with a pocket in the center)
KAYLEY: I can’t believe she’s making us do this here! At school! With no time to prep!
HENRY: (creates a duct tape–balloon ball) Yeah. We can’t even cheat! (pauses) We actually have a stellar team, I hope you know. We can do this.
KAYLEY: Stop messing around, guys! We’re running out of time!
AVIVA: (looks up at Kayley briefly, then goes back to blowing up balloons)
HENRY: (speaks calmly) Kayley, you’re shrieking.
KAYLEY: Because we’re running out of time!
HENRY: I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, Kayley, but we’ve got two awesome ideas here.
KAYLEY: But we only have one egg! We might break it by accident, and then we’d LOSE!
HENRY: You’re still shrieking. No shrieking.
KAYLEY: (shrieks) I am not shrieking!
AVIVA: We can practice with this apple, maybe put it in the center. And see if it bruises?
BLAKE: Great idea. It’s heavier than the egg, but it’s so little that it’s close.
HENRY: Don’t forget we’re going for lightest here. (He wedges the apple into the center of his balloon–duct tape ball and throws it against a wall. It drifts down.)
BLAKE: Dude! Yours is genius!
HENRY: Why, thank you. I try. But yours is pretty genius too. (He takes unbruised apple out of center and wedges it inside the straw structure, then drops it. It bounces lightly.)
KAYLEY: (not shrieking) Wow.
HENRY: Kayley! You’re not shrieking! Congratulations! Your prize is a bag of chips. (throws a bag of chips at her)
BLAKE: I don’t even care if we win! That was the funnest hour of school in my whole life.
KAYLEY: (crunches potato chips with a small smile)
AVIVA
Date: September 29
For the first time in my life, I felt sorry for Kayley. She totally didn’t get it. The rest of us were having so much fun playing around and creating new ideas, and she missed all that. The only thing she could think about was whether we would win and what kind of grade she’d get. All of a sudden, that seemed really sad to me. Maybe it’s kind of hard to be Kayley Barrette.
Sometimes I feel jealous about all the cool clothes she has, and the big house and pool and how she seems so confident all the time. But I am so glad I’m not her. I much prefer to be me. Of course, I wouldn’t mind being me and having a pool.
KAI
Hey, Frog!
Whoop! That was tight! The time pressure turned up the heat and we were all on fire! Our parachute drifted down so slow it looked like a piece of dandelion fluff. When we peeked inside our bag, the egg was good as new!
I have to say that the parachute idea was brilliant. And simple. Way better than nylons.
Three out of the four Egg-Off teams had unbroken eggs at the end. But when Ms. Graham lugged out a big old grocery fruit scale, ours came in the lightest. Yes!!! I thought about doing my big brother’s classic slam-dunk victory dance down the aisle, but I didn’t want to rub it in anyone’s face, so I just smiled. The team with the balloons and duct tape came in second. I think the duct tape weighed it down.
Nobody seemed to care who won, though, and that was nice.
PS The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer is amazing.
BLAKE
CECILIA
Hola Abuelita,
Ooh! I’ve got vocabulary words for you. Know what “physical fitness” means? It’s a way to say how in shape you are. Every morning, before we sit in our seats, we run. Around and around the track, four times. By the time we’re done, my legs have turned to rubber and my heart is beating right out of my chest, but I’m ready to learn. It clears my brain somehow. I love the feeling of wind brushing my face and skating through my hair.
All my soccer practice makes me fast. I don’t want to be a show-off, but I can’t help pushing myself as hard as I can. Emily cheers for me each time I loop the track. “Go, Cecilia!” she calls. This makes me embarrassed, but in a good way. When it’s her turn, I’ll cheer for her too.
I wish you could meet the kids in my class, Abuelita! I just kno
w you’d love them.
WORDS TO PRACTICE
rubber = hule
embarrassed = avergonzado
brain = cerebro
Besos y abrazos,
Cecilia
KAYLEY
Dear Ms. Graham,
Who came up with this physical fitness program? It’s biased. How fast we run and how many pull-ups we do—how does that tell us if we’re “fit” or not?
I’m not pointing this out for myself. I’m one of the faster girls, and I can do five pull-ups, which isn’t bad. I’m thinking of Aviva, though. She’s super-fit. She rides horses and carries these ginormous bales of hay, but the girl can’t run. As long as she tries her best, she should get an A for effort.
Although I guess you could make the same argument for someone like Blake. He can’t spell, but if he tries hard, should he get an A for effort? I don’t know. He’s the fastest boy runner. Honestly, it doesn’t look like he’s even trying. It looks like it’s as easy as breathing.
KAI
Hey, Frog!
People think boys should be good at sports. My brother, Thomas, sure is. I guess I sort of look like I could be. I’m pretty tall and a stretchy kind of skinny. And I do own a ridiculous number of Lakers T-shirts/sweatshirts/caps. Thomas and I have this deal, that if we shoot hoops, we also do a round of Rubik’s Cube or chess, to make it fair. He serves me up in basketball, and I return the favor with a game of chess.
Not to brag, but brain games are my thing. I can solve the Rubik’s Cube in under a minute. I can do it behind my back in two, and hanging upside down from the monkey bars in ninety seconds. Truth is, I like watching sports more than playing them. I like to yell at the television and eat popcorn and drink soda. So…running is not my favorite. I’m cool with having my muscles burn and feeling sweaty and sinking a few baskets now and then, but I’ll take books over laps any day.
After today’s running torture, we were sitting in our seats, sweaty and out of breath, when Kayley proposed a measure for class council. She said we should make our daily runs into relay races. That way no one would feel embarrassed about their speed, and she said our table groups would even us out. At first I was suspicious, and I figured she was just trying to find another way to beat out our team. But even though she and Blake are fast, Aviva’s pretty slow.
Operation Frog Effect Page 4