Free Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea Page A

have a pair of snow pants Jessica can borrow. They’re my sister’s old ones.”
    “Thatta baby, Lukester!” Peter yipped. “Saved!”
    “Thanks, Lukester. That’s very nice of you,” Mr. Terupt said, looking in my direction. “I’m sure Jessica will take them.”
    I could only nod.
    “Yes!” Peter yelled. “This is going to be great!”
    I thought so, too—especially after Luke’s generosity. I always thought Luke only cared about himself. Maybe I was wrong to prejudge him.
    Mr. Terupt sat at his desk smiling. He reminded me of the old professor in
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
. Did he know everything?

LUKE
    T wenty-seven links. That’s how many it took for the chain to hit the floor. I was wrong. I had estimated twenty-six. Mr. Terupt had us estimate the final number when we only had five. Most everybody jotted down random guesses, but I took a ruler and measured the length of what we had and the length left to reach the floor. The real problem was that the links were all different sizes. A variable that I couldn’t control. I averaged the links that were hanging and used that to help me come up with twenty-six.
    “All right, gang,” Mr. Terupt said. “Twenty-seven links. Let’s see if anyone guessed that.”
    He had all our guesses stuffed in an empty coffee can. I was hoping to be the closest. Maybe nobody got it right. He pulled our little scraps of paper out one by one.
    “Twenty-one.
Thirty
[dollar word]. Fifty!” Everyone laughed except me. “Twenty-three. Aha,” he said. “Here’s one. Twenty-seven.”
    I lost. I can’t believe I was wrong.
    “And the winner is … Anna.”
    She must have guessed. There’s no way she could have figured it out. Anna walked up to Mr. Terupt with her head held high. At least the winner wasn’t Peter or Alexia.
    “Congratulations, Anna,” Mr. Terupt said. He handed her a homework pass. She was all smiles. I didn’t need one of those, anyway.
    “Yay, Anna,” Jessica said. “Way to go!”
    “But wait,” Mr. Terupt said. “There seems to be one more estimate that’s correct.”
    “Must be Luke’s,” I heard someone whisper.
    “Drumroll, please,” Mr. Terupt said.
    Baatttttttttttt!
    “And the second winner is … Peter.”
    No way
, I screamed inside my head. Of course Peter made a major production of walking to the front of the room and taking a dramatic bow. “Thank you. Thank you,” he said. “This is a great honor.”
    Mr. Terupt handed him a homework pass. “Get out of here,” he said. Everyone laughed, except me.
    Peter flashed his homework pass in my face. The Elmer’s sneakers didn’t bother me, but this did. I felt hot. My face and ears burned. I turned lobster red. I could feel it. I’m going to get even, I thought.
    “The chain has touched the floor,” Mr. Terupt announced. “It’s time for a free day.” My
colleagues
(dollar word)and I were in for a treat. Mr. Terupt told us that we would be going outside. Great, I thought. But what’s the catch? Was he going to tell us to bring our
shovels
(dollar word) to find out how many scoops it would take to clear the parking lot? Nope. Just snow pants, hats, boots, and
mittens
(dollar word). We had the okay from Mrs. Williams to play in the snow as long as everyone had the proper snow clothes.
    Jessica threw us the curveball. And boy, was it a bender. She didn’t have snow pants. Talk about hitting us with the unexpected.
    So who comes to the rescue? Me. I had to. Plus, I liked Jessica. She was serious about school—and I didn’t want to miss the chance to
inoculate
(dollar word) Peter with a snowball.

Jeffrey
    “I t’s not your fault.” That was what Jessica had said to me, and that was what I kept repeating in my head. The only other person to ever tell me that was Michael. It was just before he died. I have a hard time believin’ it, but his words still make me feel a little better.
    I need his words, and Jessica’s, ’cause I know Mom and Dad blame me.