Free Gettin' Lucky by Micol Ostow

films.”
    Huh? What was he getting at? His ramblings, though accurate enough, were really only relevant if we were going to be making a movie.
    “Over winter break you were expected to read chapter six in your anthology:‘Getting Technical.’ You should be familiar with the basics of camera work and film technique.”
    Very sneaky, Albon. A quick glance around the classroom revealed exactly how many students had done the reading. Thankfully, I was one of them. My odd obsession with movies and pop culture had finally come in handy.
    “There will be four to a group,” he continued. “All self-selected. But choose wisely. The fate of your film may depend on it.”
    We were making a movie? How cool! All at once, my enthusiasm for the project overrode my panic at the thought of working in groups. I hadn’t been in a position to group off since Alana and I were still friends. Of course, Katy and Alana immediately scootched their desks together territorially, scoping out the rest of our classmates for potential cling-ons. I saw Katy shoot a wistful glance in my direction, but I immediately swiveled in my seat so that I was out of her line of vision. Ugh. I so didn’t need her pity.
    A hand clamped down on mine. “You can be my little Spielberg junior.”
    It was Kelly, who was now in the processof sidling her entire desk closer to mine in a manner that paralleled Katy and Alana. I felt a pang of—what? Nostalgia? Relief? Excitement? Who knew. I couldn’t quite identify it, but I decided to go with it.
    “We need two more,” I stated.
    Kelly rolled her eyes. “ Clearly, Elliot is in our group.” She signaled to him like an air-traffic controller bringing in a 747. Even with his myopia, Elliot couldn’t miss Kelly’s spastic gesticulations. He wandered over toward us, ever-present messenger bag at his side. I giggled when I noticed that, despite his precise scientific calculations on Saturday, his nose had turned a healthy shade of pink.
    “I should warn you, I really don’t know too much about movies,” he said, pushing his glasses back up his sunburned nose.
    “Well, that’s okay,” I said cheerfully, pleased with my new group. “I do.”
    “We’ve got to find one more helpless victim,” Kelly pointed out.
    Elliot shook his head. “It won’t work. There are an odd number of kids in this class.”
    We looked around the room. Sure enough, it seemed as though everyone elsehad already paired off into their happy little quartets.
    Kelly shrugged. “I guess we’re on our own.” She wrinkled her nose. “Bummer. I think that means we’re each going to have to do one-fourth more work.”
    “Or one of us could just do double,” Elliot pointed out.
    “Either way,” I chimed in, abstaining from offering a quick little equation of my own.
    “You don’t mind?” Kelly asked me, surprised. “Seriously, it could take us a lot longer to finish our movie with only three people.”
    I shook my head. “We’ll get it done.” According to Albon, a local electronics outlet had offered to loan us the cameras and stuff, yet another perk to being a magnet school. And I was pretty sure it wouldn’t take us too long to master iMovie.
    “You sound pretty confident,” she observed.
    “Well, you know,” I replied, extremely matter-of-fact, “three has always been my lucky number.”
    This was true, based on the fact that my grandparents had married on March 3.Threes had been a theme at their wedding, which I thought was sort of adorable. It was kind of a nice way to counter the old jinx of bad things happening in threes.
    Elliot sighed. “That’s not the most scientific way to go about these things, you know,” he said.
    “No,” I agreed. “It’s not.”
    Fortunately, that seemed to be a sufficient explanation for Elliot. For now, at least.
    Friday night was poker night. As usual, Dad had no qualms whatsoever about letting me go to Kelly’s. I was starting to feel more than a little bit guilty about