Free I Heart Band by Michelle Schusterman

already in the cubby room, putting her clarinet away and chatting with Sophie Wheeler. “Why would you think that?” I said innocently. “We were just . . . helping each other.”
    Gabby snorted. “Yeah. If you say so.”

    â€œWhich type of organelle creates energy for a cell?”
    â€œUm . . .” My eyes strayed to the stack of cards on the coffee table. Owen sat facing me on the couch, his textbook open in his lap. At my feet, Worf gnawed on a piece of rawhide. I chewed my lip, thinking. “Mitochondria?”
    â€œRight!” he exclaimed, and I let out a breath of relief. I’d definitely gotten the hang of our game, but as soon as Owen had decided to quiz me, panic set in. The science test was Monday, and it definitely wasn’t going to involve cards with goofy pictures on them.
    â€œHow many have I gotten right so far?” I asked, and Owen checked his notebook.
    â€œFourteen out of twenty.”
    I slumped into the cushion, and Worf leaped onto my lap. “Stellar.”
    â€œIt’s passing,” Owen said.
    â€œBarely.” I sat up quickly. “Not that this hasn’t—I mean, you’ve helped me a ton! It’s definitely much better than my quiz grade. I just . . . I can’t risk failing it at all.”
    â€œYou won’t fail.”
    Worf started chewing my finger as I watched Owen gather up the cards and twist a rubber band around them. I wished I was as confident in myself as he apparently was. “Here, take these. You can use them over the weekend to study.”
    â€œThanks.” I slipped the cards into my backpack, then glanced at the clock. “So . . .
Prophets
?”
    Owen grinned.
“Prophets.”
    I handed Worf over to him, then got up to find the disc and hook up the controllers. Behind the stack of shoe boxes sat a squat, wide shelf filled with DVDs. I flipped through a few.
    â€œ
Dark Planet, Project Centaurus . . .”
I turned around, eyebrows raised. “
Cyborgs versus Ninjas
?”
    â€œ
Cyborgs versus Ninjas
,” Owen said solemnly, “is the greatest movie ever made.”
    I tried not to laugh as I tossed him a controller and flopped back on the couch. “No way. Not possible. I saw the greatest movie ever made last weekend. It just came out.”
    â€œHolly, I swear if you say
Seven Dates
I’m never inviting you over again.”
    I snorted. “Gross, no way. It was
House of the Wicked.
”
    Owen blinked in surprise. “Seriously, you went to see that?”
    â€œMy brother took me. It was
amazing
.” I leaned forward, pushing my controller aside. “It’s about this guy and his daughter who move into this old house, and the girl starts seeing all this crazy stuff. Like her toys—she keeps finding them in weird places. All her dolls disappear and she finds their eyes in the ice tray in the freezer, and her jump rope gets twisted up in the ceiling fan, stuff like that. Oh my God, and at this one part she goes into the bathroom and the mirror is covered in—” I stopped, because Owen was laughing at me. “What?”
    â€œYou like horror movies?”
    â€œMost movies that
aren’t
horror are boring,” I said flatly. “They’re all predictable. But horror movies—not the gory ones, I mean the ones that are scary without blood and guts—it’s almost impossible to figure out the ending. You would
never
guess the ending of
House.
”
    Owen looked skeptical. “Not
all
other types of movies are predictable.”
    â€œYes they are. Doesn’t matter if it’s romance or action or sci-fi—no offense—they’ve all got a good guy and a bad guy, and the good guy pretty much always wins. You know the ending before the movie’s halfway done.”
    â€œAnd horror movies don’t have good guys and bad guys?”
    â€œSometimes, but it