Free I Heart Band by Michelle Schusterman Page B

she hadn’t, so I wasn’t going to, either.
    The knots got tighter and tighter all Monday morning. By the time band rolled around, I was too anxious to think of a retort when Natasha cattily pointed out a tiny rhythm mistake I made in the march. At lunch, I got through half my sandwich before giving up and shoving everything back into the sack.
    And then I was at my desk, listening to Mrs. Driscoll tell us to get out our pencils and put everything else away. I shuffled through the cards one last time, and Owen smiled at me.
    â€œGood luck!”
    â€œThanks, Owen.”
    Mrs. Driscoll handed me the test—three pages, holy cow—and I took a deep breath.
Here we go.
    1. Centrioles are found in:
    A) plant cells
    B) animal cells
    C) both
    D) neither
    I pictured the blade chopping the onion and grinned, my stomach knots loosening a tiny bit. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

    I got to first-period English ten minutes early on Tuesday. Gabby was already there, ripping open a bag of M&M’s.
    â€œM&M’s for breakfast, Red Hots for lunch?” I asked, tossing my bag down on the desk in front of hers.
    â€œThe Red Hots aren’t my
lunch
, Holly,” Gabby said around a mouthful of chocolate. “They’re to help me not starve to death
before
lunch.” She swallowed, then gave me an innocent look. “Lunch is peanut butter cups.”
    I laughed, then swiveled around when Mr. Franks entered the room. My eyes zeroed in on the packet in his hand.
    Progress reports.
    â€œI really hope he hands them out at the beginning of class.” I didn’t even realize I’d spoken out loud until Gabby responded.
    â€œYou worried?”
    I turned away from Mr. Franks. “No, not
worried.
Just, um . . . curious.”
    Yeah, right. Curious. There was no way I could make it till the end of class without knowing my grade in science. By the time the bell rang, I had a half-formed plan that involved asking to go the bathroom, distracting Mr. Franks by knocking over his coffee, and stealing that packet.
    Fortunately, I didn’t have to resort to that.
    â€œWhen I call your name, please come get your progress report.”
    While Mr. Franks called the first lucky half of the alphabet, I stared at my desk and went through the science test in my head. Yesterday, I’d felt pretty good about it—there’d been a lot of questions I knew the answers to for sure. But now, all I could focus on were the ones I hadn’t known. And after a minute, I’d pretty much convinced myself that all the ones I was positive I’d gotten right were totally wrong, too. When Mr. Franks finally said, “Holly Mead,” I’d all but accepted that I failed.
    I walked up to the front, took my progress report without looking at it, then sat back in my chair. Fingers shaking, I spread it out on my desk and looked.
    Science (5th, Driscoll): 80
    I stared at the number hard, as if it were going to change right in front of my eyes. Eighty.
Eighty.
That wasn’t just passing, it was a B! Still the lowest grade I’d ever gotten on a progress report, but the relief was so great it felt like I was floating.
    I pretty much checked out for the rest of class. In my head, I was at the band party wearing my new dress. By the end of third period, I’d even worked up the nerve to have a real conversation with Aaron. I was so distracted that when I walked into the band hall it took me a minute to notice Julia talking to Mr. Dante by his office.
    She was crying.
    I hovered there for a second, torn between rushing over to her and not wanting to interrupt. Finally, I ran to my cubby and got my horn out as fast as I could. When I left the cubby room, Mr. Dante was back in his office. Julia was over in the corner with Natasha, wiping her eyes.
    I hurried over to them. “What happened?”
    Julia sniffled and wordlessly handed me a piece of paper—her progress report. I scanned