she hadnât, so I wasnât 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.
âGood luck!â
âThanks, Owen.â
Mrs. Driscoll handed me the testâthree pages, holy cowâand 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 wouldnât be so bad.
I got to first-period English ten minutes early on Tuesday. Gabby was already there, ripping open a bag of M&Mâs.
âM&Mâs for breakfast, Red Hots for lunch?â I asked, tossing my bag down on the desk in front of hers.
âThe Red Hots arenât my
lunch
, Holly,â Gabby said around a mouthful of chocolate. âTheyâre to help me not starve to death
before
lunch.â She swallowed, then gave me an innocent look. âLunch is peanut butter cups.â
I laughed, then swiveled around when Mr. Franks entered the room. My eyes zeroed in on the packet in his hand.
Progress reports.
âI really hope he hands them out at the beginning of class.â I didnât even realize Iâd spoken out loud until Gabby responded.
âYou worried?â
I turned away from Mr. Franks. âNo, not
worried.
Just, um . . . curious.â
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 didnât have to resort to that.
âWhen I call your name, please come get your progress report.â
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, Iâd felt pretty good about itâthereâd been a lot of questions I knew the answers to for sure. But now, all I could focus on were the ones I hadnât known. And after a minute, Iâd pretty much convinced myself that all the ones I was positive Iâd gotten right were totally wrong, too. When Mr. Franks finally said, âHolly Mead,â Iâd 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 wasnât just passing, it was a B! Still the lowest grade Iâd 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, Iâd 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. âWhat happened?â
Julia sniffled and wordlessly handed me a piece of paperâher progress report. I scanned