Free Ungifted by Gordon Korman

“What’s Brad got to do with it?”
    â€œYou know, there he is, far from home, serving his country. It’ll break his heart when he finds out his beloved dog isn’t getting the care and attention she deserves.” I pointed to Beatrice, who was making another liquid deposit on the rug.
    She shrieked so loud that it brought Mom running up the stairs. “What’s wrong?”
    â€œNothing, Mom,” I called. “But fire up the carpet steamer, will you? We’re going to need it in a few minutes.”
    Katie was beside herself. “Just what are you saying?”
    â€œDo I have to spell it out for you? If I don’t look after Beatrice, Beatrice doesn’t get looked after.”
    â€œAnd that’s my fault?” she demanded. “She won’t let me anywhere near her.”
    â€œI totally sympathize,” I assured her. “Bad things happen to good people sometimes. Look at the poor Academy kids. It isn’t their fault they missed this credit, but they’re the ones who have to suffer. Just like it isn’t your fault your mother-in-law dumped a dying dog on your doorstep.”
    â€œDon’t say ‘dying’! She’s not dying! She can’t—” Suddenly, Katie clued in. “You miserable blackmailing slime bucket! This is low even for you.”
    I nodded in agreement. “Poor Brad.”
    She was bitter. “What do you care if a bunch of nerds go to summer school? You already took this course. There’s nothing in it for you!”
    She was only half right. There was nothing in it for me—at least nothing I could explain to Katie. If this worked—if following Katie’s pregnancy could count as hands-on experience for Human Growth and Development—that would strengthen my ties to the Academy for Scholastic Distinction. It wouldn’t make my grades any better, but it might take people’s attention off how ungifted I was. The longer I could stay at the Academy, the longer I could keep myself hidden from Schultz’s justice.
    Selfish? Big-time. And something else, too: It was absolutely what James Donovan would have done. Maybe ancestry.com wasn’t such a waste of money after all. The Hardcastle gym may have been my Titanic , but we were survivors, James and me.
    Aloud, I said, “I’m doing it because a nice person helps his friends.”
    She rolled her eyes, but I knew I had her.

UNSURPRISED
CHLOE GARFINKLE
IQ: 159
    << Hypothesis: Donovan Curtis is smarter than all of us put together .>>
    O kay, probably not. Make that definitely not. Yet all our spectacular grades, killer IQs, and gangbuster test scores couldn’t keep us out of summer school. Neither could Oz, Mr. Del Rio, and even Dr. Schultz. And Donovan managed it with a flick of the wrist.
    The stomach entered the room first. It was enormous, like someone had stretched a tablecloth over a prize-winning watermelon. We waited for the rest of her to come in. It took longer than we thought because she wasn’t moving too swiftly. When I finally saw how petite she was, it seemed like a miracle she was moving at all.
    Her name was Katie Patterson, and she was Donovan’s older sister. This was kind of like Show and Tell on steroids. She was our Human Growth and Development project, our way out of summer school. We needed final approval from the state, of course. But Oz and the school agreed that she counted as hands-on experience, provided we followed her pregnancy for its final six weeks.
    I’d known the minute Donovan showed up in the lab that something important was happening. And here was the proof. He was the cavalry, galloping to our rescue. Can you imagine the top students in the state, and maybe even the whole country, not being allowed to start high school? It would be a huge black eye for the Academy and the whole school district. And what did Donovan get out of this? Nothing. He’d already taken Human Growth