Chapter 4

I didn't see Jimmy and Heather again until Monday at school. About 15 minutes into class, they followed the principal into our classroom. The principal spoke to out teacher, Mrs. Phelps, then left the room.

"Class," Mrs. Phelps said, "we have two new students today. Please welcome to our class James and Heather MacNamara."

"Hello!" we all said.

"James, Heather, please take a seat. There are some open chairs at Rico's table," Mrs. Phelps said.

Jimmy and Heather grabbed their bookbags and came to the back of the room where I was sitting.

Jimmy sat down on one side of me and said hi. Heather sat down on the other side of me.

"Hi, Rico," she smiled.

I lost the capacity for coherent thought. Neurons were firing blanks in my brain. I'm pretty sure a Lake Erie-sized puddle of drool was forming on the table, just below where my jaw had fallen.

"Uh, hi, Heather," I squeaked.

Mrs. Phelps came to the back of the room with a stack of books. She gave them to Jimmy and Heather.

"Here are your textbooks. When we break for recess, I'll show you your lockers and you can put them away in there. We start every morning with math, so I put those on top for you."

"Now, class", Mrs. Phelps said as she walked to the blackboard at the front of the room, "turn to page 119 in your math textbooks."

Jimmy and Heather opened up their math books and found the page. I sat there doodling in my notebook. Heather looked at me strangely.

"Aren't you gonna open your book?"

"Nah," I said. "I've done all this before. It's just multiplication tables."

"You've done this before?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I was skipped from kindergarden to second grade and from second to fourth, but when we moved here they said they couldn't skip me that far and put me back in third. They put me in the GATE program. I go in after lunch every day until school gets out."

"What do you do in there?" Jimmy asked.

"Different stuff. Right now I'm working on algebra."

"Wow!" Jimmy said. "So you're like really smart, huh?"

Uh-oh. Man, did I screw up. Hadn't I learned yet not to advertise how smart I am? All my brain ever did for me is make people hate my guts. I finally met someone who might have liked me and first thing I do is pop off about my smarts. If I could have disappeared under the foundation, I would have. All I could do is mumble something in reply. Jimmy looked at me strangely, then turned his attention to Mrs. Phelps' lesson.

10:00 rolled around. "OK, class, you can go to recess," Mrs. Phelps said.

The class made a mad dash for the door. Jimmy and Heather made it to the door, then stopped and looked at me.

"C'mon, Rico!" Jimmy said.

"Nah, you guys go on," I said.

"But it's recess!" Heather said.

"I know. I just go to the library during recess," I said.

"How come?" Heather asked.

"Just cause," I said.

"You sure?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah. It's cool," I said.

Jimmy and Heather looked at me, then shrugged and headed out to the playground.

I spent recess in the library as usual. When I came back to the room, I saw Jimmy talking to David Robbins. As if this day couldn't go any worse. I slunk back to my chair and tried to think about anything but what I had just seen.

When Mrs. Phelps came into the room, everyone ambled back to their seats. Jimmy sat down and tried to talk to me, but I ignored him.

"What's wrong?" Heather asked me.

I just shook my head and went back to doodling in my notebook.

Lunchtime rolled around. I bought my lunch and sat down at my usual table, in the corner by myself. As I took a bite of salisbury steak, I saw Jimmy and Heather head to my table. I looked around, but there was nowhere to disappear to.

"So what's wrong, dude?" Jimmy asked as he and his sister sat down.

"Nothing," I said.

"Something's wrong," Heather said.

"Nah," I said. "Just..."

"Just what?" Jimmy asked?