Mr. Brown dismisses them with a reminder about the test. Sofie lets herself linger behind, slowly putting her stuff in her bag. She stands up and makes her way into the hall, peering closely at the schedule the secretary gave her that morning. She’s about to glance at the room number her Literature class is in when a shadow falls across the sheet. She looks up and finds Brynn standing in front of her.
“Um, hello?” Sofie says.
“You answered a lot of Mr. Brown’s questions,” Brynn says. “Do you get good grades? On the honor roll?”
“I guess. I usually get straight A’s.”
“So do I,” Brynn says. “I’ve been on the honor roll since freshman year.”
“Congratulations,” Sofie says. She starts looking for a way around Brynn.
“I’m top of the class too, highest gpa.” Brynn steps in front of her again.
“I have to find my next class.”
“I’m going to be the valedictorian at graduation. Me. So stay out of my way, got it?” Without waiting for an answer, Brynn turns on her heel and walks away.
“I assume that means I can’t borrow your notes,” Sofie mutters at her back.
She glances around the room out of curiosity. Brynn sets up a a thin piece of wood as a mini seesaw at the end of a line of dominoes while her partner stands to the side, sullen. Sofie looks down at what she has. Two miscellaneous ramps, a marble, and dominoes. It’s not much, but it’ll have to do. She looks up again and sees Brynn staring at her. Sofie blinks, offers a small smile, and turns her attention back to her project.
Once time is up, the teacher walks around the room and scores each pair on their chain reactions. Sofie allows Travis to start theirs out of goodwill and is pleased that the marble, string, and dominoes played their part perfectly. The teacher gives them a high score. Brynn and her partner also get a high score. To her shock, two girls in the back win the competition with their chain reaction. After the teacher calls her and Brynn to stay after class, she finds out why.
“I was very impressed with both of your Rube Goldbergs,” the teacher tells them. “You’re both very talented, and your grades reflect that, but neither of you worked with your partners.”
“That’s not true,” Brynn says. “I made him set up the dominoes.”
“Yes,” she says slowly, “but you didn’t get his opinion at all or see what he wanted to do. The rules were for each pair to build a Rube Goldberg machine, not individual.”
“She was copying me,” Brynn says. “Aren’t you going to mark points off for that?”
“I was not,” Sofie snaps. “You were looking at me.”
“What, is that a crime?”
“Enough, both of you,” the teacher says. “I wasn’t expecting this kind of juvenile behavior out of either of you. No one was copying no one. I can’t believe I have to say that.”
Sofie holds her arms. They both look away.
The teacher sighs. “The point of this project is collaboration and creativity between students. I hope you’ll remember that in future projects.”
“Is this going to affect my grade?” Brynn asks. Sofie rolls her eyes.
“Of course not,” she says. “It wasn’t a serious assignment. Just a fun activity. You’re a great student Brynn.”
She looks relieved.
Their teacher dismisses them. As Sofie trails after her classmate, she realizes that Brynn had sounded almost desperate.
Later, after she kisses her parents goodnight, Sofie crawls into bed and sinks under the soft blankets. She reaches down and grabs her Lady plushie. When Sofie graduated from the fifth grade, her father took her to the Disney store in Manhattan. Everything was so expensive that they rarely ventured into that borough. But after the ceremony, they got on the subway and rode it into the Broadway District. He let her pick out anything she wanted, and she chose Lady. She’s been there through the lows of middle school, high school, and the stress and excitement of moving. Sofie cuddles the plushie and burrows her face in its faux fur.
Colleges look at everything you do in high school, stupid, the reasonable side of her brain whispers. You want to get into a good school, you have to stand out from the rest of the grade-A students. This is a great opportunity. Brynn is temporary; your future is forever.
125,005 Literary Works • 672,794 Reviews
