Read Online Digital Disaster! by Rachel Wise - Free Book Online

Schooler
Turns to Nail Polish for Comfort.
    â€œI think a little Aqua Fantasy is in order,” she said, taking
out a bottle of a bright greenish blue and shaking it. “You won’t be able to
not have a good time with these nails!” Maybe she’d be right.
    After my nails dried, I wrote another draft of the Know-It-All letter and
e-mailed it to Mr. Trigg. He’d had a secret e-mail account set up just for me.
Sometimes I liked to e-mail him and sometimes I went by, like I had the other day, just
to get an immediate reaction. As I was writing, I kept staring down at my nails for
inspiration and pretended I felt as friendly and fancy-free as my nails looked. It had
to work this time.

Chapter 8
    Writing Partners Flirt Through Entire Meeting. Miss Everything.

    Finally Tuesday evening came around. Michael and I sat in the auditorium
waiting for the meeting about the test scandal to begin. We had both gotten there early
and sat in the front row in order to hear and see everything. I’d wondered if we
would go together, but Michael had to meet me there after his baseball game and dinner
with his team. My mother drove me, but she sat with some of the other mothers she knew
and let me have my own space with Michael. I didn’t even have to ask her.
She’s just a cool mom like that. Hailey was there as well, but she sat with her
mom. She told me to work hard so we’d have extra fun this weekend. I looked over
at Michael, who was tapping his pencil on his notebook. I couldn’t help admiring
his strong hands for a moment. The old me would think that I was distracting myself from
my work, but the Aqua-Fantasy-nail-polished me thought it was just fine. I might be
working, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t crush on him a little bit.
    We still hadn’t heard anything definitive about who might have done
it, but I knew the article wasn’t about cracking the case; it was about reporting
the events that had happened and the effects it was having on our community. I was also
anxious to get the meeting over with, finish the article, and have the same amount of
fun my nails seemed to be having. Lots of people had been coming up to me asking me what
kind the polish was so they could try it too. I smiled thinking that Allie was a pretty
cool trendsetter. And I have to admit, just talking about nail polish made me feel like
the kind of girl who wasn’t always bogged down by her responsibilities and has,
well, fun. Why couldn’t I be both?
    â€œCool color, Paste,” Michael said, pointing to my nails with
his pencil. Wow. Now even a boy was noticing. This stuff was magic. “Maybe I
should call you Nailsy,” he said, and nudged me with his shoulder.
    â€œNow, that’s just weird.” I gave him my best flirty
smile and nudged him back. I was wearing a green blousy shirt that looked great with my
nails and my lucky little silver hoops. Once again, just because I was here for an
article didn’t mean I shouldn’t look my best.
    â€œYeah, guess you’re right,” Michael said. “Pasty
fits you better.”
    â€œYou’re hilarious,” I responded, still grinning. This
meeting was turning out to be much more fun than I had thought. Writing Partners Flirt Through Entire Meeting. Miss Everything. I had better
get into pay-attention mode or else.
    I looked around. The place was packed and more people were piling in. Then
Mr. Pfeiffer came up to the podium. He tapped on the mike for a few seconds and cleared
his throat. A hush fell over the room. Michael and I had our pencils at the ready, all
set to take note-taking.
    â€œGood evening, parents and students of Cherry Valley Middle School.
An unfortunate incident has led us here, but hopefully we can come together as a
community to strengthen our communication. As you know, the administration and the
faculty have decided to reschedule the third-quarter math assessments for next
Tuesday,” he said.