Read Online Emma and the Minotaur by Jon Herrera - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jon Herrera
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out.”
“Is that safe?”
“Oh, yeah, for sure,” Emma said, nodding.
“What’s your plan?”
Emma took the pages out of her backpack again. She pointed out where the Paigely site was located and the point where they normally entered the forest, the intersection of Belle and Lockhart.
“We want to keep track of places we’ve searched already,” Emma said. “So we’re going to mark the trees, but I’ll also be marking the areas on the map.”
“You’re so smart,” Lucy said. “But isn’t it going to be hard to use the map from the ground when you’re in the forest? This is from way up.”
“Yeah,” Emma said. “That’s a big problem but you can use landmarks.” She pointed out a clearing here and an unusually tall tree there. “That way you can at least get close. Doesn’t have to be perfect.”
“Wow,” Lucy said. “You’ve thought of a lot.”
“My dad taught me a bunch,” Emma said.
“Your dad! I was actually on my way to see him!” She took out her cell phone and checked the time. “Damn it. So late. I gotta run, Emma.”
They both stood up and said goodbye. Lucy ran down the hall toward the physics department. Emma picked up her backpack and made her way back outside through the thinning crowd.
Emma spent the remainder of the afternoon in her bedroom, cutting ribbons out of a couple of old dresses. She came out for dinner, and to do homework, but the rest of the time she spent cutting away carefully with a pair of old silver scissors. The ribbons were approximately the length of her forearm and the width of her index and middle fingers put together.
When the ribbons were ready, she placed them inside a shopping bag.
In math class the next day, Miss Robins’ lesson was about measuring and calculating the areas of parallelograms and triangles. Emma was still far ahead of the class and she’d figured out all about the subject on her own. For this reason, when the lesson was over and it came time to solve problems from their workbooks, Emma had nothing to do. She could work farther ahead but she decided instead to use that time to refine the search system that she had come up with.
She reached into her bag and brought out the aerial photographs of Glenridge Forest. The two pages were now taped together neatly into one continuous map. She took a purple marker and set about marking the features of the area that stood out and that would be easy to find from the ground.
“Emma!” Miss Robins said. She was walking around between the rows of desks, checking on the progress of their work. She paused by Emma’s desk and looked down at what she was doing. “What is all this?”
“It’s a map, Miss Robins,” Emma said.
“I can see that, Emma, but why aren’t you working on your math?”
“I finished it already,” she said. She took her workbook from her desk and handed it to the teacher. Miss Robins gave her a skeptical look but checked it over anyway. Emma glanced over at Jake and he gave her a questioning tilt of his head. She shrugged to him.
“I guess you did finish it,” Miss Robins said after a moment. “Well, I can’t have you playing games in class even if you’re done. Please put that game away. You can work ahead in the book.”
“But it’s not a game,” Emma said.
“No buts, Emma. Put it away now.”
Miss Robins glanced at the Strike Board and Emma decided that she'd better play it safe. She put the map away and took her math workbook back as Miss Robins handed it to her.
By the time class was over, Emma was starting to worry that she was going to run out of work to do very soon.
Over the next few days, ribbons started to appear on the trees of Glenridge Forest. They spread out from the point closest to the intersection of Belle Street and Lockhart Road, and moved out in a northerly fashion. There were blue ribbons and red ribbons and they were tied into neat bows onto the lowest branches. Just as this was happening, as if in response, the
“Is that safe?”
“Oh, yeah, for sure,” Emma said, nodding.
“What’s your plan?”
Emma took the pages out of her backpack again. She pointed out where the Paigely site was located and the point where they normally entered the forest, the intersection of Belle and Lockhart.
“We want to keep track of places we’ve searched already,” Emma said. “So we’re going to mark the trees, but I’ll also be marking the areas on the map.”
“You’re so smart,” Lucy said. “But isn’t it going to be hard to use the map from the ground when you’re in the forest? This is from way up.”
“Yeah,” Emma said. “That’s a big problem but you can use landmarks.” She pointed out a clearing here and an unusually tall tree there. “That way you can at least get close. Doesn’t have to be perfect.”
“Wow,” Lucy said. “You’ve thought of a lot.”
“My dad taught me a bunch,” Emma said.
“Your dad! I was actually on my way to see him!” She took out her cell phone and checked the time. “Damn it. So late. I gotta run, Emma.”
They both stood up and said goodbye. Lucy ran down the hall toward the physics department. Emma picked up her backpack and made her way back outside through the thinning crowd.
Emma spent the remainder of the afternoon in her bedroom, cutting ribbons out of a couple of old dresses. She came out for dinner, and to do homework, but the rest of the time she spent cutting away carefully with a pair of old silver scissors. The ribbons were approximately the length of her forearm and the width of her index and middle fingers put together.
When the ribbons were ready, she placed them inside a shopping bag.
In math class the next day, Miss Robins’ lesson was about measuring and calculating the areas of parallelograms and triangles. Emma was still far ahead of the class and she’d figured out all about the subject on her own. For this reason, when the lesson was over and it came time to solve problems from their workbooks, Emma had nothing to do. She could work farther ahead but she decided instead to use that time to refine the search system that she had come up with.
She reached into her bag and brought out the aerial photographs of Glenridge Forest. The two pages were now taped together neatly into one continuous map. She took a purple marker and set about marking the features of the area that stood out and that would be easy to find from the ground.
“Emma!” Miss Robins said. She was walking around between the rows of desks, checking on the progress of their work. She paused by Emma’s desk and looked down at what she was doing. “What is all this?”
“It’s a map, Miss Robins,” Emma said.
“I can see that, Emma, but why aren’t you working on your math?”
“I finished it already,” she said. She took her workbook from her desk and handed it to the teacher. Miss Robins gave her a skeptical look but checked it over anyway. Emma glanced over at Jake and he gave her a questioning tilt of his head. She shrugged to him.
“I guess you did finish it,” Miss Robins said after a moment. “Well, I can’t have you playing games in class even if you’re done. Please put that game away. You can work ahead in the book.”
“But it’s not a game,” Emma said.
“No buts, Emma. Put it away now.”
Miss Robins glanced at the Strike Board and Emma decided that she'd better play it safe. She put the map away and took her math workbook back as Miss Robins handed it to her.
By the time class was over, Emma was starting to worry that she was going to run out of work to do very soon.
Over the next few days, ribbons started to appear on the trees of Glenridge Forest. They spread out from the point closest to the intersection of Belle Street and Lockhart Road, and moved out in a northerly fashion. There were blue ribbons and red ribbons and they were tied into neat bows onto the lowest branches. Just as this was happening, as if in response, the
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