Read Online Happy Kid! by Gail Gauthier - Free Book Online

together, by the way. Am I going to taekwondo? No, I’m not.”
    â€œYou could go if you wanted to,” Mom said eagerly. “It would be terrific for you to do something after school.”
    â€œI’m already doing something after school. It’s called homework. I can’t go to taekwondo because on top of everything else,” I said, “I’m in accelerated English and social studies again this year.”
    â€œUh-oh,” Mom said. “Do you want me to call the guidance office and get you out of them?”
    â€œNo! Why would I want you to do that?”
    â€œBecause you wanted me to get you out of them last year,” Mom replied.
    â€œThat’s because they put me in those classes by mistake last year,” I reminded her.
    â€œAnd it’s not a mistake this year?” Lauren asked.
    â€œHow did you get into accelerated classes by mistake?” Jared asked as he finished one of my books and reached for an old paper grocery bag so he could get started on another.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “ I didn’t make the mistake.”
    Lauren very unhelpfully explained. “Kyle actually sat in the classes for three weeks before he realized they were for accelerated students. Doesn’t that suggest he didn’t belong there? Wasn’t that proof that someone had done something terribly, terribly wrong?”
    â€œHey, there were a lot of kids in those classes from the other elementary schools in town,” I objected. “How was I supposed to know they were smart?”
    â€œDidn’t you try to do something when you found out about the mistake?” Jared asked.
    Lauren and I looked at our mother.
    â€œWhat was I supposed to do?” Mom asked. “Go to the school and tell them my baby wasn’t smart enough to be in with those kids?”
    â€œYou’re a counselor, Mom. You couldn’t have thought of a better way to put it?” I demanded. “Something not so . . . negative?”
    â€œI tried.”
    â€œYeah, well, not fast enough.” I turned back to Jared. “While we were fighting about it, another week passed. I’d been in those two classes for a month. If I’d dropped them then, I would have been a month behind in the regular classes I picked up. Who knows how long it would have taken me to catch up?”
    â€œThe rest of your life?” Lauren suggested.
    I ignored her and said to Jared, “So there I was, in these two ‘special’ classes, and the only way I could get out of them would be to join two classes that weren’t special but that I was a month behind in, so I’d have to work extra hard to catch up. What was the point? Work hard in one class or work hard in the other.”
    â€œWow, talk about irony,” Jared said, nodding his head in appreciation.
    None of Lauren’s other boyfriends ever used words like “irony.” Jared definitely is a step up for our family.
    â€œLook what I figured out today,” I said, pulling my class schedule out of my pocket. “See the list of classes? You notice how both English and social studies have the letter ‘A’ after them?”
    â€œOh, no,” Mom sighed. “It must stand for ‘accelerated.’ I can’t believe we didn’t notice that. How embarrassing.”
    â€œWhy?” Lauren asked. “You never gave it a thought because you never expected Kyle to be dumped in classes for A-kid types. He is a B-minus type, after all.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter what type you are,” I said as I folded up my schedule. “The people at Trotts stick you in a class somewhere and keep you there. You wait and see. They’re going to put me in A-kid classes next year, too.”
    â€œNext year you’ll be in eighth grade,” Lauren pointed out, as if I couldn’t work that out for myself. “Instead of accelerated classes, the eighth-grade A-kids at