Read Online Teacher's Pet by Laurie Halse Anderson - Free Book Online Page B

if Scout feels as crowded as I do in the halls. I bet he worries about keeping Mr. Carlson safe.
    â€œLet’s finish up here,” Gran says, peering at the last residents of the box. “Five mice?”
    â€œOne of them has a sore eye,” I say. “But I figured you should look at all of them in case it was an infection that could spread to the others.”
    â€œThat was smart,” Gran says.
    An unexpectedly warm feeling passes over me. I haven’t been feeling very smart today. The comment seems extra nice coming from Gran.
    She looks at each mouse, checking from nose to tail. The fifth one, a female, has a swollen eye, but it turns out to be a piece of a wood shaving, not an infection. Gran flushes it out easily and puts the mouse in a glass cage with the others.
    â€œI don’t like the idea of you taking the animals on the bus again,” she says as she watches the mice run around the cage. “I can drive you on Wednesday morning if you want. Tomorrow I have my yoga class. Are you going to help Mr. Carlson map out the school again?”
    â€œI think so,” I say. Unless I got a D or F on that quiz and he decides to get someone else to help him. I crouch down to watch the little mouse with the sore eye. She scurries to hide in a toilet-paper tube. I wish I could hide like that.
    â€œSo, how was school today?” Gran asks, looking at me with those laser-beam eyes.
    â€œLots of things happened at school,” I say as I watch the quivering mouse. I know I’m stalling, but it’s the truth. Lots of things did happen.
    I’m saved from more questioning by a knock on the door.
    â€œCome in,” Gran says.
    It’s Zoe. “Dinner’s about ready. It’s going to be spectacular.”
    â€œThat meat loaf smells great,” Gran says.
    I take a sniff. She’s right. All of a sudden, I’m starving.
    Gran takes a pen out of her pocket. She has to write up the reports about Carlson’s Critters. “Maggie, run in and set the table,” she says. “I’ll be only a couple of minutes. We’ll have a nice dinner, and then you’ll have lots of time to work on your homework. I thought Mr. Carlson said something about a quiz coming up soon.”
    Zoe pauses. “They had that quiz today,” she says innocently. “Maggie told us all about it. Sunita had two quizzes. I’ll probably have one tomorrow. My English teacher had that look on her face.”
    Thanks a lot, Zoe!
    â€œYou didn’t mention the quiz to me, Maggie,” Gran says.
    â€œI, uh, just forgot,” I say. “It’s so hard to keep everything straight, plus we had the great escape after school. We get our grades tomorrow. It’s not a big deal.”

Chapter Ten
    M r. Carlson has passed back our quizzes. I feel like someone just slapped me in the face.
    My grade? A whopping forty-nine percent.
    I go cold. Forty-nine percent? That’s not just failing—that’s flunking.
    There is so much red on the page that it looks like a Christmas decoration. I got three out of ten definitions right for twelve points. The questions about how the eye works were worth sixty points. It’s a good thing Mr. Carlson gave partial credit. I got thirty-seven.
    I redo the math in the margin of my paper. Maybe he made a mistake.
    12 + 37 = 49.
    Nope. I flunked.
    My stomach feels awful, like it has hamsters running around in it. It always feels like this when I get a bad grade. Not even one week of school has passed, and I’ve already dug myself into a hole.
    There is a note written across the top of the paper: SEE ME AFTER CLASS.
    Mr. Carlson stands in front of the board. “Most of you did quite well on the quiz,” he says. “Congratulations.”
    The girl sitting next to me beams. I sneak a peek. She got a ninety-eight percent. I turn my quiz over so that she can’t see it.
    â€œSome of you had trouble,” Mr. Carlson