Read Online The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy by Diane Stanley - Free Book Online Page B

exercise at Allbright since the school was founded, and in all that time, only two kids had ever built the robot perfectly. Me and some guy who graduated years ago. Is that cool, or what?”
    At the other end of the line I could hear Mom sniffling, like she was blowing her nose. Dad sounded like he was choking back tears, but finally he managed to speak. “Wow!” he said. “Yes, that iscool. You must be walking on air!”
    â€œI’m strangely calm, actually. I just feel really good.”
    â€œI wish I could hug you,” Mom said.
    â€œI’ll hug myself and pretend you did.”
    â€œWe miss you guys so much,” she said then. “Any chance you and the twins could come home this weekend?”
    â€œGosh, no!” I said. “Saturday is the last day of orientation. And after that, there are all these weekend field trips and lots of activities. And once classes start, there’s going to be homework to do. It’s going to be hard to get away for a while. But we’ll see you at Thanksgiving. That’s only a couple of months away.”
    There was a long silence on the other end of the line. “Zoë is busy too,” Mom said glumly. “And J. D. hasn’t called once. If you see him, would you please remind him he has parents?” I could tell she was upset. “I have to say, it really bothers me that you don’t have phones in your rooms.”
    â€œThey say phones would distract us from our schoolwork. And they’re probably right. I think of all those hours I used to spend talking to Beamer, despite the fact that I saw him at school every day! Maybe that’s why I didn’t make better grades.”
    â€œFranny, that’s not the point. We need to be able to reach you when we want to.”
    â€œYou have the numbers of the phone booths,” I reminded Mom. “They’re in your parent information booklet. Someone can always run upstairs and get me if I have a call.”
    â€œOh, sure,” Mom said, with an edge in her voice. I knew what she was thinking: It would be a real pain for the person who’d have to climb three flights of stairs to knock on my door. Mom wouldn’t call me on that pay phone for anything less than the house on fire or Dad in the hospital.
    â€œYou couldn’t reach us all that easily at camp, either,” I said, knowing instantly I had stepped over some line.
    â€œRight,” Dad said, kind of snappish. Now he wasn’t happy with me either. “Well, I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I’m buying cell phones for the three of you. This pay-phone business is totally unacceptable.”
    â€œDad, cell phones are strictly forbidden at Allbright.”
    â€œSorry, hon. Sometimes parent rules trump school rules. And this is one of those times.”
    â€œBut it says, specifically, in the student handbook—”
    â€œIs this Franny I’m talking to? Since when were you such a stickler for rules? Look, they don’t want kids taking phone calls in the middle of English class or text-messaging answers to their friends duringtests. I can understand that. But they can’t object to kids staying in touch with their parents! Just keep your phone in your room, keep it charged, and check it for messages once or twice a day, in case we’re trying to reach you. Every now and then you can use it to actually place a call to Dad and me. This is not negotiable, by the way.”
    The conversation kind of petered out after that. I said that my suite mate was waiting upstairs to teach me how to play chess, so I’d better go.
    â€œWe really miss you,” Mom said pointedly.
    â€œDon’t worry,” I answered. “We’ll be home in a couple of months.”
    It wasn’t till I was climbing the stairs to my room that I realized what I ought to have said, what Mom fully expected me to say: “I really miss you too.”

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