Mia the Meek by Eileen Boggess Read Free Book Online Page B

presentation to get the highest possible number of points. You have the rest of the period to write, so get to it.”
    I pulled out a piece of paper and gnawed on the end of my pencil, trying to figure out who to write about. Maybe I’d research Harry Houdini because it would be really handy to know how to make myself disappear until after the election.

    Sitting down at my lab table, I took Tim’s book, The Presidency of Richard Nixon , and placed JFK: The Man, The Myth, The President on top of it.
    Jake plopped down on his stool. “Hey, dude, your posters are off the heezy for sheezy.”
    “Thanks—I think.”
    Cassie climbed onto her stool. “I can’t believe you’re actually running against me for class president. Just because you got a new look doesn’t stop you from being Mia the Meek. I mean, what are you going to do when you have to give a speech in front of the whole class?”
    Tim coughed loudly. “‘Mia the Meek?’ You’ve got to be kidding.”
    “You don’t know Mia well enough yet,” Cassie replied. “She’d rather die than have anyone look at her. Isn’t that right, Mia?”
    “Well. . .”
    “I might have only known Mia for a few days,” Tim interrupted, “but ‘Mia the Meek’ is not the nickname that first comes to mind.”
    “Quiet chicks rock,” Jake said, punching me in the arm.
    I instinctively rubbed the spot where his hand had touched me.
    “Thanks, Jake.”
    “Dude, me and my dawgs are hanging at the movies Friday night. You wanna chill with us?”
    I was momentarily speechless. “Me?” I said finally, as if I was being strangled.
    “Jake, we already have it planned,” Cassie interrupted, clenching her jaw.
    “Mia’s fly. She’s got game.”
    “Well, in that case,” Cassie replied, “Tim, would you like to come, too?”
    Tim shrugged. “Sure. Who all’s going?”
    “Jessie, Anthony, Collin, and Stephanie. We’re meeting at Hillside Theatre in the mall to see whatever’s playing around seven.”
    “Sounds fun. Mia and I live next door to each other, so we can ride together and meet you there.”
    Sister Donovan interrupted our discussion. “Clean off your tables. We have our first lab today.”
    Jake leaned over to me.
    “So, you’re down with it?”
    “I guess so,” I said, hoping he meant going out with him Friday night.
    Cassie put her hand on Tim’s.
    “We can talk about Friday when you call me tonight,” she said.
    Sister Donovan stared at us and cleared her throat, so we quickly cleaned off our table.
    “Today we are going to do a simple experiment—changing a solid into a liquid and then back again. First, you will melt mothballs in a test tube. You will want to slowly and gently stir the test tube mothballs over the flame because they are highly flammable. We don’t want any test tubes breaking. Once the mothballs have melted, you will remove the test tube from the flame, measure its temperature, and put it in cold water to measure at what temperature the mothballs turn solid again. I will be watching to see how you follow directions. Please get started.”
    “Go get the supplies and I’ll set up the lab,” Tim ordered.
    I put my hands on my hips.
    “Who died and made you boss? How about you get the supplies and I’ll set up the lab?”
    “Why does it matter?”
    “Because I don’t like it when you tell me what to do. First, you tell Cassie we’ll ride together on Friday night without asking me, and now you’re telling me to go get the equipment?”
    “You’re throwing this fit because I told Cassie we could ride together? It only makes sense to go together—we live next door to each other.”
    “But what if I don’t want to go with you? And what if I was counting on setting up the lab? Did you ever think to ask me before you started acting like the master of the universe?”
    Tim heaved a sigh.
    “Fine. Why don’t we compromise and both get the supplies, and then set up the lab together?”
    “All right, but you’d better