Lights Camera Disaster – Erin Dionne (1)

I open my lunchbox and pick at the container of cut-up cucumbers my dad stuck in there. Nev plops her stuff across from me. “How was it?” she asks. Did it have to be the first thing out of her mouth? I shrug. Max joins us. “Was the test bad?” Did they plan this?

I choke down a suddenly slimy, metallic-tasting cucumber and gulp from my water bottle. My whole body is heavy with shame and anxiety. “It sucked,” I say, eyes on Iron Man and the Hulk. I try to call on my heroic idols, but Miss Piggy and friends have turned their backs on me. I slump in my chair. Max and Nev exchange glances. Max takes one of my cukes. He looks like he’s about to go off on another jingle idea, but thinks better of it and just eats.

“Um, but you passed, right?” Nev says the words slowly, with hope, like she doesn’t already know the answer. She keeps her gaze on the table. If this were a movie, I’d fake them out and totally have nailed it. Or maybe there would be a massive earthquake and a crack would open in the floor and swallow me whole.

But this is not a movie. “I took it in Sinclair’s office. I didn’t finish.” My words squeeze out of tiny accordion lungs. I count the seeds in a cucumber slice. I’m at five before either of them speak. “That sucks.” Max sprays Pringles crumbs on the table with each s sound. I pry my eyes off the cukes and to his face.

The corners of his mouth are turned down. There are Pringle bits on his lips. Wait—there were Pringles in my lunch. Not anymore. Nev folds her arms on the table and drops her head into them. She peers up at me, just two dark eyes filled with sadness.

My stomach shrinks into a tight knot. “Hess, I don’t want to say this.… ” Her words are muffled by her arms. She tilts her head down again, so I’m looking at the bright part line that zigzags across her hair. I know what’s coming, even though I pretend to myself that I don’t. “We”—mumble mumble muffle—“Hoot with you.” “What?” I say, hoping the middle part is something like “can’t wait to do the” or “will stand by doing the.”

She lifts her head up and props her chin on her stacked arms. “We can’t do the Hoot with you,” she says. I’ll give her credit—she looks at me while she says it.

Panic ants swarm my body. I can’t sit here. What if no one gets it? Will they boo me? I scoot out of my row. “Where are you going?” Zada asks as I pass her. “Nervous,” I mumble. I stand by the emergency exit door. A light breeze blows in around the frame. I breathe. Keep breathing. “Hester? Is that you?” Ms. Walker. She’s leaning against the wall, a dim shape in the crowded auditorium.

“Hi.” “Did you … ?” She gestures at the screen. My heart hammers, but I stand up straighter. “I did.” I can’t see her face clearly in the low light, but I’m sure she’s frowning. My hands twist together. The projector comes to life and the soft guitar builds through the overly loud speakers, and the title slides in from the top of the screen: THIS IS WHO WE ARE It’s my movie.

On a big screen. I might puke, after all. << PAUSE >> How did I get here? It’s kind of a long story. Let’s— << REWIND >> Throwing away the orange Mom and Dad in the office Hiding in the closet, crying Ms. Walker frowning, handing me the test My blue elbow Reading the MK Nightshade website Watching Jaws Stressing about— << STOP >> << PLAY >> OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com Ms. Walker stops at my desk, puts my vocab test facedown.

Disappointment flows from her pores. Crud. I don’t want to turn it over. My palms go clammy. I breathe. I count. I breathe and count. I’m sweating. Ms. Walker finishes passing out the tests, returns to the front of the room. “You may look,” she says crisply. I don’t snatch my test like everyone else.

The shadow of green marker shows through its last page. Ms. Walker doesn’t believe in using red ink because she says it makes tests look “too angry.” “Your homework tonight is to correct your test. Use your dictionary and look up the answers … ” In front of me, Sarah high-fives Nirmal across the aisle. No homework for them. Meanwhile, my heart gets heavier with each beat.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: bb7aa00962596801
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 10,449,619 bytes (9.966 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 212
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 244.31 minutes
• Total Words: 48,862
• Total Characters: 258,964
• Average Words per Page: 230.48
• Average Characters per Page: 1221.53

Most Frequent Words

i’m (289), like (233), it’s (226), says (224), don’t (201), back (177), get (172), nev (170), one (163), max (156), say (155), mom (128), want (121), movie (116), dad (111), know (111), going (107), head (106), even (101), camera (101), eyes (100), right (99), time (99), can’t (95), walker (88), hess (87), good (84), way (81), com (80), take (80), see (79), oceanofpdf (78), stuff (75), school (73), really (71), there’s (70), make (68), around (66), she’s (66), face (66), agent (64), now (63), desk (63), table (63), need (62), come (61), door (60), room (60), work (60), test (59), look (59), still (58), that’s (58), tell (58), front (57), doesn’t (57), something (57), help (57), miss (57), lunch (56), think (56), i’d (53), i’ve (53), satchel (53), bag (52), anything (52), didn’t (52), next (51), you’re (51), words (50), hands (49), he’s (49), class (48), two (48), together (48), hand (48), book (48), okay (47), open (46), doing (46), well (46), jack (45), zada (44), got (44), trying (44), maximum (44), sure (43), away (43), try (43), kids (42), let (42), extra (42), bad (42), office (41), little (41), evil (41), across (40), comes (40), stop (40), put (40).

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