TITLE: Tested By Elizabeth Budd 09/11/08 |
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Thirteen-year-old Jodi leaned against her locker, enjoying the after-school confusion. Lockers clanged open and shut, students laughed, and teachers herded the youngest out to waiting yellow busses. This was her first year at Chester Gap Christian School and she loved everything – playing sports, singing on the praise team, hanging out with friends.
Suddenly, a pair of brown hands grabbed hers. “Come here!” shouted her friend Tamika. Her long black hair, worn in Jamaican braids, swung about her face. “You got to see this!” She dragged Jodi in front of a large, colorful poster:
DRAMA CLUB TRYOUTS
“ROMEO AND JULIET”
MONDAY
3:15 P.M.
“You told me you always wanted to play Juliet.” She leaned close to the poster to read the small print at the bottom and looked back at Jodi. “Uh–oh. You got to have all A’s and B’s.”
Jodi didn’t. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t budge her grade in science above a “C.” With a semester exam coming on Friday, she knew she’d never be Juliet.
She trudged home, hardly noticing the fresh snow beginning to cover the trees and bushes. What a stupid rule, she thought, what do grades have to do with acting?
During supper, Jodi’s older brother Jack told the family about the upcoming tryouts. Around a mouthful of lasagna, he asked Jodi, “Hey, you trying for Juliet?”
Jodi glanced at her father before answering. “Maybe…” She shook her head at Jack.
Her father put down his fork, leaned back in his chair, and folded his arms. “Is there a problem?” he asked.
At that moment, Jodi’s pink cell phone vibrated. “It’s Tamika – can I get it?” Her father nodded and Jodi answered as she closed her bedroom door and sprawled on her window seat.
“I’m glad you called when you did,” said Jodi. “I haven’t told them about my “C” in science yet. Jack almost blew it.”
“I know how bad you want to be in the play, so let’s actually study in study hall this week. I’ll drill you until your brain explodes!”
“You can try, but it won’t do any good.” She sighed. “I’m going to ask Mr. Costello if I can do some extra credit or something. Listen, I have to go clean up from supper. Thanks, Tam. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She closed her phone and tossed it onto her bed. She stared out at the still falling snow. The moon, almost full, was reflected in the small frozen pond in their large back yard. Jodi wanted to act more than anything else. What did a science grade have to do with it?
The next morning, the girls sat at their favorite table in the library, Tamika drilling Jodi on the classes and phylum of all living things. “I’ll never get this stuff,” complained Jodi. “It’s so easy for you.”
Tamika patted Jodi’s bunched-up blond hair. “Keep trying,” she said, “we still have two more days.”
During lunch Jodi waited for Mr. Costello in the science lab. She glanced around at the locked cabinets and shelves of bottled specimens. Yuk, thought Jodi, why would anyone want to keep bottles of dead animals?
Open beside his gray metal desk sat his leather briefcase. Jodi could see a stack of papers inside. Our exams, she thought. I wonder if he’d miss one. She glanced at the door and reached toward the briefcase. But on his desk, in front of a stack of reference books, she saw a flash drive. I wonder, she thought. She snatched it and slipped it into her backpack just as he walked in the door.
“Jodi, I know being in the play is important to you, but you know I don’t allow extra credit.” He checked his grade book. “If you can get a 92 on Friday’s test, you’ll bring your grade up to an 88,” he said, patting his pockets and shuffling some papers on his desk. “Hmmm, now where did I – you’ll have to excuse me, Jodi. I’ll see you in class.”
During study hall on Wednesday, Jodi opened a copy of Romeo and Juliet instead of her science textbook. “I need a break,” she said. “I’ll study tonight.”
“Are you sure?” asked Tamika. “I can’t help tonight.”
“I’m sure.” I won’t need your help tonight, thought Jodi. I’ve got what I need already.
Jodi could hardly wait for school to end, supper to be over, and every one to finally go to bed. It was very late when Jodi slipped into her dad’s office. The shelves on the far wall held the books she had grown up loving, and the walls were covered with family photographs. On his desk under the one window stood a framed picture of Jodi and her dad. She had just caught a 36” long rockfish, and the picture caught the proud look of a loving father.
She turned on the computer and inserted Mr. Costello’s flash drive into one of the USB ports. Scanning the menu, she saw what she was looking for: “8th Grade Semester Exam.” She was only one click away from an “A.” No one would ever know.
She looked up in the moonlit room at the picture of herself and her father. She remembered that day. They had stopped at a country store for lunch. He had made everyone in the store come out to the truck to see the “monster fish my little girl caught!” She remembered something else, too. The clerk had given him too much change, and he had returned it. She’d asked him why – it was only 32¢. “It’s not mine,” he had answered, shrugging.
Jodi ran her hands through her hair and stared out the window at the pond. She shook her head and sighed. I just can’t, she thought. Oh Lord, she prayed silently, what do I do? They’ll never let me be in the play now. I’ll be lucky not to get kicked out.
She pulled the flash drive out and turned off the computer. Nobody has to know, she thought, I’ll just sneak it onto his desk in the morning. She looked again at the fish picture and her father’s proud face. I can’t do that either. Oh God, help me do what’s right.
The next morning Jodi waited for Mr. Costello in the school foyer, a Drama Club poster on the wall behind her and his flash drive in her hand. “I need to talk with you,” she said when he walked in the front door.
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