Ask Emma (Ask Emma Book 1) by Sheryl Berk & Carrie Berk

Author:Sheryl Berk & Carrie Berk [Berk, Sheryl & Berk, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: little bee books
Published: 2018-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

Emma went to her locker to get her jacket so she could catch the school bus. She dug her phone out of a pocket and signed on to her blog to check if there were any new comments. She was hoping for some more of the glowing thank-yous she’d received today—at least one or two praising her for her efforts in Señor Gonzalez’s class and detention. But instead someone had written a note filled with bold, capitalized words. She read them slowly, one by one, letting them sink in:

KEEP YOUR DUMB IDEAS TO YOURSELF. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? JUST SOME STUPID KNOW-IT-ALL WHO KNOWS NOTHING!

Her heart pounded and her hands shook, but she managed to delete every word. How could someone write this about her? Mr. Goddard had told her to ignore and delete any negative comments, and she had. Still, she couldn’t erase the words from her mind: SOME STUPID KNOW-IT-ALL WHO KNOWS NOTHING! It made her feel sad, small, insignificant. Even though they were just words, they stung. She could hear her mom’s voice in her head reminding her, “Sticks and stones . . .” She’d taught her that way back in kindergarten, when a boy at the playground made fun of her freckles and called her “polka-dot face.” But these words—maybe because they were written on a webpage for all to see—hurt. They did more than hurt; Emma felt like someone had just slapped her across the face and left five fingerprints across her cheek.

She walked to the school bus stop, trying to shake off the feeling. She saw Elton at the back of the line, waiting as well. He had earphones on and was grooving to a tune only he could hear. Maybe that’s what she needed to do—tune out the negativity and the world in general.

“Hey,” he said, noticing her behind him. “What’s up?”

She smiled back weakly. “Nothing.”

He took off his earphones so they could talk. “Did Jackson tell you about the cool science project we’re cooking up?”

So they had partnered up in lab after her failed attempt to get Harriet and Elton together. “No, he didn’t mention it.” There were probably a lot of things Jackson hadn’t shared with her. At this point, she was just happy he was speaking to her at all.

“Well, it’s awesome. It’s totally going to win the science fair this year,” Elton bragged.

To be polite, Emma pretended to be interested in his latest scientific endeavor, even if it was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment: “Uh-huh. Sounds good.”

“Get this: the Chemistry of Ice Cream,” Elton continued. “It’s about molecular weight and adding chemicals to ice to make it freeze faster.”

Emma nodded. “Cool.”

“Ha! Cool! That’s funny—’cause ice cream is cool,” Elton said, chuckling to himself.

Emma wasn’t trying to be funny. She was too busy surveying the line of middle schoolers waiting for the bus, wondering which one of them might have written the comment on her blog. It could have been anyone: that girl with the glasses chatting with her friends, the boy with the baseball hat on backward.

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