Bionic by Suzanne Weyn

Author:Suzanne Weyn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

That night I tell Mom I want to drop out. You’d think I told her I want to move to Antarctica—or the moon! “Absolutely not!” she cries looking shaken.

“I’ll take the GED!”

“It’s not the same as graduating,” she says. “What about college?”

“I thought I needed a scholarship. I’m not getting one now.”

“You can go to community college.”

“What good is two years of college going to do me if I can’t afford to finish?”

“It will give me two years to save.”

“Come on, Mom! You can barely pay the bills each month as it is. How are you going to save? I’ll work at the diner full time.”

Zack comes into the room while we argue about this, going around in circles on the subject. We’re so involved that we barely notice him until he shouts. “Stop!” His hands are over his ears. He scrunches his eyes shut. “Stop!”

Obeying his command, we stare at him, surprised by the outburst.

“If Mira doesn’t want to go to school, she shouldn’t have to,” he tells Mom.

“Why not?” Mom asks him gently, patiently.

“Mira is special now. She’s not like the other kids. I know what it’s like.”

“You do?” Mom questions.

“Yes. I’m special, too, so I know.” Mom strokes his hair affectionately.

“It’s great to be special,” Mom says, “but you also have to learn how to live in the regular world with other people.”

“No,” Zack disagrees. “We’re in our own worlds. It’s better there.”

“It’s time for you to go take a bath and get ready for bed,” Mom tells Zack. “Mira and I have to talk privately.” Once he’s upstairs she turns her attention back to me. “Is that what you really want to be—a full-time diner waitress?” Mom asks, sounding defeated.

“I don’t know what I want to be. I just want a job until the Snap Girl commercial comes through. I’ve already called Carl, and he’s agreed to put me on an afternoon shift. Since I worked there part time before the accident, he doesn’t have to train me.”

“Why are you doing this, Mira?”

“I don’t fit in at school anymore. I’m not going to graduate with my class, anyway. They won’t let me play sports because they say I have an unfair advantage. Most likely Snap Girl will want me to do something for them and I’ll have to be more available, anyway.”

Mom sits at the table and lets her head drop into her hands. “All right.”

Standing, I hug her. “You’ll see this is the right thing. The diner is just temporary. The Snap Girl thing is going to work.”

I get into bed, my head buzzing from the day. I’m overstimulated, the way kids get on Halloween when they’ve had too much candy.

My imagination goes wild, playing out in my mind a little drama in which I really tell off those idiots who failed my essay. In it I toss my fake arm at them and tell them to get real. It’s a new world. My arm comes to life on its own and starts chasing them around.

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