Fast Forward by Marilyn Kaye

Author:Marilyn Kaye [Kaye, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8041-5003-3
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Amy was glad to see that her old school was still called Parkside Middle School. And as she’d noticed yesterday, the bell still rang to indicate the beginning or end of classes. But that was where the similarities ended. Chairs and desks had been designed to be much more comfortable. Students weren’t as rowdy in the hallways, and the teachers were all smiling. In fact, everybody looked cheerful.

For good reason, too. This Parkside Middle School was a really nice place. By the time Jane brought Amy into the third period class, Amy was certain that there wasn’t one jerk or loser in the entire school.

“Good day, class,” the algebra teacher said. “I have an intriguing equation for you to work on today.” She scrawled figures and symbols all over the blackboard. None of the students groaned or complained. They whipped out papers and pencils and studied the board intently.

Amy was floored. Algebra classes back home were a cinch for her, whereas her classmates always struggled with the equations. And when she laid her pencil down minutes, often seconds, later, half the class would look at her with nasty expressions. Sometimes Amy thought they hated her for being so smart.

That wouldn’t happen here. For once, she found a math problem difficult. She had to think, and concentrate, and use her logic, like everyone else. But that didn’t bother her at all. Math courses had been boring at the old Parkside. Here, she was challenged.

The next class was intermediate French. Back at the old Parkside, Amy had been Madame Duquesne’s star student. She could look at any verb, even the irregular ones, and memorize its conjugation in three seconds flat. But this class didn’t spend its time on conjugations or the difference between direct and indirect objects.

Here, Madame Valmont asked—in French, of course—if the students were all familiar with the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. Amy suspected her old classmates would have only known the movie, but these smarter kids had actually read the play.

“Today,” she continued, “we will translate the play into French and perform it.” Again, there was no complaining, no moaning or groaning. Students actually cheered the idea.

It was incredible. People were assigned parts and had them translated and memorized in minutes. Even the boy who was playing Romeo had no trouble.

As the play was performed, Amy had an opportunity to get a good look at some of these wonderful kids. She saw all races and sizes, but it seemed to her that a lot of kids had a similar look about them. There were two girls in the class who could have been Jane’s sisters. But that made sense—if these kids were all the descendants of genetically designed clones, they would have to resemble each other. With excitement, Amy realized that some kids might actually be her own great-great-great-and-so-on-grandchildren! She’d have to keep her eyes open and see if she could pick out any of them.

There was improvement in Parkside lunches, too. Mystery meat and unidentifiable green stuff seemed to be a thing of the past.

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