Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

Author:Lisa Yee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

1. Roll around bed — clutch stomach and moan lightly

2. Take thermometer from Mom

3. Feign dehydration, request water

4. When Mom leaves the room, stick thermometer against the light bulb until it reaches 100.5 degrees (hot enough to stay home, not hot enough for medication or a doctor’s visit)

Then a call would be placed to Maddie, and she’d come over and we’d eat frozen Milky Ways, play two-handed bridge, and go through Mom and Dad’s drawers while they were at work. Sometimes we’d even go to a movie. We both love black-and-white films and marvel over the chiaroscuro lighting of the cinematic classics. Whenever Alfred Hitchcock is playing at the Rialto, we’re there. Whoever’s the first one to spot him in his famous cameos gets to pick an accent the other person is forced to use for the rest of the day.

One day, after Suspicion, we sat in the theater and stared at the empty screen. Finally, Maddie spoke, using a Spanish lilt. “Mee-lee, I know you’re not sick. So why don’t you tell me why you don’t want to go to school?”

“But I am sick.” I tried to look pitiful. Actually, I was feeling ill, having washed down a box of Goobers and a medium-size buttered popcorn with a jumbo Cherry Coke.

Maddie put her hand to my forehead. “Bambino, you’re not sick,” she said. We sat there for a while longer and watched the usher going up and down the rows dragging a trash bag behind him. He wasn’t happy. “Is it the homework? Is it too hard?” she asked.

I started to giggle. “Right. Like multiplying three-digit numbers is soooooo difficult.”

The usher looked at us and shrugged. We were the only ones left in the theater. “If you want to see the movie a second time, you have to pay again,” he said. “Or you could just give me two bucks and I won’t report you.”

Maddie rose stiffly. “We’re on our way out.”

For someone who prides herself on her arrest record, she has a strange code of ethics.

“Is it your teacher?” she asked as we exited the theater. I was momentarily blinded by the sunlight. I opened my eyes and squinted. From where I stood Maddie looked silhouetted, like she had a mystical aura around her. “Hmmm … So, it’s the students then,” the all-knowing Buddha said. “You know, Millicent, they can’t hurt you if you don’t let them. Though it’s hard for you now, facing your tormentors will build your character. If you run from them, they will chase you. If you face them, chances are they will be the ones to back away.”

I didn’t answer, instead pretending to be fascinated with the “Coming Soon” movie poster for The Man Who Knew Too Much. Perhaps it should have read The Maddie Who Knew Too Much, for she was right. If I wanted Digger out of my life, I’d have to stop running away from him and do something about it. That night, I began planning my salt-shaker revenge.

My poetry class is something I will never flee from.

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