The (Totally Not) Guaranteed Guide to Stressing, Obsessing & Second-Guessing by Megan McCafferty

Author:Megan McCafferty [MCCAFFERTY, MEGAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction / Family / Siblings, Juvenile Fiction / Girls & Women, Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Adolescence
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2015-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

With puberty as my excuse, I was feeling much better about the Dori/Aleck square-dance situation when I got to Woodshop. Unfortunately, my Woodshop teacher did not share my chipper mood. Mr. Pudel slumped against his desk and read dejectedly from a school memo in his hands.

“It seems that for the next two weeks we’re putting our regular curriculum aside to pursue… ah…” He looked down at the paper. “An exploration of the celebrational ornamentation most commonly associated with folkloric traditions combining movement and musicianship.”

None of us had any idea what he was talking about. He crumpled up the paper and tossed it in the nearby trash can.

“We’re in charge of making decorations for the Down-Home Harvest Dance.”

Oh.

“The administration uses fancy terminology like that so it gets credited as an academic activity,” he explained.

Ohhh.

“EVEN WHEN IT’S A BIG BUNCH OF HOOEY.”

Sara chose that moment of all moments to sweep into the room.

“Yoo-hoo!”

“Who are you, and why are you in my workshop?” Mr. Pudel asked.

“I’m Sara D’Abruzzi, and—”

Mr. Pudel cut her off.

“Listen, Bruiser, you have no business in my workshop.”

Sara came up only to the chest pocket of Mr. Pudel’s lumberjack shirt. But if she was intimidated by his menacing growl, or the boys’ goggle-eyed gawking because they couldn’t believe there was an actual girl in their classroom (I stopped registering as an actual girl ages ago), she didn’t show it.

“I do when I’m the chair of the dance committee,” she said confidently. “And here’s my dream decor that you need to make a reality!”

She went straight to the drafting table and fanned out several pieces of graph paper, the kind with the tiny boxes I use in Pre-Algebra to chart x- and y-axis problems.

“What are those?” Mr. Pudel asked.

“Construction and design plans, of course!”

Between the disruption of his teaching schedule and Sara’s intrusion, Mr. Pudel looked angry enough to flip over the table and everything on it. But when he got close enough to give Sara’s papers a quick glance, he… stopped. He calmed down.

“You did these?” he asked, picking one up for closer inspection.

“Omigod! Of course!”

I peeked over Sara’s shoulder to get a look. I couldn’t see much, but I could tell that Mr. Pudel was pretty impressed with Sara’s plans, despite his best efforts not to be.

“I approve of this project,” he said. “Bruiser, you may stay.”

“My name is Sara D’—”

“Not while you’re in here, it isn’t,” Mr. Pudel said. “Explain how things work, Clem.”

Then he rustled up Cheddar and Squiggy for a trip to the supply closet. They’d take stock of what we had and what we needed for the project.

“When did you do these?” I asked, after taking a better look at her drawings.

“During Social Studies,” she said casually. “And Science.”

Her sketches were way more detailed than I assumed they would be, with all the measurements and dimensions and suggested materials and everything. There were instructions for a plywood barn facade, silhouettes of farm animals, a post-and-rail fence, and all sorts of other good ol’ country stuff like that.

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