Randy is copying sentences in detention with the other
regulars one day, when she’s surprised to see Mark Wright walk in. He’s a
straight A student, captain of the basketball team, piano playing, perfect kind
of guy. Randy gives him a little gentle teasing, and he gets pissed. They get
into it a bit, and both get in trouble. He is not Randy’s favorite person at
the moment.
They get a new health teacher, Ms. Nelson, who used to be a
model in New York. Randy likes her because she dresses all in black. Everyone
else just likes her because she’s nice and cool.
She assigns their big project, the one that every YA series
and TV series does, but I’ve never actually heard of being done. The egg/baby
challenge. Did anybody ever actually do this? I’m curious.
Sabrina gets paired up with her brother, Sam, and she’s
pretty pissed about it. Katie’s paired with Winslow Bartlett, who’s a nerd. How
could he not be, with that name? There are an uneven number of boys and girls,
so Allison volunteers to be a single mother. And Randy, of course, is paired
with Mark Wright. Why else would he be introduced?
Mark could not seem less interested. He doesn’t show up to
pick up their egg, and then when Randy does get to talk to him, he says she can
keep it for as long as she feels like it, and then he’ll take it. And he’s all
pissy about it. Everyone’s surprised, because he’s such a good student. Obviously
something’s wrong, but that doesn’t occur to anyone.
The other girls aren’t having the easiest time with their
partners either. Sam keeps pretending to drop and lose their egg, driving
Sabrina crazy. Winston overloads Katie with egg facts, and barely lets her
contribute. Allison is doing okay, she makes a papoose for her egg, to live
up to her stereotype since there’s no one else to hold it.
Mark continues to be grumpy, and then doesn’t live up to his
end of the bargain. One day Randy gets asked to go with Sam and his friends to
a new skate park, and she’s really excited about it, but she knows that’s no
place for an egg. So she asks Mark to take it, but he flat-out refuses. Randy
is pissed, and goes home instead of the park. She talks with her mom, and
realizes parents give things up for their kids. But she knows the difference is
that parents love their kids. She has no such feelings for her egg.
Then one day, out of the blue, Mark starts being all nice
again. Randy’s not sure why, but she’ll take it.
While studying together one day, Allison sheds some light on
Mark’s moodiness. She’s learned his parents are getting divorced. That might
have something to do with it. Randy definitely understands that.
She decides she’ll talk to him about it on Monday. She does,
and they have a nice moment. And she likes she Mozart he was playing.
The egg project is over, and since it was a success, Ms.
Nelson announces they’ll have a party on Friday after school. Ms. Nelson asks
for volunteers to talk about their experiences. Randy gets up and talks about
how even though divorce changes everything, it can be okay. Mark whispers a
thank you.
Randy and Allison decide that the party should be at Randy’s
house, which is a converted barn, if you’ll remember. Allison and Sabrina make
an egg-shaped cake, while Katie and Randy put up Easter egg decorations. All
the girls wear only white, to complete the egg theme.
Everyone has a good time. Mark and Randy bond some more over
having to get used to new rooms. Turns out the day that he blew Randy off on
taking the egg, Mark and his mother were moving, and so he couldn’t have taken
care of it.
The party, and the book, ends with a cake fight outside.
o
Randy compares Bradley Junior High to her school
in New York a lot. Apparently her old school had barely any rules. They mainly worked
on independent projects. Once for math class, Randy just had to draw
illustrations for a report on Women in Mathematics. I would have totally been
down with that.
o
Nobody ever names their egg. Every other time
I’ve seen it done, they’ve made a big deal out of naming them and choosing the
gender. But the girls all do feel weird about eating eggs.
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