Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 "Please put your book and all your notes away," Ms. McKay told the class. "It's time to start the test." Michael swallowed hard. "Here we go..." He knew he should have stayed home and studied last night rather than go roller-skating, and now he was beginning to

第十二章“请把你的书和所有的笔记收起来。” 麦凯告诉同学们。“是时候开始测试了。” 迈克尔使劲咽了口气。“我们走吧……” 他知道他昨晚应该呆在家里学习，而不是去滑旱冰，现在他开始这么做了

regret it. He didn't feel prepared for the test, but he was still hoping he might be able to squeak out a B. That way, he could collect his $10 reward and pay Justin back. "Good luck!" Pearl whispered, popping up from his backpack. Since Jane didn't have preschool today, Michael couldn't risk keeping the squirrels in his room, so he'd brought them to school with him again in his backpack. "Thanks," Michael whispered back. He knew he would need it. Pearl ducked back down into the backpack as Ms. McKay walked by and placed Michael's test on his desk. The first three questions were easy. Simple division— he remembered that from fourth grade. He breezed through them. "Good job!" Pearl said. "I think I'm gonna go grab some chicken nuggets," Merle said from the bottom of the pack. Merle and Pearl had collected an enormous amount of leftover food from the lunchroom a few days before. "Don't overdo it!" Pearl warned. "Just a few." "Got it!" Merle crept from the backpack and out of the classroom window, being careful to not be seen by Ms. McKay and the other students. "Oh no," Michael whispered as he stared down at question 4.

后悔的。他觉得自己没有为考试做好准备，但他仍然希望自己能勉强拿个B。 这样，他就能拿到他的0奖励，然后把钱还给贾斯廷。 “祝你好运!”珠儿低声说，从他的背包里跳了出来。 因为简今天没有上学前班，迈克尔不能冒险把松鼠留在他的房间里，所以他又把它们放在背包里带到了学校。 “谢谢。”迈克尔小声回答。 他知道他需要它。珀尔又缩进了背包。 麦凯走过，把迈克尔的试卷放在他的桌子上。 前三个问题很简单。 简单除法——他记得四年级的时候。 他轻松地穿过他们。“好!”珍珠说。 “我想我要去拿些鸡块，”梅尔从背包的底部说。 几天前，莫尔和珀尔从午餐室收集了大量剩下的食物。 “别做过头了！”珍珠警告。 “只有几个。”“明白了!”莫尔蹑手蹑脚地从背包里爬出来，走出教室的窗户，小心翼翼地不让她看见。 麦凯和其他学生。 “哦，不。”迈克尔盯着第4题小声说。

Pearl peeked up at his test. Long division. She had helped Michael with a similar problem last night and knew exactly how to solve it. Pearl covered her face as Michael answered the question... incorrectly. It was all downhill from there, and not in a good way. More in a way a train with no brakes runs downhill through a big pile of fractions and off a cliff. The answers were all painfully obvious to Pearl, who had put in the work of learning how to solve the problems. She sank back into the backpack with a groan as Michael stood up to turn in his test.

珠儿抬头偷看他的试卷。 长除法。她昨晚帮迈克尔解决了一个类似的问题，知道怎么解决。 迈克尔回答问题时，珠儿捂住了脸…… 不正确。从那以后，一切都在走下坡路，而且不是很好。 更像是一列没有刹车的火车在一大堆碎片堆中下坡，然后掉下悬崖。 这些问题的答案对珠儿来说都是显而易见的，她已经努力学习如何解决这些问题。 迈克尔站起来交卷时，她呻吟了一声，倒进了书包。