15 Starting from Square One

CHAPTER FIFTEEN Starting from Square One Voltmeter (noun). A special instrument that measures how much electricity is passing between two points. But it sounds like it should be an instrument that measures the badness in the Harry Potter bad guy Volt-emort. I BLINKED A FEW TIMES to make sure I wasn't imagining anything. When I opened my eyes, it was still there. And I was furious. Someone had taken a pen and written on my poster board. Kate is bad at science. I started to shake. Immediately, Birdie zipped over to me. "Look," I said. "See what somebody did!" "I'm so sorry, Kate. That's just not right." "I can't believe someone would mess with my project like this. And write something so untrue. First of all, I am NOT bad at science!" "Kate, science is your life. It's how your brain operates. This person is living in Opposite Land." "Thank you," I said. "Because lately with my project off to a slow start, I've been having doubts."

"That's natural. Everyone feels that way. There are days I feel like I can't draw. At all. Like I should give up." "You're too hard on yourself." "Ditto," she said. And we both sort of smiled. Because we ditto each other a lot. "How am I going to redo all the work I did on my poster? It took me hours to draw that lemon using a light board. I can't do it again." I looked over at the volunteer moms helping out at the front of the classroom. "Plus, I don't want to explain to those moms why I need a new piece of poster board. It would be embarrassing." "You didn't do anything. Someone else did." "Yeah, but they might think I did something to deserve it." Tears welled up behind my eyes. My throat puckered like I had just swallowed one of my own lemons. "And what if they tell my mom..." "It's going to be okay," said Birdie in a soothing voice. "I'm not so sure." "You can fix this. Just draw a box around the writing and color it in with black marker. You used a voltmeter to test the lemons, right? So you turn the box

into a voltmeter. A nice big square. See?" On a piece of paper, she took a pencil and sketched a box. "Oh, you're right. That might actually look good." I studied her paper. "I wish I had your artistic talent. But since I don't, I'm glad you're around to show me how to deal with this. I just want to catch that person messing with me." Suddenly Birdie went quiet. "Kate," she whispered. "I think I know how we can catch them!"