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."

第十五章从第一个电压表（名词）开始。 一种特殊的仪器，用来测量两点之间的电流。 但它听起来应该是用来衡量《哈利·波特》中反派伏特·莫特的邪恶程度的工具。 我眨了几下眼睛，以确保我没有想象什么。 当我睁开眼睛时，它还在那里。 我非常愤怒。有人拿了一支笔在我的公告板上写字。 凯特不擅长科学。我开始发抖。 小鸟立刻向我飞奔过来。 “看，”我说。“看看有人做了什么！”“我很抱歉，凯特。 这是不对的。”“我不敢相信有人会这样破坏我的项目。 写一些不真实的东西。 首先，我的科学成绩不差！”“凯特，科学就是你的生命。 这是你大脑的运作方式。 这个人生活在相反的世界。” “谢谢你，”我说。“因为最近我的项目进展缓慢，我一直心存疑虑。”

"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

“那是自然。每个人都有这种感觉。 有时候我觉得自己不会画画。 在所有。好像我应该放弃似的。” “你对自己太苛刻了。” “我也是，”她说。我们都笑了。 因为我们经常重复。 “我怎么才能重做我在海报上做的所有工作？” 我花了几个小时用光板画柠檬。 我不能再这样做了。”我看着站在教室前面帮忙的志愿者妈妈们。 “另外，我不想向那些妈妈解释为什么我需要一块新的海报板。 那会很尴尬的。” “你什么也没做。是别人干的。” “是啊，但他们可能会认为我做了什么活该。” 泪水涌上了我的眼眶。 我的喉咙皱了起来，就像我刚刚吞下了自己的柠檬一样。 “如果他们告诉我妈妈……” “会没事的，”小鸟用安慰的声音说。 “我不太确定。”“你可以解决这个问题。 只需在文字周围画一个框，并用黑色马克笔给它上色。 你是用电压表测柠檬的，对吧？ 所以你转动盒子

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!"

输入电压表。一个漂亮的大广场。 看到了什么?”她拿起铅笔，在一张纸上画了一个盒子。 “哦，你说得对。这可能看起来不错。” 我研究了她的论文。“我希望我有你的艺术天赋。 但既然我不知道，我很高兴你能在我身边教我怎么处理。 我只想抓住那个跟我捣乱的人。” 小鸟突然安静了下来。 “凯特，”她低声说。“我想我知道怎么抓住他们了！”