Chapter 17

Chapter 17 Despair Deeper Than the Ocean hyperbole (n) an extremely exaggerated statement "Evan, is Jessie absent today?" asked Mrs. Overton, holding her attendance book in her hands. Mrs. Overton had a pink heart pinned to her red sweater in honor of Valentine's Day. Near the end of the day, the kids would distribute their valentines to one another, placing the cards in the shoeboxes they'd decorated last week. "Nope. She's here somewhere." The kids in 4-O had all settled down to their morning work, but a few desks were empty. Evan noticed that Jessie, Megan, Chaz, and Sarah were all missing. He was glad Megan was out. Evan didn't want to

“埃文，杰西今天缺席了吗？”奥弗顿太太手里拿着考勤簿问。 奥弗顿夫人在她的红毛衣上别了一颗粉红色的心，以纪念情人节。 在一天快结束的时候，孩子们会互相分发他们的情人节贺卡，把卡片放在他们上周装饰过的鞋盒里。 “不。她就在这里的某个地方。” 4- 0班的孩子们都已经坐下来开始他们的晨间工作了，但有几张桌子是空的。 埃文注意到杰西、梅根、查兹和莎拉都不见了。 他很高兴梅金出去了。 埃文不想这么做

have to deal with his friends making jokes about Megan and him on Valentine's Day. Plus, he didn't want to see the hurt look on her face when he ignored her. All in all, it was good that she was absent. Even though there was a part of him that felt disappointed. A few minutes later both Jessie and Megan walked into the classroom and took their seats. "Girls, you're late," said Mrs. Overton, then stopped when she caught sight of Megan's face. "Don't let it happen again, okay?" "Mrs. Overton?" said Jessie. "Can I stay in at recess and work on my newspaper? I need to fix a few things before I hand it out. It's a special Valentine's Day edition." "Ooooh," said Scott Spencer, and some of the boys laughed. Evan stared at his morning work paper. He was not going to get involved in this conversation. "Jessie, are you going to tell us about the survey?" asked Rachel.

他不得不面对朋友们在情人节拿他和梅根开玩笑。 另外，他不想看到当他忽视她时她脸上受伤的表情。 总之，她缺席是件好事。 尽管他心里有一丝失望。 几分钟后，杰西和梅金都走进教室，坐了下来。 “姑娘们，你们迟到了，”奥弗顿太太说，看到梅金的脸就停住了。 “别让这种事再发生了，好吗？”“夫人。 奥弗顿？”杰西说。“我可以在课间休息时留在家里写报纸吗？” 在分发之前，我需要修正一些东西。 这是情人节特别版。” “哦，”斯科特·斯宾塞说，一些男孩笑了。 埃文盯着他的晨报。 他不打算卷入这场谈话。 “杰西，你要告诉我们关于调查的事吗？”雷切尔问。

"Yeah, we want to know about that. You promised," said Taffy. Jessie smiled and faced the class. "Yes. The full —and accurate—results of the survey will be included on the front page of the newspaper. Along with some special features. First, a sweet mystery will be solved"—Jessie looked straight at Megan when she said this—"and there will be a poem by a surprise poet." Evan watched as Jessie turned her gaze on him and flashed him a smile. "What survey?" asked Mrs. Overton. "A love survey!" shouted Scott Spencer. And the boys started making kissing noises and whooping it up. "Jessie?" "It's just a survey I handed out. All the kids answered it. Mrs. Feeney said it was okay!" Evan listened as Jessie's voice got squeaky in the way it did when she was nervous. Mrs. Overton stared straight at Jessie, then

“是的，我们想知道这个。 你答应过的。”太妃糖说。 杰西微笑着面对全班同学。 “是的。完整而准确的调查结果将刊登在报纸的头版。 还有一些特殊的功能。 首先，一个甜蜜的谜团将被解开”——杰西说这话的时候直视着梅根——“还会有一位出人意料的诗人写的诗。” 埃文看着杰西把目光转向他，对他微微一笑。 “什么调查？”奥弗顿太太问。 “爱情调查！”斯科特·斯宾塞喊道。 男孩们开始发出亲吻的声音，大声喊叫。 “杰西?”“这只是我发的一份调查。 所有的孩子都回答了。菲尼太太说没关系！”埃文听着杰西的声音变得尖细起来，就像她紧张时那样。 奥弗顿太太直直地盯着杰西

tapped her pencil on her desktop. "I want to see your newspaper before you hand it out, okay? I'll look at it during recess. Meanwhile"—she turned her attention to the whole class—"I wanted to update you on the boxes of candy hearts that I collected from you on Friday." "Confiscated!" shouted Scott Spencer, whose mother was a lawyer. "Private property," called out David K. "Power to the people!" yelled out Malik, then shrugged his shoulders to show he was just goofing around. "Excuse me," said Mrs. Overton, lifting one eyebrow in the way she did when she was warning them to settle down. Evan always marveled at this technique. He'd never met anyone who could lift one eyebrow as high as Mrs. Overton. "As I was saying, I spoke with Mrs. Fletcher and she in turn spoke with the superintendent, and it has been decided that because we do not know the source of the candy,

她用铅笔敲了敲桌面。 “在你发报纸之前，我想看看，好吗？” 休息的时候我会看的。 与此同时，”——她把注意力转向全班——“我想告诉你们星期五我从你们那里收到的几盒心形糖果的最新情况。” “没收！”斯科特·斯宾塞喊道，他的母亲是一名律师。 “私有财产。” “权力属于人民！”马利克喊道，然后耸了耸肩，表示他只是在闲逛。 “对不起，”奥弗顿太太说，一面扬起眉毛，就像她警告他们安静下来时那样。 埃文总是对这种技巧感到惊讶。 他从来没有见过像奥弗顿太太那样眉毛抬得那么高的人。 “正如我所说，我和弗莱彻太太谈过了，她又和校长谈过了，由于我们不知道糖果的来源，

we cannot allow you to have the candy." "Oh, come on!" shouted several of the kids in the class. "It's just candy, for crying out loud!" said Ray. "And it's Valentine's Day," said Salley. "Yeah!" shouted most of the class in agreement. "Enough! As I said, it has been decided." Mrs. Overton looked severely around the room. Good, thought Evan. No more stupid candy hearts. Jessie raised her hand. "Mrs. Overton, what if we did know where the candy came from? Would that make a difference?" Mrs. Overton looked at her, perplexed. "Jessie, do you want to talk with me privately?" "No." Jessie's face had that blank-slate look that left most people confused. But Evan knew that something was going on inside Jessie's head. "Well," said Mrs. Overton. "I suppose it might make a difference if we knew who left the candy.

我们不能让你吃糖果。” “哦，别这样！”班上几个孩子喊道。 “这只是糖果，我的天哪！”雷说。 “今天是情人节，”莎莉说。 “是啊！”大多数同学一致喊道。 “够了!就像我说的，已经决定了。” 奥弗顿太太严厉地环视了一下房间。 很好，埃文想。不要再吃愚蠢的心形糖果了。 杰西举起了手。“夫人。 奥弗顿，如果我们知道糖果是从哪里来的呢？ 那会有什么不同吗？”奥弗顿太太不解地望着她。 “杰西，你想和我单独谈谈吗？”“没有。” 杰西的脸上有一种让大多数人感到困惑的茫然表情。 但埃文知道杰西的脑子里发生了什么事。 “嗯，”奥弗顿太太说。 “我想，如果我们知道是谁留下了糖果，情况可能会有所不同。

Or maybe not. It would depend." Just then a voice came over the PA announcing that an assembly for the lower grades had been canceled. When the announcement ended, Mrs. Overton told them to break into their rainforest groups. They were going to continue working on their group projects. Evan looked around the room for his group and found them gathering at the back table. But his mind wasn't on the great kapok tree as he joined them. He was wondering why Jessie had looked straight at him when she mentioned the surprise poem in the newspaper? Was it a poem that Evan particularly liked? And then an awful thought came to him. What if it was the framed poem he had given to Grandma? Jessie must have noticed it on Grandma's dresser and copied it to put in the paper. For everyone to see. Evan's head sank into his hands, and he groaned.

也许不是。这要看情况而定。” 就在这时，广播里传来一个声音，宣布低年级学生的集会取消了。 宣布结束后，奥弗顿夫人让他们进入自己的雨林小组。 他们将继续完成他们的小组项目。 埃文环顾房间寻找他的团队，发现他们聚集在后面的桌子旁。 但当他加入他们时，他的心思不在那棵大木棉树上。 他在想，当杰西在报纸上提到那首出人意料的诗时，她为什么直直地看着他？ 这首诗是埃文特别喜欢的吗？ 这时，一个可怕的念头涌上心头。 如果这是他送给奶奶的那首装裱好的诗呢？ 杰西一定是在奶奶的梳妆台上看到了它，然后抄了下来放进了报纸里。 让每个人都看到。埃文把头埋在手里，呻吟着。