Washington Academy by Sabrina Smith and Helen Lindamood (bill gates best books TXT) 📕

back to her locker. The halls weren't as busy now, and Kennedy heard the warning bell ring, seeming distant. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out. Her heart gave a little flutter when she read the name. David. She opened the message, nearly dropping the phone in her haste; “hey”.

How lame

Kennedy thought, and she quickly responded with it. She placed the phone back in her pocket, knowing that he wouldn’t respond for at least another five minutes. She practically ran to study hall, barely making it in time. A stern look from the teacher made Kennedy quail, and she positioned herself at the back of the classroom. As she pulled out her notebooks, her phone buzzed in her pocket, making her jump a little. Looking furtively around, she stuck the phone under the table, and read the text: “whats up?” Rolling her eyes, slightly annoyed, she responded. “What do you think?” Sometimes, Kennedy thought, he can be a real idiot.

Another buzz from her phone, and the message “singing opera while balancing on a beach ball holding a gold fish?” served to make Kennedy go bright red from trying not to laugh.
His messages made her laugh far too often, and sometimes, or really, she thought, most times, they weren’t that funny. Her stomach flipped when she thought about him, and she texted him whenever she could. He just understands me she thought.

The same frequency….that’s what he’d said. “There’s this girl, and she and I just seem to be on the same frequency”…thinking about the morse code message made her stomach flip again. He’d said he loved her. In an indirect way, avoiding it, because when you’re texting someone, you can do that. But he'd said it.

Her thoughts were so uncertain. Was he telling the truth? It just seemed so…fake. With a jolt she realized she’d been lost in thought and hadn’t responded to David’s message. Her hurried response (“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”), made her feel uncomfortable. Why did she always answer him so fast, like a dog to his master?

Claire slammed the door. "I'm home!" she yelled over her shoulder, kicking her shoes off. "How was dance?" her mother called down the steps. Tossing her bag down the steps, in front of her door, Claire trudged up to the kitchen. "It was fine" she mumbled, heading straight for the refrigerator.After some more dull, painful conversation and some dinner, Claire escaped down to her room, pulling out her computer and Ipod, after shutting the door firmly behind her.She send a text to Wade, while shoving the crap on her bed over enough for her to sit down. "He had better respond quickly" she thought to herself while turning her computer on.Staring blankly at the computer screen, she was soon lost in thought. Tomorrow was dress rehearsal for the recital, then Friday would be dress rehearsal for the show and then the recital. And then came Saturday.

She smiled slightly. Wade was coming to the show. Everything would be perfect. He would get to see her in that little black dress and shove it in Carmen's face that she had a boyfriend and could care less what everyone else thought of him. Her stomach twisted slightly at the last thought. Nobody's perfect was her constant anthem. She proceeded to remind herself again. The Ipod dinged. Wade had responded. "Hey baby" was all it said. "He could be a little more original in his responses..." Claire thought. She wasn't in the best of moods. That duet was not looking good, no matter what the teacher said. Nobody was ready for this show and none of the more advanced people even had the excited giddiness to make it fun. It wasn't going to be fun. Allowing herself to wallow in her bitterness, Claire opened Facebook and her homework, focusing her attention on the former. Finals could wait.

Within the hour, Claire was caught in conversation with Kennedy, David, and Wade. There was no hope of finals studying now. But honestly, she didn't care much at all.

Yawning and stretching, Kennedy walked up the stairs to her room, making sure that the curtain she used for a door was completely closed behind her. Abigail, her baby sister, was lying in their bed already, sleeping. Dinner had been delightful, Kennedy thought with more than just a hint of sarcasm. Just perfect. Why they had insisted on having that conversation was completely beyond her. Okay, she thought to herself as she grabbed her lap top and flopped onto the bed, not completely beyond her. She understood why her family continued to tease her about David, despite her insistence that they were just friends. But thinking she was crushing on Gavin, too? Sheesh, who did they think she was? She wasn’t even over Zack yet.

She turned to her computer and quickly logged onto My Washington Community, the new forum the school had set up for the students to communicate and discuss things. She had a new message from Claire, making her smile. As Kennedy waited for Claire’s answer, she wondered if David thought about her as much as she seemed to be thinking about him.

Three hours later, Claire stared at the blank document, shoving the feelings of failure and defiance aside. She had to get good grades on these finals, or else she would get bad overall grades and if those were below 80%... Claire tried not to think about the consequences. Switching windows back to Facebook, Claire typed a quick response to Kennedy.

Claire liked Kennedy. They had only been talking a few days, but Kennedy was sweet and cute and funny. Sure, she was a little younger, but they had fun conversations. Plus, she got learn more about David.

The obnoxious thing about Washington Academy was, yes you got a “stellar” education, and yes, you had a flexible schedule. Most of the kids only had classes in the mornings. But it didn’t leave a lot of social room if you only took a few classes, like Claire did. And when you added dance on top of that, the whole “social life” thing kind of died a very quick, yet painful death. The whole idea of having friends at Washington Academy had been considered, but not put into practice.

But now that she was talking with Kennedy, there was just a tiny bit of acceptance that Claire had been missing. And it was nice.
Claire shook her head. This essay needed to be done, like, now. She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock. 12:30. Claire groaned. Tomorrow was chaperoning for the ballet recital. Tomorrow was not going to be a good day whatsoever. She wouldn’t be able to text Wade at the stage.

“Stupid parents” Claire mumbled, grabbing her Ipod. When they had found out about Wade, they had taken away her cellphone AND Facebook. Not like that would stop her. Thanks to the security features on Facebook and the texting app on her Ipod, Claire was golden, just so long as her parents weren’t looking over her shoulder and she had internet access. But tomorrow, she wouldn’t have internet access.

Claire cursed. This essay could wait. She needed sleep. Sending one last text to Wade and one last message to Kennedy, Claire closed her computer and turned off the light.

Chapter Two

“Finals,” Kennedy groaned, laying out the multitude of papers that might help her get through it. The worst part about it all was that her birthday was in a couple days. Right smack dab in the middle of finals. At least she had something to look forward to, she thought wryly. Kennedy, Claire, David, and Gavin were planning on going ice skating the Monday after finals. She was, quite frankly, nervous out of her mind. Kennedy hadn’t seen David since May, and it hadn’t been on exactly civil terms. Every time she heard someone singing 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall it was a painful reminder of her escapade with Jamie at Dan’s seminars.

With a sigh, Kennedy opened a Microsoft document, intending to write her essay. It wasn’t that she didn’t like writing. On the contrary, writing was one of her favorite pass times, right next to reading, and she thrived in this environment where she got to do plenty of both. But the time she spent on her essay would take away from the time she could spend talking with her friends; Claire and Gavin…and David.

Kennedy was intrigued by Claire. She was a ballerina, and Kennedy’s mind came up with the thought, “I’ve never met a real ballerina before”. This was silly because Kennedy had taken dance before and her teacher was a “ballerina”. Plus, one of the Sisters in her ward was a ballerina, but really, she’d never talked to someone who wanted to work for a ballet company. Claire was also very willing to goof around with Kennedy, making her much more appealing. All the other 16-year-olds in her class looked down on her since she herself was only 13.

Then there’s Gavin. Kennedy had met him at Dan’s seminar too, and had written him off as not very cute and slightly annoying. But on closer inspection this semester, Kennedy had found him to be not only cute but funny and entertaining. She wouldn’t dream of crushing on him, though. He was too…older brother-like. And then there’s David. Attractive, funny, smart, and he never looked down on Kennedy. They could talk for hours, like she’d told Claire, about nothing and everything. Her heart suddenly gave a not-very-small flip flop. With a shake of her head, Kennedy willed herself not to think about David and quickly began to type. In another hour she’d stop and rest, maybe check MyWC for new posts in the Random topic she and David had created.

Chapter Three

Flushed with the left over energy from telling Jamie about David’s Morse code text and the discussion (or, more appropriately, the argument) that ensued about whether or not he really liked her, Kennedy sat on her couch listening to her brother go on about couplets and quatrains. He was great and all, but the class seemed a bit boring because she already knew all this, having taken the class last year. She was only in it for the second semester, where they'd be performing Twelfth Night.

After a few minutes of getting her hand ignored by Alexander, Kennedy gave up trying to answer any of the questions. A soft buzz came from her jeans pocket, and Jamie quirked her eyebrow with a slight smirk. Assuming an innocent look, batting her eyelashes and looking surprised, Kennedy subtly held her notebook up and grabbed her phone. Keeping it low so no one could see what she was doing, she swiftly texted David back, wondering how much longer class was going to take.

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