Excerpt: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES
The headmistress was aneven bigger fan, but she was reasonable and had some dignity. She and Dr. B teamedup to get some concessions out of the snobs who had thrown up the original barrier.For the sake of the students, of course. Everything came together, including payingfor our transportation to Cornwall and the sprawling manor that had been turnedinto a private school, and get us back to Heathrow on schedule.
An unoccupied facultyapartment was set aside for my folks to do their research in comfort, instead ofworking in the room Dr. B had set up before he went to New Guinea. In exchange,they were asked to spend a few hours talking with the students about all the aspectsof research and writing, journalism, the pros and cons of authorship and the globe-trottinglifestyle. We had to laugh a little about the last part. Mum and Pop had left theglobe-trotting part of their job description behind when they settled in Neighborlee.Sure, they still traveled, but no longer ten months out of the year.
As soon as the first greenplaid skirt and black sweater trimmed in gold strolled into the meeting room-slash-formerchapel for the first question-and-answer session, I got that sick feeling of impendingdoom. Harry was sitting with me in a small balcony where we could see and hear everything,but we weren't on display like Mum and Pop. He was busy with a pretty cool hand-heldvideo game Dr. B gave him, and he didn't pay any attention to the students filinginto the room and jockeying for one of the sixty seats, until I groaned.
"What?" He scootedover on the bench seat and rested his elbows on the balcony ledge, to look downon the growing audience. He frowned at the girls filing in, then at me. "What?"
"Don't you recognizethe uniforms?"
He shook his head andshrugged.
"Remember the Towerof London?"
"I remember thatGrandstone… Oh." Harry patted me on the shoulder. "Maybe she's sick today."
"Grandstones arealways sick, but it's not the kind that gives us any relief." I slidback on the bench, away from the ledge, even though chances of anyone looking upand seeing us were slim.
"Well, you thinkshe's going to come here to listen to Mum and Pop if it's voluntary? I bet the onlything she reads is a supermarket gossip rag or else something about Hollywood. That'swhy she got sent over here, because she wanted to go into acting. Right?" Hewaited for me to nod, then bent his head over his video game again.
Honestly, my little brotherwas a really smart kid.
