A Good Enough Reason Read Free Page A

the person sitting in front of you, and I’ll gather them. I’ll have them back to you in about, mmm, a week or so. In the meantime, guess what? You’re going to start working on a new project.”
    The students around Ellis groaned, but he didn’t mind. Maybe it meant he really was a nerd, but that was what he liked. Researching, writing… it was fun.
    “Oh, come on. You’re going to love this! You even get to choose from a list and everything.”
    “What’s the catch?” someone asked from the back of the class, and Mr. Shea turned his bright smile in that direction.
    “Why should there be a catch?”
    “Because homework isn’t fun.”
    Ellis looked down at his notebook. It wasn’t like people knew what he was thinking, but it had been a little too close.
    “All right, maybe there’s a catch. The project will be worth 20 percent of your final grade.”
    More groans and protests rose in the classroom, but Mr. Shea waved them away. “I’m not done. As I was saying, it’ll be worth 20 percent of your final grade, and you’ll have to work in pairs. I’m going to give each pair a sheet with a list of argumentative essays to choose from. You’ll pick one and research it, and I want one person to argue in favor of the topic you choose, and the other one to argue against it. There’ll be a presentation after winter break, and you’ll have to explain your project to the class.”
    Ellis knew he’d be the last one to be chosen, like it used to happen in PE. He didn’t have many friends and none of those were in his AP English class. He looked around and could already see the pairs talking.
    Dale was whispering something to his best friend, and Ellis knew they’d be a pair. Not that he’d expected Dale or Seth to choose him anyway.
    “ I’m going to pair you. Yes, I know you’d rather choose partners yourselves, but we’d end up with the usual pairs, and the point of this assignment is for you to be exposed to different points of view and to learn how to work with someone you’re not used to working with. So, the first one I call will get up and go sit next to his or her new partner in crime.”
    Only grumbles answered him, but he didn’t seem to mind or care. Ellis was relieved about the pairing thing. That way he wouldn’t have to embarrass himself by asking, only to be told no. Still, Mr. Shea’s enthusiasm was kind of tiring.
    “All right, class. Novalee, you’re with James. Nick with Luke, Seth and Libby, Amy and Pete, Dale and Ellis—”
    Ellis tuned out Mr. Shea’s voice and groaned. He wasn’t sure whether to be happy about being paired with Dale or not. He didn’t know Dale well—in fact, they’d probably talked more that day than in all their high school years put together.
    Ellis did know it could have been worse for him. Dale was smart, and he never bullied anyone—as far as Ellis knew—so he probably wouldn’t be too bad to work with.
    Dale put his bag on the desk next to Ellis’s and pushed it closer before plopping in the seat. “Hi again.”
    “Hi.”
    Mr. Shea was done with his pairs and was handing out sheets. Ellis took theirs and put it on his desk, making sure Dale could see it.
    “All right. You have the rest of the class to go over your options. The sooner you choose one, the sooner you can start working on it, so if you do make a decision today, you can use what remains of the class to start working together. I want the partners to research and work together as much as possible. Even though you have to take opposite stances, as per the assignment, I still want you to use your partner as a sounding board of sorts. Yes, Libby?”
    “What if we both have the same opinion on the topic we choose?”
    “Ah, well. I still want one of you to try and convince me of the opposite.”
    Ellis looked at the list. “Some of those are standard topics, like climate change, animal testing, and the Internet. Do you want one of those, or would you rather do something