Blindfold Read Free Page A

peer jury thing. Might be fun."
    "It isn't supposed to be fun." Ms. Gross frowned as she stood up. "I hope I'm not making a mistake here. The majority of the other nine members are straight-A students, which you could be, too, if you'd apply yourself. I've seen your PSATs. And most of your fellow jurors hold office. Two of them are cheerleaders."
    "Oh, wow," Maggie breathed with what she hoped was the appropriate degree of awe. The teacher missed the sarcasm. Maggie knew the two girls, "Bennie" Sawyer and Tanya Frye, and liked them. But Ms. Gross couldn't possibly be including Bennie and Tanya in that "majority" of straight-A students. Fortunately for the two girls, good grades weren't essential for cheerleading duties at Bransom High.
    "I expect you to take this seriously, Maggie," were Ms. Gross's parting words as Maggie left the office.
    Maggie had done just that. She hadn't exactly planned to. She had thought of it more as a lark than anything else, something to pass the time. Four of her closest friends were already on the ten-member jury, so it wasn't as if she'd be walking into a group of strangers.
    Helen, her hazel eyes wide, had cried, "No kidding? You?"
    Alex threw an arm around her shoulders and cried, "Hey, great! I'd already decided we were going to hang out more together this year, now that I'm driving and can hang out in town more. It's like Ms. Gross read my mind."
    Lane smiled and said, "Cool. We'll have our very own little club."
    Scout gave Maggie an affectionate but cynical grin and said, "Yeah, well, we won't print your name on the roster in permanent ink until we see how long you last."
    When she did last, Maggie had probably been
    more surprised than Scout. Her enthusiasm for the business of debating first innocence and guilt, and then the appropriate disciplinary measures to be taken, had grown rapidly. She had actually begun toying with the idea of going into law someday. The dedication she began bringing to peer jury hearings earned the respect and admiration of her fellow jurors, and at the beginning of this year, she had been selected as foreperson for the first semester. She knew Scout had wanted it, and had expected him to be angry. But the next day he'd given her the antique gavel and told her to use it "in good health." He had sounded sincere.
    When she was seated in the first row of folding chairs in the center of the gym, she pulled her gavel from her backpack, dropped the pack on the floor, and glanced around. "Everybody here?"
    "Robert's not," Helen volunteered. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a wide, strong face completely devoid of makeup, and light brown hair cut short and straight, Helen looked very much like the athlete that she was. A champion soccer player, the keystone of the girls' basketball team, and a blue-ribbon swimmer, Helen had long since earned the respect of her classmates at Bransom High. With clear eyes, thickly lashed, and a full, upturned mouth, she could have been very pretty with very little effort. But she was adamant in her refusals of Maggie's offers to do a "makeover."
    "I couldn't stand having all that goo on my face," Helen always demurred, "and I need to keep my hair short like this for sports."
    Lane had told Maggie knowingly, "Helen's afraid of boys. Anyone can see that. She must have been deeply hurt by one, before we met her."
    Maggie, who knew Helen better than Lane did, wasn't sure she agreed with Lane. Since when did a lack of makeup signify a fear of the opposite sex? And Helen had confided in her once that she hadn't had many friends, growing up out in the country. "My social skills," she had said, laughing lightly, "are practically nonexistent." But she got along fine with everyone on the peer jury.
    "So?" Maggie glanced around the table. "Where is Robert?" Now that she was in place herself, she felt impatient with anyone who wasn't seated on time. They had three hearings scheduled for this morning. The "judge" and the "accused" and their "lawyers"