Brendan Buckley's Sixth-Grade Experiment Read Free Page A

meeting, too.
    â€œI was hoping you’d be here,” she said.
    She was?
“You were?”
    â€œYes. I have something for you.”
    â€œYou do?” I hadn’t thought about this girl one time since the meeting, but she’d obviously been thinking about me.
    The girl ran to the Subaru and leaned through the back window.
    I wracked my brain for her name, like I was diggingthrough my closet for one of Dad’s tools after borrowing it for an experiment. I had a feeling that forgetting a girl’s name was the kind of thing that could get a boy in serious trouble. I might not have been thinking about girls all that much, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t observed some things about them. Observing is what scientists do.
    She returned with a chunk of kidney ore. She’d had a specimen just like it at the meeting. We’d talked about it … how hematite’s streak is dark red, like blood, even though it’s black on the outside.
Never judge a rock by its color
, she’d said.
    â€œHematite,” I said.
    She handed me the mineral. I felt its rough edges. Its bumpy surface gleamed. “Is this the one from your collection?”
    â€œNo. I got this one just for you. I had a feeling I’d be seeing you again—since you’re the rock club president’s grandson and all.” She smiled with her lips closed.
    My face got hot, and not from the sun beating down on us from above the treetops. I hadn’t been sure she’d believed me about being Grandpa Ed’s grandson, since he hadn’t introduced me that way at the meeting. “Oh. Uh … thanks.”
    â€œIsn’t the botryoidal habit amazing?”
    Habit?
What kind of habit would a mineral have? I examined the hematite as if I knew exactly what shemeant. “Uh, sure.” I shuffled my feet, trying to think of some way to escape her stare, which was as intense as the sun’s rays.
    â€œMorgan!” her dad called.
    Morgan
. I was saved—in more ways than one. She turned toward her dad.
    â€œReady to finish the job?” He held up the rubber mallet he’d been using to pound the tent stakes.
    Grandpa Ed said something and slapped the man’s back. They laughed. Another car arrived with two men inside.
    Morgan turned to me, grinning. “We’re going to have so much fun!” She bounded back to the tent. I stood there holding the hematite, not sure what had just happened.
    Grandpa Ed came and started pulling supplies from the back of the truck. “Got yourself a girlfriend?”
    I shoved the mineral into my pocket. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask what it was. “I don’t even know her!”
    He smiled slightly and slicked his orangish-gray hair away from his forehead. “Don’t go getting your boxers in a wad.” He handed me the large canvas bag of digging tools. “Take this, will you?”
    I slung the bag over my shoulder and practically fell over backward. I glanced in Morgan’s direction, then quickly looked back to Ed, hoping he hadn’t noticed me checking to see if she’d seen me stumble. Fortunately, he was fiddling with a knob on his Coleman stove.
    â€œMorgan’s been coming to our meetings all summer. Smart girl. Her dad says she’s been hounding since she was knee-high. What more could a boy ask for?”
    Grandpa Ed pulled out our tent and walked to a spot about ten yards from Morgan and her dad. I dragged the bag of tools behind me, scowling. I wasn’t asking for
anything
—not a piece of hematite and definitely not a girlfriend.
    I’d have to make sure no one got the wrong idea about Morgan and me.
Girlfriend?
Not in a million years!

A few hours later, the ten of us on the expedition were spread out along a steep hillside. Scraggly pine trees shaded us, but it was still super-hot. We crouched over screens, panning for crystals like prospectors during the gold rush. I had to