Laggan Lard Butts Read Free

me think things through. We’ll talk more tomorrow in class.”

chapter three
    â€œEverybody please sit down,” Mr. Davidson said.
    We all stopped talking and settled into our seats.
    â€œBefore we start on our new project I want to review what we’ve learned so far. Let’s talk about democracy. Can somebody give me a definition?”
    Hands shot up around the room.
    â€œSarah.”
    â€œDemocracy is a Greek word which means rule of the people.”
    â€œVery good.”
    Sarah gave her smug little smile. She thought she was never wrong about anything. The part that annoyed me the most was that she
was
almost always right. We’d been in the same class—all of us had been in the same class—since kindergarten. I’d met her on the second day of class, the day after I met the twins. With the twins it had been buddies at first sight. With Sarah it was an emotion somewhere between aggravated and annoyed. She could drive me crazy.
    Sarah was a triple threat. She had been chosen to give the graduation speech, she was the student president and she was, without a doubt, the number one teacher suck-up of all time.
    I was looking forward to next year. I was tired of having the same kids in my class, year after year, after year, after year. We’d all be going to the same high school, the
big
high school, but we wouldn’t be alone. We would be with kids from every school around here.There would be hundreds of kids in grade nine. Hundreds and hundreds. With my luck Sarah would be in my class and Tanner and Taylor would be in another.
    â€œNow democracy is a Greek word... because...?” Mr. Davidson asked.
    Sarah’s hand shot into the air, as did a whole lot of other hands.
    â€œTanner?”
    â€œBecause democracy began in ancient Greece in city states.”
    â€œLike Athens,” Taylor said.
    They had a “twin thing” and often completed each other’s sentences and thoughts. They also completed each other’s plans and plots—plots that often got the three of us in trouble. We’d all spent a fair amount of time in the office this year, although I had the lead in that race.
    â€œYeah, it was in Athens,” Tanner said. “That’s where they started giving every person the right to vote.”
    â€œNot every person,” Sarah said. “Every
man
.”
    She said “man” like it was a bad word.She had this anti-male thing. At least she’d had that attitude since I had broken up with her two weeks earlier. She probably believed she was the one that broke up with me, but we both knew that was a pile of...
    I couldn’t believe I’d ever, ever gone out with her. What an idiot I’d been. Why would I date somebody who drives me crazy?
    â€œActually,” I said as I stuck up my hand, “it wasn’t any man. It was any rich man.”
    â€œCorrect, Sam. Only males who owned property were allowed to vote.”
    â€œThat’s so unfair,” Sarah said.
    About as unfair was having her around all the time.
    â€œI guess they figured that women weren’t ready for the responsibility of voting,” I said. “Maybe the men thought women were too busy cooking and shopping.”
    An “ooohhh” went up from the class. Tanner and Taylor started to applaud.
    â€œCome on, Sam, you don’t actually believe that, do you?” our teacher asked.
    I had the urge to say yes, but I didn’t really believe it. I shook my head.
    â€œWhen
did
women finally get the right to vote?” Mr. Davidson asked.
    The only hand that went up was Sarah’s. He motioned to her.
    â€œThe very first place was Wyoming in 1869. That was only two thousand years after men first got the vote.”
    â€œI’m surprised it didn’t take longer,” Tanner said.
    â€œAnd what country first gave women the vote?” Mr. Davidson asked.
    Again, only Sarah’s hand rose. She hadn’t