Project Mulberry Read Free Page B

pretty sure I'd already known that silk came from silkworms. But I'd never really thought about it before.
    "Exactly," my mom said. "It would be on a small scale, of course—you wouldn't end up with enough silk to make fabric. But you might get enough for some thread."
    "Thread?" Patrick opened his eyes wide. He took a deep breath, swallowed, and sort of shook himself. Then he stood up and started pacing around the kitchen. "Jules, we can raise the—the caterpillars, and get thread from them, and then you can
sew
something with the thread, and we can enter the project in two categories—Animal Husbandry and Domestic Arts!"
    He looked at me, his face all business. "I'll get started on the Internet—oh, wait," he said, and frowned at his watch. "It's not even seven-thirty. I can't do it yet."
    Patrick knew our family's evening routine. Kenny got the computer until eight o'clock, and I got it after that.
    "Homework comes first anyway, you two," my mom said.
    I went to get my backpack, wondering when Patrick would notice that I was not one bit excited about doing a silkworm project.
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Me: Is there other stuff in my story so far that comes from real life?
Ms. Park: Yes. A bunch of things.
Me: Like what?
Ms. Park: Well, let's see. I hated kimchee when I was little. I like it now, but I didn't when I was your age.
Me: Wow. You can remember that far back?
Ms. Park: Very funny. I don't remember everything, of course. But parts of my childhood are quite vivid to me, and I like going there in my mind. You probably will, too, when you're older.
Me: Did your parents grow up in Korea?
Ms. Park: Yes. And my father always did the dishes.
Me: Did you have a bratty younger brother? Is that why you put Kenny in the story?
Ms. Park: I have a younger brother and a younger sister. But neither of them was very bratty. I got along with them pretty well when we were kids.
Me: A sister would be much better. I have a great idea—why don't you delete all the stuff about Kenny and give me a sweet younger sister instead? Her name could be ... Jessie. I like that name. Julia and Jessie—isn't that nice? And she could be really cute, and she could worship me—
Ms. Park: But I like Kenny. He's funny.
Me: Funny to you, maybe! To me he's a big pain!
Ms. Park: Well, I'm the one writing the story, so I get to decide. Kenny stays.
Me: Gak!

3
    Worksheet. Exponents. We had to write out the problem again the long way, and then give the answer in two different forms.
    Â 
10 2 x 10 6
Answer 1:___________
Answer 2:___________
I filled in the blanks:
(10 x 10) x (10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10)
Answer 1: 10 8
Answer 2: 100,000.000
    Bo-o-o-ring.
    Patrick said that whoever invented exponents must have been either really lazy or really impatient. They got sick of writing all those zeroes, so they invented a way to do it quicker.
    We finished the worksheet, then quizzed each other on our social studies unit. We'd already done Ancient Civilizations of the New World: North America, and now we were doing Ancient Civilizations of the New World: South and Central America. Today's homework was on the Maya. We were supposed to learn the countries that were now located where they used to live: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and parts of Mexico. Patrick made up an acronym to help us remember the countries: BEG-Mex.
    It was almost eight o'clock. "Come on, that's enough studying," he said, getting up off the floor. "We can start researching silkworms."
    I looked down at the page in front of me. "You go ahead," I said. "I need to study a little more."
    Patrick stopped at the kitchen door and turned back. "Okay," he said, "what is it?"
    Â 
    I had other good friends at school and on my soccer team—Emily and Carly played defense with me, and we hung around off the field, too. But I spent more time with Patrick than anyone else. Sometimes the other guys teased him about having a girlfriend, but it didn't seem to bother him. It didn't bother me,