Page Forty-One

Nobody in 8B looked up when Talia walked in. That was how she knew they were planning something.

“Where's our teacher?” a girl asked, before Talia had even put her bag down.

“Sick,” Talia said. “She'll be back on Monday.”

“Are you a real teacher?” someone at the back asked.

“I'll be one in June. Right now I'm the cheap version.”

That got a laugh, and the laugh made her less nervous.

“Miss, we always watch a movie on Fridays,” a boy by the window said.

“Do you?”

“It's a class rule. Everybody knows it.”

Talia looked at twenty-six faces. Every one of them was very, very serious.

“Okay,” she said. “What was last Friday's movie about?”

Nobody said anything.

“Anyone?” She waited. A girl studied her pencil case. Somebody coughed.

“Right,” Talia said. “Page forty-one.”

Twenty-six books opened.

At the back, a boy said, “I told you we should've said Thursdays.”