The Report Card

On Friday, Nora gets a zero on every test she takes. She doesn’t expect repercussions until Monday, but Mrs. Hackney calls her to the office that afternoon. Mrs. Hackney asks why she failed those tests on purpose, and Nora responds, “Because all three of these tests are nothing but simple memorization, same as almost all the other tests we take. […] These tests each got the score they deserved. Zero” (120). Fortunately, Mrs. Hackney doesn’t yell, but she insists that Nora belongs in a higher grade level and the gifted program. Nora advocates for her classmates; they should have exciting learning opportunities as well. Mrs. Hackney ends the conversation, reminding Nora that her genius comes with responsibilities. Nora thinks, “Mrs. Hackney was absolutely right. I did have responsibilities. Except she and I had different ideas about what those responsibilities were” (122).

Nora returns from Mrs. Hackney’s office discouraged and uncertain. If the teachers are upset by Nora’s zeroes, then they’ll really hate the rest of her plan. In the next phase, all her classmates will intentionally get zeroes on their tests, and then they’ll have the adults’ attention. Nora now realizes that the adults will be angry with both her and Stephen, so she pauses to reflect before moving forward. She suddenly realizes that even if other students play along for fun, they will eventually return to business as usual; they won’t care about overthrowing the system like Nora, because Nora thinks differently than they do.

Nora approaches Mrs. Byrne. The librarian asks cautiously, “Is everything working out the way you wanted it to?” (128). Nora, on the verge of tears, says she isn’t sure. Mrs. Byrne challenges her to think about how she has a gift for a reason. She encourages Nora to really think through her next steps and, to the best of her knowledge, do the next right thing. Even though Mrs. Byrne doesn’t tell Nora exactly what to do, she feels better having listened to another perspective: “Because the fact is, logic only works up to a certain point. Beyond that point, it takes a different kind of thinking. More like listening. And watching” (133).

Over the weekend, Mom and Dad buzz with plans for Nora’s future. She could even enter eighth grade at a private school in the fall. Nora doesn’t want this future for herself, and she wants to yell, “Have you lost your mind? Did you stop for one second to think about how I might feel about all of this?” (135). Todd doesn’t mind Nora’s newfound spotlight, but Ann—the hard-working, overachieving sibling—resents the attention Nora receives. Stephen calls Nora’s house a few times that weekend, but she isn’t ready to talk to him. Nora reevaluates her situation over and over again, but she still doesn’t know what to do: “I had to admit it: I was lost. I had zero facts. I was listening, and I was watching, but that next good thing was nowhere to be seen” (136). She keeps a low-profile while waiting for a sign, knowing that ready or not, something else will happen next week.