they left. We were all herded back into the school and, still, I never saw Pete or Julian. It wasnât until I was leaving at the end of the day that I saw them drifting off, blending in with the other kids, bent over from the weight of their backpacks. I ran after them.
âHey, wait!â I shouted. âIâve been looking for you two everywhere. Whereâve you been?â
âYou told us to hide,â Pete said.
âYeah,â Julian said.
âBut didnât you hear the fire alarm?â I asked.
They nodded.
âDid either of you pull it?â
âNo,â they said in unison. âThat would be criminal.â
âThen youâre both morons. The school could have been in flames. A hurricane could have been heading toward us. A real genius would have realized it was smarter to be safe than to win some dumb contest. You both lose. The only thing you have won is the idiot contest.â
âIâm no-no-no idiot,â Julian said, grinning. âI hid in the crawl space under the auditorium stage all-all-all
day and made up some new songs. Want to hear one?â
âSpare me,â I said.
âAnd I squished myself into my locker all day,â Pete said. âI felt like a candy bar inside a wrapper. I learned how to sleep standing up. Iâm no idiot either.â
But they were. They were idiotsâmini mindsâand that night it was confirmed.
I was watching a Twilight Zone rerun when, by itself, the channel changed. I knew who it had to be. âHey, Pete,â I called out. âCome in here and watch TV with me.â He came in from the kitchen. Suddenly the channel changed again. Then again. âOh my,â I shouted toward the window at the top of my lungs. âWhatâs going on?â
âWhat are you doing?â Pete asked.
âIâm encouraging a genius,â I whispered. He looked puzzled.
âI love this TV show,â I said loudly to Pete. Suddenly the channel changed.
âAre you doing this?â Pete asked.
âNo,â I said. âItâs your genius friend across the swamp. The two of you are on the same genius level.â
I walked over to the window. âHey, genius!â I yelled. âStop changing our channels.â
He popped up from under his windowsill. âIâm a-a-a genius!â he yelled. âWatch this.â He pointed the remote at our house and the TV changed again.
âHey,â Pete yelled back. âThis was my top-secret sneaky genius idea.â
âNo, this is my sneaky genius idea.â
âIâm the real genius,â Pete claimed, waving the remote over his head.
âNo-no-no way,â Julian shot back. âIâm the true genius.â
It takes one to know one, I thought, as Julian turned our TV on and off and flipped through the stations. Pete did the exact same thing to them. The battle of the remotes was going full blast and thatâs when I figured out what their special genius really wasâdriving us all insane.
After they had spent about twenty minutes changing each otherâs channels, I looked over at Pete. âWhy donât you two start a genius club together,â I said.
âThatâs a great idea,â he replied. âBut you canât join because youâre not a genius.â
âBut I can join,â Julian shouted. âBecause Iâm a genius!â
I got up and went into my bedroom. I was getting a headache. I needed a good book to read. âTV,â I muttered, âit brings out the genius in everyone.â
A Bad Case of Brooding
T he bathroom in our house trailer was very small. When you sat on the toilet your knees nearly touched the back of the door. The sink was the size of a salad bowl. My face just barely fit inside the frame on the wall mirror. Only half of Dadâs face fit and he had to shift back and forth to shave both sides. But it was the only private room in the
Jonathan Strahan [Editor]
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