Ann Martin - Kristy Power!

Ted just smiled. "Our next unit is called Fact and Fiction," he said. "Over the next few weeks, you'll each complete two projects. Your grade will reflect how well you complete them." Cokie raised her hand.

"Yes?" Ted asked.

"What are the projects, and what percentage of the grade will each of them count for?" Ted smiled again, though this time he tried to hide it. "I was just about to tell you that," he said. "The two projects, each of which will count for half of your grade, are a biography project and a fiction-reading project." He held up a hand and ticked off fingers as he spoke.

Just then the bell rang.

"Oops, time's up," said Ted. "I'll give you the details tomorrow." Cokie looked disappointed. She'd had her pen out, ready to write down the assignments. Slowly she put it away and closed her notebook.

I was a little disappointed myself. It's funny, I've never been a huge fan of English class. But having Ted for a teacher was changing my mind. These days, English was fun. Even if I did have to spend every class period staring at the back of Lex Luthor's - I mean, Cary's - head.

Chapter 2.

"Take one and pass the rest back." Ted handed a stack of papers to the first person in each row.

It was the next day, Friday. I was in English class, staring once again at Cary Retlin's cowlick. Just as I was wondering why they call it a "cowlick," he turned and handed me the stack of papers. He smirked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Spacing, Kristy?" he asked.

I frowned. "No," I said, wishing I could think of a snappy retort. I took one of the papers and turned to pass the rest to Rachel, the girl behind me. Rachel used to live in Stoneybrook, then she moved to London for awhile, but now she's back. Oh, goody. Rachel has never been a favorite of mine. Still, I gave her a smile along with the stack. She smiled back. I don't think we'll become friends, but I know she and my friend Stacey McGill are getting to know each other.

I glanced at the paper and saw that it was a list of books. Some titles were familiar, such as The Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace. But there were also a few books I'd never heard of. It was nice to see a few unfamiliar titles; this list looked a little more interesting than our usual reading lists.

"As you can see, this is a list of books," said Ted. "Can anyone tell me what they all have in common?" "They all have titles!" Alan Gray yelled out.

Ted smiled. "Very observant, Alan," he said drily. "Anybody else?" "Um, they're all about kids?" asked Jeremy.

"Good thought," said Ted, looking down to scan the list. "I can see why you would say that. But it's not entirely true. Anyway, I had something else in mind." Jeremy blushed a little, and I saw Claudia shoot him a sympathetic look.

Like Rachel, Jeremy is new at SMS. He moved here from Olympia, Washington, which sounds like a cool place to live. He's majorly cute. In fact, he's so cute that not one but two of my friends have had crushes on him. One is Claudia Kishi, the only full-time member of the BSC who's in my English class. The other is her one-time best friend, Stacey McGill, the one who's friendly with Rachel. Stacey and Jeremy are an item now, and Claudia and he are just friends. As for Stacey and Claudia, well, Jeremy is the reason I said Stacey is Claudia's one-time best friend.

Jeremy smiled back at Claudia and shrugged as if to say, Thanks, but I'm fine.

"I think I know," said Logan Bruno, waving his hand in the air. Logan is great. He and my best friend, Mary Anne Spier, went out for ages. They recently broke up, not long after Mary Anne's house burned down. (A major tragedy for her and her family, but at least nobody was hurt.) Logan and Mary Anne are still awkward about the breakup. No wonder. They were boyfriend and girlfriend for so long that it's hard to think of them as "just friends." "They're all fiction," Logan said when Ted called on him. "There aren't any biographies or true stories on this list." "Excellent," Ted said, nodding. "That's just what I was looking for. Logan, you must have remembered what I said yesterday about our upcoming projects." Ted waved a list. "This list includes works of fiction only. Some are classics, some may be destined for greatness, and some are just plain fun to read. I don't expect every one of you to like every one of these books. But I think if you look over the list carefully, you'll find that there's something for everyone." "Even for people who hate to read?" asked a boy named Dave.

"Maybe something on this list will change your mind about that," said Ted. "That would be my hope, anyway." Cokie held up her hand. "How many books do we have to read?" she asked.

"Just one," said Ted.

"Cool," Dave muttered.

"But I want you to read that one book really, really well," Ted added, looking straight at Dave.

"Are we going to have to write book reports?" asked Claudia.

I could hear a little nervousness in her voice. Claudia is not fond of writing. She doesn't spell very well, and she has a hard time remembering the rules of punctuation. Don't misunderstand - Claudia's very bright. She's just not crazy about school. She'd rather express herself through art than through words.

"Yup," said Ted, folding his arms.

I saw Claudia grimace.

"But I'm not looking for typical book reports where you tell the whole plot, blah, blah, blah," Ted continued. "For this book report, I want you to tell me what the book meant to you. How it affected you. Did it make you cry? Change an opinion? Teach you something?" Ted was looking around the room, making eye contact with each of us. "The best fiction does have an impact on the reader. We become the people we are partly through what we read. I want to hear how a book added to your life." "What if we just think it's boring?" Dave asked.

"Then try another book. And keep trying, until you find one that means something to you. If nothing on the list grabs you, talk to me. I'll offer some other suggestions. I'm sure we can find one book you'll like." Dave grumbled a little under his breath. Ted just ignored him. "In case you haven't figured it out, my mission here is to make you care about reading," he said, smiling.

Cary raised his hand. (I should mention that he manages to make that motion look cool instead of geeky.) "Okay," he said when Ted called on him, "so that's our fiction project. What about the biography thing?" "Glad you asked," Ted answered. "I think you'll all enjoy this one. What I want each of you to do is write a biography." I heard groans. "Of Madame Curie or something?" Rachel asked. She sounded deathly bored.

"Nope," said Ted. "It'll be about someone much closer to you. In fact, it will be a biography of someone in your class." More groans. "But everybody in this class is a bore," said Alan. "Nobody in here is an astronaut or a rock star." "Especially you," Dave said to him.

"But that's the point," said Ted, ignoring Dave. "I want you to figure out how to create a fascinating biography of one of your fellow students. As I said yesterday, it's my belief that everyone's life is interesting. We all have our own stories, but we rarely have the chance to share them." "I know Cokie's story," said Alan. "Born under a rock. Raised by emus. Destined for mediocrity." Cokie shot him a Look.

Ted raised both hands. "Enough," he said. "Let's be serious here for a minute. Does everyone under- stand the assignment? What I want you to do is learn the biographer's craft. It's not as easy as you might think. It involves not only interviewing your subject but using other sources. You'll talk to their friends and family, check published sources such as the school newspaper or the yearbook, and follow up any interesting leads you find: I want you to present the whole person in this biography." This was beginning to sound like fun. Being a biographer, I realized, was not too different from being a detective. And I'm a pretty good detective, if I do say so myself. My friends and I have solved a few very interesting cases.