Green Algae and Bubble Gum Wars Read Online Free

her way to the table with a bright pink smile pasted to her face. “Did I actually hear you BSG saying that you were going to a science festival this weekend?”
    â€œAnd just when I thought that your little group of friends couldn’t get any pathetic-er,” Joline added.
    â€œI don’t think ‘pathetic-er’ is a word, Joline,” Charlotte informed her—with her own satisfied smile. “Which you would know, if you had paid attention to the vocabulary section Ms. R assigned us last week.”
    Anna snorted. “Well, excuse us if we’re not, like, super-nerds like you BSG, or whatever.”
    Joline leaned over and whispered something to Anna, and the two of them immediately burst out laughing.
    â€œMajor point, Jo,” Anna said conspiratorially. “My cool friend here just reminded me that we have plans for thisweekend. Plans that don’t involve being ultra-geeks 24/7. Plans that are so cool that you wouldn’t even understand if we told you in English.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?” Isabel muttered to Avery.
    â€œThat we don’t speak Crazy…the native language of the Queens of Mean?” Avery answered.
    As Avery and Isabel shared their own little giggle, Anna and Joline strutted away, swinging their shoulders and arms back and forth like they were trying to walk down a fashion runway. When they passed Avery, Anna stopped and suddenly something round and very blue began to bulge out of her lips. It grew bigger and bigger. It was certainly bigger than any bubble gum bubble that Avery had ever seen before, and she considered herself sort of an expert on gum. Just when she thought Anna’s bubble was going to float up to the cafeteria ceiling from Anna’s lips, Anna flicked out her tongue, snapped the gum, and slurped it into her mouth with one gasp. It was incredible really—especially since she managed to get not even a tiny fleck of gum on her face.
    â€œEnjoy the geek fest, dweebettes.” Anna smirked. With that, she and Joline flitted away.
    â€œI really can’t take those two,” grumbled Charlotte, who hardly ever had a negative thing to say about anybody.
    â€œMe either!” Avery exclaimed. “But I really want to know where Anna got that ri- donc -ulous blue gum. I’ve never seen anything like it! Do you think it might be extraterrestrial?”
    â€œTranslation?” Maeve demanded.
    â€œExtraterrestrial means from another planet. Like Martians or aliens,” Charlotte explained. Char was the BSG resident word nerd—and proud of it.
    Isabel shuddered. “Gosh, I hope not. But being from another planet could answer a lot of unsolved mysteries about those two girls.”
    The BSG shared a laugh as they gathered their trays and made their way back to class.
    Growing Pains (in the Neck)
    That night, Maeve was at her dad’s apartment trying to figure out what to wear to the science festival. She was still getting used to having parents who were separated. It was hard, going from a family where both parents were always there at the beginning and end of the day to switching from apartment to apartment every other weekend. And it always made her a little sad when she didn’t see her dad during the week. The whole separated-parents thing was just so complicated, she thought with a sigh. And annoying— like, how am I ever supposed to put together the perfect Science Festival outfit when I don’t even have all my clothes in one place?
    In her head, Maeve had it all planned out. She wanted to wear her perfect pink puffy-cap-sleeve blouse with her favorite pair of Audrey Hepburn-inspired, skinny, black Capri pants. Unfortunately, her perfect blouse was perfectly clean, perfectly ironed, and hanging perfectly on a hanger in the closet…at her mother’s apartment.
    At least she had packed her back-up blouse, the one she wore all the time back in sixth grade, and