All the Answers Read Online Free Page B

was coming from the pencil. The blue pencil
knew
things.
    â€œI’m here!”
    Ava jumped, and the pencil went flying across her room.
    â€œNice welcome!” Sophie laughed and swooped down to pick it up. She handed it back to Ava. “What’s up?”
    â€œSit down.” Ava took a deep breath. “You’re not going to believe what just happened.”

“Are you sure you never heard that scientific name?
Totally
sure?”
    â€œSophie, I’m positive.” Ava looked at the pencil on her desk. If she were Sophie, she’d be skeptical, too. She
was
skeptical, even though she was the one having conversations with a pencil.
    â€œAsk it what I had for a snack after school,” Sophie said.
    Ava asked. The pencil answered, and she repeated its response. “M&M’S.” Then Ava added, “But anybody who knows you would guess that.” Sophie considered M&M’S to be a major food group.
    â€œTrue.” Sophie squinted at the pencil, then hid a hand behind her back. “Ask it how many fingers I’m holding up.”
    Ava wrote:
    How many fingers is Sophie holding up?
    â€œFour.” The voice sounded bored.
    â€œIt said ‘four.’”
    â€œTry again.” Sophie hid her hand three more times. Two fingers. One finger. No fingers. The pencil got it right every time.
    Sophie’s eyes were huge. “Do you know what this means?” She paced back and forth across the light green carpet in Ava’s room. “You’ll never have to study for another test!”
    â€œYeah, but …” A gnawing feeling grew in Ava’s stomach. If the voice she’d heard during her math exam wasn’t the little voice in her own mind, reminding her of what she already knew … if it was really this pencil talking and had nothing to do with what she had studied, then … “That’s cheating, isn’t it?”
    â€œThere’s no rule about writing questions with your magic pencil. So why not?”
    â€œIt seems wrong.” Ava already felt squirmy, knowing she hadn’t really remembered those formulas for circles and triangles.
    â€œOkay, fine. But there’s so much stuff we can ask it.” Sophie stopped pacing and looked at the pencil in Ava’s hand. “Do you think it’ll work for other people or just you?”
    â€œNo clue.” Ava didn’t see how the pencil could be answering questions in the first place. “But magic stuff usually has rules. At least in books.”
    Sophie put a finger to her pursed lips and looked at the ceiling. “It could be like a genie, and in that case, it’ll probably only work for you. You’re the one who found it.”
    â€œYou think there’s a genie in my pencil?” It hadn’t occurred to Ava that somebody might be trapped in there. She put the pencil down.
    â€œIt’s hard to say. Can I try writing a question with it?” Sophie asked.
    â€œOkay.” Ava moved aside so Sophie could write at the desk. “What are you going to write?”
    â€œI don’t know yet.” Sophie’s eyes darted around the room. “There are so many things I could ask it. I mean … oh!” She turned and started writing. Then she put the pencil down and looked up at the ceiling.
    â€œIt doesn’t work for me,” Sophie said after a few seconds. She looked disappointed.
    â€œWhat’d you ask it?”
    Sophie sighed and held up the legal pad so Ava could read it.
    Who is the first boy I’m going to kiss?
    â€œWill you try?” Sophie got up from the desk and motioned Ava to sit down.
    â€œI don’t want to know
that
!” Ava made a face. “I don’t even want to
think
about that.”
    â€œNot
you
.” Sophie sounded exasperated. “Me! Ask it who
I’m
going to kiss. Please?” She picked up the pencil and twirled it in Ava’s direction.
    â€œOh! Okay.” Ava