Mind Games

By Jeanne Marie Grunwell

Thus reads an article in the Waverly Times, which is Exhibit A in this fresh and inventive story about ESP, friendship, sisterhood, and the ties that bind. Told by the characters themselves, Mind Games crackles with personality and reveals how each student tries to prove that ESP exists and what he or she discovers along the way. Funny and engaging, the individual voices are right on target, revealing the complex relationships and characters of the members of the Mad Science Club. Here they grapple with life, death, love, and the lottery—all before they reach the eighth grade!

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 22, 2006
• ISBN: 9780547349176

Jeanne Marie Grunwell

Jeanne Marie Grunwell has fond memories of her eighth-grade science fair project on ESP. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two black cats.

Book preview

Copyright © 2003 by Jeanne Marie Grunwell

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Grunwell, Jeanne Marie.

Mind games / by Jeanne Marie Grunwell.

p. cm.

Summary: Each of the six members of Mr. Ennis’s Mad Science Club presents a report of his or her experiences working on a science fair project to investigate ESP, which resulted in their winning the Maryland lottery.

[1. Science—Experiments—Fiction. 2. Extrasensory perception—Fiction. 3. Lotteries—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Science—Exhibitions—Fiction.]

I. Title.

PZ7.G9338Mi 2003

[Fic]—dc21 2002010820

ISBN-13: 978-0618-17672-4 (hardcover)

ISBN-13: 978-0618-68947-7 (paperback)

eISBN 978-0-547-34917-6

v2.0414

FOR THE WONDERFUL TEACHERS I HAVE KNOWN

Acknowledgments

THANKS TO MY PARENTS, WHO ALWAYS TAUGHT ME by example; Mr. Micklos, who introduced me to the scientific method; Mrs. Weingarten and Mr. Bennett, who made writing fun; the students and faculty of the MFA in Writing for Children program at Vermont College—especially Susan Fletcher, Randy Powell, Jane Resh Thomas, and Carolyn Coman; and thanks to Bonnie.

Mind Games

by

Benjamin D. Lloyd

Brandon Kelly

Marina Krenina

Ji Eun Oh

Claire Phelps

Kathleen Phelps

CLEARVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOL

GRADE 7

Contents

by Benjamin D. Lloyd

ADDENDA TO CONTENTS

¹ NOTE TO JUDGES: Paranormal Pursuits were originally intended for Mr. Ennis’s edification and not for inclusion in the final project report. Please accept my apologies for their failure to conform to formatting specifications, which I delineated carefully for my fellow group members when they were apparently not listening.—BDL

EXHIBIT A

[Image]

Experimenter Comments

Claire Phelps

LAST NIGHT I WAS SUPPOSED TO READ OUR REPORT straight through and eliminate all typographical errors, missing commas, bad grammar, stupid-sounding parts, etc.

Considering that six of us worked on the same experiment and witnessed mostly the same events, I didn’t think I would be too surprised by anything I read. Well, let’s just say that my extreme cluelessness could be used as evidence against our hypothesis.

What I decided after reading our report was that six people worked on this project—six people who wrote what they wanted to write. Why should I change a word?

Of course I’m not thrilled about teachers and other people reading a lot of these things. I wish I never had to read them. But seeing yourself through other people’s eyes is not such a bad thing. In a way, I guess that’s what our project ended up being about.

I still feel we present a strong case for our hypothesis. But ultimately, the verdict rests with you, the reader. See what you think.

Introduction

Marina Krenina

MR. ENNIS SAYS THAT THE INTRODUCTION IS supposed to be short, because this is not the interesting part of the project. Of course I was given the short assignment.

This is very well, but it is not so short to explain how we began.

I have recently learned the word coincidence. Certainly, that is one way to describe all that has happened. But if you wish to call it that, you have no need to read further in this report.

At our school, we have one class each week that we choose for our own enjoyment. This is the only reason we go. It is called a club. This is a strange thing for me, for we do nothing like this in Russia, where I come from.

The second week of school, in homeroom, we are asked to choose the club we wish to join. At this time, my family is in America only one month, and my English is not yet so good. Of course I study some English in Russia, but I do not know it as much as German or French. So when the teacher talks fast, and all the students are also talking, I suddenly understand only a few words, like shut and up and detention.

We have a paper to complete for the clubs, and I think this is a test. I cannot read so many words on this sheet. For example, there is the place to write my name, and there is the word basketball.

Next to me sits a boy named Ben Lloyd. Ben is very, very smart. Do not ask me how I know this, but I know. I see the answer he writes on his paper, and I think this must of course be the right answer to the test. So even though I understand it is a bad thing to do, I write the same answer on my club paper.

And that is how I came to be in Mr. Ennis’s Mad Science Club.

At this time, I know only a few people at the school. Therefore, I think I will not know anyone who wants to study Mad Science besides Ben. But I am surprised at once. For I go to this club class, and here again is the girl with red hair.

On the first day of school I notice this girl immediately because of her thick braid, which is the color of the orange jam that my mother and I take every morning in our tea. I am admiring this beautiful hair tied with bright ribbons of green and gold, and all the while the girl is walking nearer to me. She is smiling. And suddenly she clutches my hair into her fist and draws it up to her nose. I am astonished. But then I think perhaps this is some