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Show 86 FIFTEEN Dyna couldn't believe it. The story for ON CAMERA was finished and edited by the end of January. Of course, the miracle hadn't come about without some bullying on Simpson's part and two very late nights when they'd all stayed after school for the cutting and collating. This morning, seeing her teacher arrive with twenty stapled copies in her arms, Dyna felt exactly the way Simpson looked: proud but pooped. The visitors from California were due tomorrow. She was glad now for the eighteen pounds she'd lost, but what she needed most at the moment was a good night's sleep. Mrs. Simpson glanced over the class as she hung up her coat. "Boy, do you kids look flattened! By the dopier effect as much as anything, I suspect. January came and went darn close to the speed of light, didn't it?" "Can't we just lay back for a coupla days?" Anzak groaned, as did Mike and Greg when they saw the pile of manuscripts on her desk. Dyna looked around and snorted. Their expressions were just plain pitiful. "You've had it, huh?" Mrs. Simpson said. "Want to play One-Up today?" "What's that?" Derek asked. "We go around the room, each person telling how miserable or abused he or she is. You try to get one up on the next person. It has great therapeutic value." Jeff stuck out his lower lip. "You're makin* fun of us!" "Hey, Jeffy, know what Gram says- when she feels tromped on?" Dyna piped up. "No, by jingo!" Jeff slapped his knee. "Tell us what Gram says." "She says 'I'm goin* out and eat wormsl"' Jeff howled. Dyna giggled. "The sillies have set in," Mrs. Simpson observed, taking up her roll book for the morning duties. "What you're experiencing today is a mild form of hysteria. Think about it. Thirty days of pressure. A whole month of the most intensive work. All that interviewing, writing, research . . . Tammy, didn't you say you ended up learning the Dewey Decimal System? I know you didn't mean to." Tammy grinned. |