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Show 74 "Young ladies and gentlemen," she said, "Professor Whiteside became ill this summer, and has gone to live with his daughter in West Virginia. I will be your new homeroom teacher. I will teach you grammar and English literature, as Professor Whiteside would have done. My name is Miss Petrov. Yulyona Petrov." At the sound of the name, a subdued gasp filled the room. The woman swept to the blackboard and wrote in large capital letters: YULYONA PETROV. She smiled at them again, a smile slightly off-center so that the left corner of her mouth rose a bit higher than the right, and her lower lip curved more fully on the right side. Though the smile was uneven, Karl thought it looked nice. Better than nice. Very pretty "I want to learn all your names as quickly as possible," Miss Petrov told them. "To make it easier for me, please choose the desks where you'd like to sit for the rest of the year. Choose them now." Karl barely had time to untangle his long legs from around the wrought-iron legs of the desk he'd been sitting at. He scrambled to claim the desk closest to the teacher's, but Frank Piatt and Eugene McNeary had reached it ahead of him. While they stood in the aisle arguing over the front center desk, Karl slipped into its seat. "Gentlemen!" Miss Petrov sounded a bit startled. "We have thirty-six desks and twenty-seven pupils. Surely each of you can find a satisfactory place to sit." Frank and Eugene glared at one another, and both of them glared at Karl before they settled for seats in the second row. |