Then he returned to the front of the classroom and said, “The answer, class, is Philadelphia.” He punctuated this announce-ment with a roll of his neck, which sent a cracking sound through the whole classroom.

Raven leaned across the aisle and whispered to Eddie, “I hate how he only calls on people who don’t have their hands raised.”

“And that cracking sound is nasty,” Eddie added. “My grandmother does that with her toes.”

At the front of the room, Mr Petracelli posed his next question. “Now, many people attribute this scientific advance to Benjamin Franklin, but it was really made by Michael Faraday.”

The Terminator scanned the class once more. A few students had raised their hands. But they were the usual suspects, so he wasn’t interested in them.

Then he noticed Raven. This time, she didn’t have her hand raised. Instead, she was frantically skimming the pages of the open textbook on her desk.

Immediately, the history teacher’s Terminator scanning mode kicked in: FAST HEARTBEAT, INCREASED RESPIRATION . . .

Finally came the verdict: DEAD DUCK.

“Miss Baxter?” said the teacher, calling on her.

Raven swallowed. “I don’t have my hand up,” she said nervously.

“Exactly,” said the teacher.

Raven frowned. “Mr Petracelli, when my hand is up, I know the answer. And when my hand is down, I don’t know the answer. Let me explain again, hand up — know. Hand down — don’t.”

In the dead silence that followed, Raven realised that she might have come dangerously close to breaking the man’s “no talking back” rule. So she quickly gave an innocent shrug and added, “I’m just saying.”

“No,” the teacher responded, “you’re ‘just saying’ everything but the answer, which is electricity. Which led to the light bulb. Which is obviously not going off in your head.”

But in the next moment, something else went off in Raven’s head — a vision.

Through her eye

The vision runs

Flash of future

Here it comes — I can see myself in the school hallway.

Whoa! There are all these kids from my history class standing around me clapping and cheering.

Ohmigosh! They’re cheering for ME!

Now I’m spinning around, hearing each of them compliment me.

Larry is saying, “All right, Raven!”

Now Brendan is saying, “You really told Petracelli off!”

Eddie is smiling and clapping, and so is Head Cold Kenny. . . .

When Raven came out of her vision, she could see Mr Petracelli was still talking to her.

“. . . So, unless you have anything else to waste class time with—”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” said Raven, rising to her feet. The vision she’d just had of the entire history class cheering for her had given her the confidence she needed to really give this teacher what he had coming.

Continues next week

Based on the popular TV series created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman. Illustrations: Uday Deb