Dial (16 page)
Authors: Elizabeth Cage
What did she want to be when she grew up? (She loved that question.) A waitress. She wanted to serve food at some piece-of-crap greasy spoon and wait for a customer to bitch her out, or stiff her on the tip, or pinch her butt. She'd travel across the country from one bad restaurant to the next and scare people who thought it was okay to be mean to waitresses. And there were a lot of people like that. Nobody got more shit than a waitress did. (Well, maybe telemarketers, but they sort of deserved it.)
“Gaia? Any day now.”
Snicker. Snicker. This was an easy crowd. Ms. What's-her-face must have been thrilled with her success.
Gaia hesitated at the board for a moment.
“You don't know it, do you?” The teacher's tone was possibly the most patronizing thing she had ever heard.
Gaia didn't answer. She just wrote the formula out very slowly, appreciating the horrible grinding screech of the chalk as she drew the equals sign. It sounded a lot like the teacher's voice, actually.
At the last second she changed the final plus to a minus sign. Of course she knew the formula. What was she, stupid? Her dad had raced her through basic algebra by third grade. She'd (begrudgingly) mastered multivariable calculus and linear Âalgebra before she started high school. She might hate math, but she was good at it.
“I'm sorry, Gaia. That's incorrect. You may sit down.”
Gaia tried to look disappointed as she shuffled to her chair.
“Talk to me after class about placement, please.” The teacher said that in a slightly lower voice, as if the rest of the students wouldn't hear she found Gaia unfit for the class. “Yes, ma'am,” Gaia said brightly. It was the first ray of light all day. She'd demote herself to memorizing times tables if meant getting a different teacher.
Times tables actually came in pretty handy for a waitress. What with figuring out tips and all.
Elizabeth Cage is a saucy pseudonym for a noted young adult writer. Her true identity and current whereabouts are classified.
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Also by
ELIZABETH CAGE
Covert Affairs
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Dial “V” for Vengeance
copyright © 1999 by 17th Street Productions, a division of Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc.
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The text of this book was set in ITC Garamond Std.
Library of Congress Control Number 2012956567
ISBN 978-1-4424-8229-6
ISBN 978-1-4424-8230-2 (
Dial “V” for Vengeance
eBook)
These books were originally published individually with the series title Spy Girls.
