Page 30 of The Banned Books Club

THE COURT:Immaterial. The witness may respond.

Gia had looked a little shaken by the fervor of the objection, but she’d gathered herself and said,I’ve never gotten less than a B in English.

MR. BRINDLEY:And we have your transcripts right here to prove it. Let the record show that Gia’s previous report cards reflect this.

The prosecutor had lifted a file, which he’d entered into evidence before proceeding.

MR. BRINDLEY:How were you doing in Mr. Hart’s class?

GIA ROSSI:Fine. I turned in all my work on time. I had good marks up until that point.

MR. BRINDLEY:Then you weren’t worried about your grade.

GIA ROSSI:I was a little worried. Only because I needed to get an A in English to keep my volleyball scholarship to the University of Iowa. I assumed it’d be easy enough to do, since I’d never had a problem before. But then Mr. Hart gave me a D on my big research paper.

MR. BRINDLEY:Why do you think he gave you such a low grade?

GIA ROSSI:At the time I didn’t know.

Cormac remembered her voice dropping dramatically at that point.

GIA ROSSI:Now I think I do.

MR. JACOBS:Objection, Your Honor! Conjecture!

THE COURT:Please, just answer the question.

After that, Mr. Brindley had tried to gain Gia’s attention right away so she wouldn’t falter.

MR. BRINDLEY:You’re telling me you don’t think you deserved a D on your research paper?

GIA ROSSI:Not at all! Why would I go from making almost all As in his class to almost failing such a major assignment?

MR. BRINDLEY:Maybe you were falling off in English like you were in your other subjects. Senioritis gets the best of a lot of kids.

Cormac chuckled humorlessly as he read that. Brindley had obviously been trying to neutralize some of the claims he’d known would arise from the defense.

GIA ROSSI:That’s not the case here. You can read my paper yourself and compare it to what the other kids turned in—kids who got a much better grade from Mr. Hart. You can talk to my friends, too. They’ll tell you I was taking the assignment seriously. I even stayed home and missed a party I really wanted to go to so I’d have enough time to get it done right.

MR. BRINDLEY:Can you tell us what Mr. Hart didn’t like about your work?

GIA ROSSI:I went up to his desk after class to ask, but there were a lot of kids around, trying to talk to him, too, and he just said he expected more from me.

MR. BRINDLEY:He didn’t tell you what you did wrong?

GIA ROSSI:He said we’d talk about it later.

MR. BRINDLEY:Did you ever have the chance?

GIA ROSSI:I assumed I was going to when the bell rang and he handed me a slip of paper telling me to come by his house after volleyball practice that afternoon.

MR. BRINDLEY:Isn’t it unusual for a schoolteacher to have a student come to his house? Had Mr. Hart ever asked you to come over before?

GIA ROSSI:No, but he lives just down the street. Since he’s my neighbor, I didn’t think it was all that unusual.

MR. BRINDLEY:And did you go to his house?

GIA ROSSI:I did.

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