The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

In language arts class, Ms. Fleming asks Lucy to begin reading from a short story. Lucy has to count all the words and the number of letters in each before she reads anything, and she tries to get out of the task, but the teacher insists, so she reads a paragraph at a time and then halts while she counts the next paragraph’s words. Windy volunteers to take over the reading, which gets Lucy off the hook.

The class breaks into groups; Lucy’s group elects her secretary and she ends up doing all the work, answering the study questions while they talk about boys.

After class, Ms. Fleming asks Lucy why she’s reluctant to participate. Lucy says she doesn’t like to read out loud because it gets confusing. Ms. Fleming gives her a printout of the next story so Lucy can read it ahead of time. She also says the book assignment will be The Call of the Wild.

Windy invites Lucy for a Saturday sleepover. Lucy has never been to a sleepover and she’s nervous, but Nana is over the moon.

Nana drives Lucy to Windy’s house. It’s in a beautiful neighborhood, and it’s three stories tall. Windy has Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer. She also has a written list of all the planned activities; Lucy counts 31. Windy asks Nana if Lucy can dye her hair. Ms. Adele Sitton, a very elegantly dressed woman, comes downstairs and greets the Callahans. Nana says goodbye, and Lucy feels like crying, so she recites to herself the first several dozen numbers of pi.

Windy shows Lucy the house. All the rooms are huge. Upstairs are bedrooms for Windy and her sister, Cherish, who’s not home. Windy’s room has posters of animals, musicals, and some photos of Maddie, who used to be her friend. First off, they give each other manicures and pedicures; Lucy is terrible at it, but they end up with colorful nails.

Windy talks about her mom, who owns two day spas. Windy thinks Cherish looks great, like their mom, but “I’m pretty sure I was switched at birth” (92).

Windy asks about Lucy’s folks; Lucy says her mom died of ovarian cancer when Lucy was a baby; Paul says her dad left when her mom got pregnant. Windy feels sorry because Lucy is an orphan. Lucy says she’s a lot of things but not an orphan and doesn’t need canned goods or a coat for the winter.

They discuss their school project, but Windy says she’s having trouble finding the right third member. She paints yellow lightning-bolts on each of Lucy’s green fingernails. She admires Lucy’s lightning necklace and asks what it means; Lucy says it’s because she’s “Lightning Girl,” then backpedals and lies, saying it’s because she ran around a lot as a kid.

They open a book, “101 Things You Never Knew About Your Best Friend” (94), and they go through the questions, things like their favorite movie quotes, and Lucy learns that Windy wants to be an environmental attorney and is afraid of hot-air balloons (94-95). They eat pizza and popcorn—plus Gummy Bears that Lucy smuggled from home—while watching three movies. They fall asleep with the lights on.

Windy can’t find anyone to join their team. She asks Lucy to come up with project ideas, but all Lucy can think of is cleaning doorknobs or desks or tables. Windy “wants to build a library in downtown Baltimore or open a women’s hospital in India or run a search-and-rescue team that would rush to victims of tsunamis” (97).

In math class, Mr. Stoker talks about how math is used in everyday life. He tells them about using optimal stopping theory—Lucy knows about it—as a math technique for finding the best person to marry. Maddie is openly skeptical, but Mr. Stoker tells everyone to use math when they can to help their projects come out better.

Windy asks him to mentor her team; he accepts. She tells him she’s asked everyone in seventh grade but no one has agreed to partner with her and Lucy. Mr. Stoker asks the class if anyone still needs a project team. Levi raises his hand, and Mr. Stoker assigns him to Windy’s team. Lucy doesn’t want him but figures that Windy will do most of the deciding anyway.

At lunch, Windy and Lucy get permission to work on their project in the media room. Levi is late; Windy gets upset and wants him removed from the team. She feels pressure: Maddie’s team plans to fill backpacks with school supplies for refugees. Levi finally shows, but he has no ideas for their project. Windy ticks off the ones on her list: They’re all too farfetched, like saving sea lions from getting hit by motorboats.

Levi doesn’t care what they do. Lucy suggests they use numbers to define a project, like how many shelter animals need homes as against how many actually find homes. Windy says they can find homes for the remaining animals. Lucy realizes she just got them to stop arguing by deciding to do an animal project, and she doesn’t even like animals.

Lucy calls the animal control department. She notes that their website says 95% of healthy animals get adopted, and asks what happens to the other five percent. She also wonders what “healthy” means, and adds that she wants to find homes for all the animals. The support person curtly warns Lucy that volunteers must be at least 16 to participate, recites some bland information about adoption hours, and hangs up.

Lucy reports in to Windy, who mentions Levi’s web page on ArtBoom, where he puts photos of kids under different headings: “bored, curious, angry, hurt, peaceful” (113). Of 45 pictures, three are shots of Lucy. One image is Windy under “bored” and one is Maddie in the “hurt” section: She looks like she’s about to cry.

That night, Windy texts Lucy and Levi: They’re to meet after school to visit a place called The Pet Hut.

Cherish drives Windy, Lucy, and Levi to The Pet Hut. It’s in a red building that used to house a Pizza Hut. They’re ushered into the back room, formerly a kitchen, where owner Claire Barrington is busy washing a dog. Lucy doesn’t want to be there because “Dogs aren’t clean and don’t respect personal space” (117), but Levi won’t let her escape because he doesn’t want to be stuck alone with Windy.

Claire gives them a tour. They’re in the dog room, then they visit the puppy room and the cat room. Lucy asks questions about the number of pet adoptions, so Claire lets her review records in the tiny office. A lot of paperwork and calculations remain to be entered into the computer. To Lucy, it looks like a wonderful project.

Levi takes a picture of Lucy sitting in the office, then tells her it’s time to go. Lucy objects to being photographed without her permission, and to boys who cheat on tests. Levi admits he told Mr. Stoker that he, and not Lucy, did the cheating, mainly because the teacher would soon realize which one of them is good at math and which is failing the class. Lucy is surprised, and she’s puzzled that Levi thinks he’s failing: She’s seen all his grades, which average 69.

Lucy has done the math on 57 adoption forms, and she plans to return to finish the work. She pockets her page of notes and they go to the lobby, where a lady with a small dog argues with Noah, the high-school volunteer, about surrendering her dog. Claire appears and explains that there are forms to fill, a waiting list, and a health check for the dog. The woman says her husband lost his job and they’re moving. She starts to fill out the paperwork but suddenly runs out the door and escapes.

Lucy picks up the dropped paperwork and sees that the woman only wrote the dog’s name, “Cutie Pi.” A spot on the dog’s back is shaped like a lightning bolt. Lucy begs Claire to keep the dog. She offers to “enter all your adoption papers into the computer” (129). Claire accepts.