学进去

I’d been worried about the task ever since Mrs. Lockwood said we needed to share something no one else in the sixth grade knew about us.

“You’re ________ Esha, ”Mrs. Lockwood told me.

Within seconds, Esha was standing at the front of the class with her poster turned backward. She said, “One thing about me you may not ________ —I have a black cat, named Sultana. She has five toes on her front left paw. Sultana is truly the best cat, ever. ”

Then Esha ________ turned the poster to reveal a photo of herself and... The cat on the poster was exactly ________ Shadow. Shadow, my black cat. My cat! Mine! ________ was Esha doing a presentation on Shadow?

After Esha returned to her seat, I stood up slowly. This was going to be even ________ than I had imagined.

I went to the front of the room and held up my poster, “I have a pet named Shadow. She’s a black cat with five toes on her front left paw...” My voice shook like there was an earthquake inside of it.

The whole class was looking at me like I’d lost my marbles, and I couldn’t ________. I ran back to my seat.

“Jessalyn and Esha, see me after class, ”Mrs. Lockwood said.

Minutes later, I stood side by side with Esha, who kept looking at my ________ and then back at her own.

“It’s rather obvious,” Mrs. Lockwood said, “that someone here copied someone else. You have the weekend to ________ who should come up with a different topic. Monday, I expect one of you to give a ________ presentation.”

I followed Esha into the hallway. She said, “Why don’t you come to my house this Saturday morning, ________ we can see for ourselves. ”

Bright and early Saturday morning, we ________ Sultana when she left Esha’s house. Then we discovered she climbed the fence and went straight into ________ yard.

“She’s been living two lives, ”Esha sighed, her voice filled with ________. She threw her arms around me and I hugged back because I understood. We were going to ________ our cat. She’d be Sultana with Esha, and Shadow with me. Nothing had to change.