On the morning of the science fair, Jane's father loaded both girls' project displays into the back of his van, and Jane hunted frantically on the floor of her closet for a blazer. She definitely owned at least one. She hated having to ask her mom to find it, but her dad was already in the van, honking his horn.

"Mom! Have you seen my blazer anywhere?"

Jane's mother didn't show any expression on her face as she took the blazer off the hanger at the rear of her closet and handed it to her. But once she had put it on, her mom gave her a hug.

"I can't help it," she said. "You and Caroline both look so gorgeous today. I'm so proud of both of you."

The blazer idea had been Caroline's idea. "That's another thing," she had told Jane the night before. "Personal appearance. The judges love it if you dress smart."

Jane didn't wear heels and a tie like Caroline, but she had tied her hair up neatly and she had to admit that she looked pretty nice in her blazer and blouse.

She went down to the van. Caroline was already there. She looked like Hermione Granger in the sixth or seventh movies.

At school, Jane's dad helped them carry their displays into the gym.

"Good luck, my big girls," he said gruffly and then hurried off to his first roofing job of the morning.

Jane swallowed hard. She had entered the science fair every year, but this was the first year she had cared about winning. It was embarrassing having her parents see that she cared. And between her carefully constructed display and neatly tied hair, this year everybody at school was going to know that Jane Waleski cared.

Jane thought about taking off her blazer and putting it back on after lunch when the fair would be open for judging. But it was cold, so she decided to keep it on, at least through science class.

But when Emily saw her in homeroom, Emily looked so betrayed that Jane turned away. Losers don't dress smart.

Emily hadn't said it out loud, but she might as well have.

Ms. Anderson was dressed up, too, in a new blue dress that had kind of an olden-days look to it. She looked nervous herself as she greeted the class at the start of the first period.

Then Jane saw Lucy. She wore a grayish knitted sweater over a white shirt and also a red tie. Her wild hair was pinned back. She looked like Hermione Granger in the first movie.

When Lucy turned and saw Jane, she didn't look away for a good few seconds, and then she blushed.

"Today is our big day," Ms. Anderson said. "I know all of you have worked very hard. You have produced some truly outstanding projects."

Jane flushed. She felt as if Ms. Anderson were talking directly to her. Though maybe Emily thought she was talking directly to her, too.

"I hope that some of you will have the satisfaction of having your projects chosen to go on to the regional science fair. As you know, three projects will be chosen for each grade. But more important, I hope that your participations in this year's science fair has taught you something about the excitement of conducting your own scientific research."

Ms. Anderson brushed back a strand of hair that had escaped from the rest.

"This is our last week together," she said softly.

Jane's heart tightened as if Ms. Anderson had clamped a vise around it. She had known from the start that Ms. Anderson was going to be at her school for a short time, but she couldn't believe that the time had passed so quickly. She couldn't imagine what school – or life – would be like without Grace Anderson.

"I just want to say that I'm enormously impressed by what you have achieved in the past few months. Today is a remarkable day. I'm never going to forget it."

For a moment, Jane was afraid she was going to cry. Then she smiled at them.

"Let's go," she said.

Ms. Anderson led the class to the gym, to practice the presentations they were going to give the judges that afternoon.

"Who wants to go first?" she asked, once they were assembled by their displays.

Jane's hand shot up in the air.

"Jane?"

Jane had written out her speech and practiced it at home in front of her bedroom mirror. It came out sounding almost as memorized as one of Lucy's book reports. She explained her procedure and gave each of the ten balls a demonstration bounce on the small wooden platform her father had helped her build for her display. Then she pointed to the graphs of her date that Caroline had helped her make on the computer.

"Oh, Jane!" Ms. Anderson said when Jane had finished. And she looked at her like she couldn't express her pride into word.

The other students crowded up with questions.

"Hey, let me try bouncing a few of the balls," someone said. It was Jonas, for a change sounding not mean but honestly interested. Lucy's eyes were shining. Jane could imagine the poem about her that Lucy was composing in her head.

Only Emily held back, staring down sullenly at the gymnasium floor. But from everything Jane had seen of it, Emily's project was as good as Jane's. Emily had no reason to be jealous or resentful of what her friend had achieved.

"All right," Ms. Anderson said. "We have so many wonderful projects to admire that we'd better move on. Jonas and David, what do you have for us?"

They had done the same project some kid did every year, the one where you mix baking soda with vinegar to make a gas that blows up a balloon. Their displays look pretty nice, though, with color photos of how the balloon looked when it was blown up and all the explanations of everything typed up.

Then it was Lucy's turn. Her project was called 'The Source of Poetic Imagination.' She had done just as Jane had suggested. She had written to twenty poets to ask how they got the ideas for their poems; fourteen had written back, and Lucy had their letters displayed attractively on her poster board, together with a sample poem from each poet. It had turned out to be a pretty interesting project, after all, but Jane didn't know if she had a real chance of winning the science fair. It was still an English project, not a science project, whatever Ms. Anderson said about how everything and anything could count as science.

Lucy had included herself as the fifteenth poet in her display. Jane gave a quick glance towards the poster board to see which poem she had chosen. It was 'Snow Bird', the same poem that she had sent into the fake contest.

"Very nice, Lucy!" Ms. Anderson said. "One of these days, when your poems are published, we're all going to remember this moment and say, "We knew her when.'"

"Actually," Lucy said and stopped. "Well, I don't want to brag, but I'm just so excited that I have to tell somebody. My poem? The one on the display? It just won a prize in a contest. For the whole country. The letter came yesterday!"

Jane almost felt like fainting. Behind her, Mary and Jonas giggled. Jane didn't think Lucy heard them. Jane felt choked, suffocated as if someone was strangling her. She had been too much of a coward to tell her, too much of a coward to stop the others, and now it was too late.

"Oh, congratulations!" Ms. Anderson said. "That is splendid news, Lucy! I knew you would make it big!"

After a while, they continued the presentations again.

"Who's next? Mary, what do you and Jonas have for us?"

Half a dozen other groups presented their projects – none of them as good as Jane's, in her honest opinion – and then Ms. Anderson turned to Emily.

"Emily?"

Jane gave Emily an encouraging smile. This should be as proud a moment for Emily as it had been for her, for everyone else. But Emily looked anything but proud. And as soon as Jane looked at Emily's display, she could see why.

As Caroline would have said, Emily's display was a mess. She could have had a great project. It was certainly more original than Jonas and Mary's , less poetic than Lucy's. And everybody loved ice cream. But Emily should have arranged her data into a graph. She should have typed her labels on the computer. She should have had somebody take photographs of one of the tasting sessions. She should have done something that showed some effort.

"Regular ice cream or fat-free ice cream: which taste better?" Emily read from an index card in the flat, monotonous voice she used for book reports. "My hypothesis was: Regular ice cream tastes better. Ten people tasted my samples. They all said that regular ice cream tastes better. So regular ice cream tastes better."

Then she put her card away.

"Did you bring any ice cream for people to taste at the science fair?" David asked.

"No," Emily said, grinning for the first time that morning. Jane felt better.

"The way Jane brought balls for us to bounce?"

Emily's grin disappeared. Jane felt worse.

"Do we have anyone left?" Ms. Anderson asked. "No? Then let's go back to class. Good luck this afternoon, everyone!"