"Replica07 - The Best of the Best - Kaye, Marilyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kaye Marilyn)

Marilyn Kaye: The Best of the Best (Replica #7)





1



At the table in the Morgans' dining room, Amy and Tasha faced each other over a Scrabble board. "What time is it?" Tasha asked.

"You asked me that two minutes ago," Amy replied. "It was four-twenty-nine then. It is now four-thirty-one." She removed three Scrabble tiles from her rack and arranged them on the board. Using the j from Tasha's last word, jealousy, she added a u, an m, and a p. "Double letter score under the p," she murmured, and noted her total on the pad of paper by her side. Then she took three new letter tiles from the bag.

Tasha took a moment to examine her own selection of letters. Then, using the p from Amy's jump, she added all of her seven tiles to the board. "Pathetic," she declared. "Let's see, that makes . . ." She began to calculate her points.

It wasn't necessary. Amy had already done the math in her head, and she knew that Tasha now had a score three times her own. She mentally berated herself for not having glanced through a dictionary before agreeing to this game. Examining the possibilities for her next move, she saw nothing but gibberish in her letters. She was grateful when Eric came bounding into the room and interrupted them.

"What time is it?" he asked.

Amy looked at her watch for the zillionth time. "Four-thirty-four," she replied. "No, it's four-thirty-five. And before either of you asks me again, I can tell you right now that in precisely one minute it will be four-thirty-six."

Eric sighed. "I'm bored. Man, I hate these No-TV Weeks. I mean, what's the point?"

"The point," Amy said, "according to the school board, is to encourage us to do something more meaningful and intelligent with our time."

"Amy, take your turn," Tasha ordered.

Amy put a c and an a in the spaces above Tasha's t. "Cat," she said.

"Very intelligent." Eric smiled. "Almost brilliant."

Amy made a face at him. "I'd like to see you do any better with these letters."

Eric moved around the table to look at the letters Tasha was holding. "Tasha's in worse shape than you are," he told Amy. "What's she going to do with an x when she doesn't have an r, a, and y?"

"X-ray isn't the only word that contains an x," Tasha said. With that, she used an available e on the board and added xplicit. Once again, she'd managed to use up all her tiles and add substantially to her tally.

Amy was impressed. "There's no way I'm going to beat you."

"I know," Tasha said smugly. "It's kind of nice knowing there's still something I can do better than you."

Amy grinned. She knew that Tasha knew that if Amy really cared about winning, she could memorize the pages of a dictionary and beat anyone at Scrabble. But it was more fun to play as if she were a regular person.

"Amy," Tasha said, "what Ч "

"Four-forty-one," Amy answered before Tasha finished the question.

"You can read minds now too?" Eric asked.