"Sean McMullen - The Blondefire Genome" - читать интересную книгу автора (McMullen Sean)

every seed from the mature plants, avoiding contact with the pollen by breathing through a long tube
running outside the greenhouse. By the time several generations of plants had passed, she had thousands
of seeds.
Spring came. The ryegrass that sprouted in gardens and vacant blocks near where the Blondefire
singers lived was quite normal to look at, but the local chemists noticed a sudden increase in demand for
acne creams and lotions from teenagers. With forced detachment Megan observed thick, carefully
applied makeup appearing on Jackie Cassall's face with increasing frequency.
One morning there was anxious talk around the school. Jackie was leaving Blondefire. Jackie had zits.
Jackie had been asked to go. The lead singer took it bravely, and said that it was not all bad, because
now she would be free to study for her exams.
Another member of the group, Josie Allen, was next. She had been saved from the first sowing of
zitgrass by the industrious gardeners who lived in her street, but Megan had also scattered seeds in a
vacant lot beside her bus stop and these seeds had sprouted more slowly in the less fertile soil there.
Soon there was another Blondefire scandal as Josie was ejected. She did not go quietly. The manager
wanted her to retire and concentrate on writing lyrics for Blondefire songs, but Josie refused. It was full
performer status or nothing. All the remaining girls were true albinos rather than just being naturally
blonde, and there was something in the biochemistry of their skin that made them immune to the zitgrass
pollen. When Josie's parents threatened to sue over the use of the Blondefire name they re-formed as
Whitefire, but with the lead singer, songwriter and name gone, the group struggled on for only a few
months before disbanding. Megan was surprised by the speed with which Jackie and Josie had been
dumped, but it confirmed her worst fears about personal loyalties in show business.
The plague of acne struck dozens of others in the school, always those between twelve and seventeen.
Megan noticed that although Jackie's face was a mess, she remained as sociable as ever while taking far
more interest in schoolwork. Years of balancing study against Blondefire commitments had left her with
average grades, but within two months of the zit plague she was getting A for everything.
Is there anything she can't do? Megan wondered nervously. Now there was another contender for the
title of school genius. She stared at a poster of the space shuttle on the classroom wall. It was captioned
'To Jackie, from your fans in space' and was signed by three astronauts.
I taught you about shallow friends, Megan thought, and refused to feel guilty.
***


Megan's final year at school began badly. Her father ran out of contract work in England, and could
send no money home. The strain of paying Megan's school fees meant that her mother had little money to
spare for her daughter's experiments. Megan suspended most of her work and decided that she would
'discover' zitgrass growing wild once she was at university, and had access to proper laboratories. Her
centrifuge spun on, however, the excess electricity draining most of her allowance. It was her ticket to
space, it was everything. When she got to university she would meet scientists who knew people at
NASA. They would help to get her 3G seeds onto the space shuttle.
For Megan, the school year could not end too quickly. Jackie's grades continued to improve, and
Megan often noticed that Jackie and her circle of friends were watching her. She became withdrawn,
because she found it difficult to make small talk with classmates who were obviously talking about her
behind her back. Jackie handled assignments and assessment tasks as easily as a letter of thanks for a
birthday present. Finally the ultimate nightmare happened: Jackie scored an A++ in a minor physics
assignment, while Megan could manage only A+. Megan had not come second to anyone in a science
subject in five years.
Once more Megan shunned the bus and walked home. "Now I know what she's been saying," she
told to herself. "She's been saying I'm not as good as everyone thought, that she's better. Well stuff them
all, I only study for myself, I don't care what her results are!"
She resolved not even to check the results of her assignments from now on. Soon she would be at