"Vernor Vinge - Fast Times at Fairmont High" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

fact, I think they are very interested in learning what our
better students can do.тАЭ
Bertie's face twisted into a taut smile, and his image
dropped back onto the chair beside Juan. He made no
additional comment, not even privately to Juan....
The rest of the assembly was mostly about changes in
exam content, mainly caused by the current state of outside
resourcesтАФexperts and technologiesтАФthat the school was
importing for the nonconcurrent exams. All of it could have
been done without this assembly; the Alcalde just had this
thing about face-to-face meetings. Juan filed away all the
announcements and changes, and concentrated on the
unhappy possibility that now loomed over his week: Bertie
Todd had been his best friend for almost two semesters now.
Mostly he was super fun and an amazing team partner. But
sometimes he'd go into a tight-lipped rage, often about things
that Juan had no control over. Like now. If this were one of
Bertie's Great Freeze Outs, he might not talk to Juan at allтАФ
for days.
****
10
 Fast Times at Fairmont High
by Vernor Vinge


The eighth-grade mob broke out of the assembly just
before 4:00pm, way past the end of the normal class day.
The kids milled about on the lawn outside the meeting hall. It
was so near the end of the semester. There was warm
sunlight. Summer and the new movie-game season were just
a few days off. But caray, there were still finals to get through
and everyone knew that, too. So while they joked and
gossiped and goofed around, they were also reading the
exam changes and doing some heavy planning.
Juan tagged along behind Bertie Todd's image as the other
moved through the crowd. Bertie was dropping hints all
around about the unlimited project he was planning. The
communication link from Bertie to Juan was filled with cold
silence, but he was being all charming toward kids who'd
never helped him a tenth as much as Juan Orozco. Juan could
hear part of what was going on; the other boys weren't
freezing him out. They thought Juan was part of the party.
And most of them were more than pleased by Bertie's
interest. For no-holds-barred collaboration, Bertram Todd was
the best there was at Fairmont Junior High. Bertie was
claiming high-level contacts, maybe with Intel's idea farm,
maybe with software co-ops in China. He had something for
everyone, and a hint that they might score far more than a
good grade.
Some of them even asked Juan for details. They just