The Great Gilly Hopkins Page #3

to know how you're doing.

Yeah, so you can

pretend to care.

Forget it.

Okay, this is hard having

a conversation like this.

Can you please get in the car?

Gilly, can you please

get in the car?

No.

Why?

Because of your accident.

What accident?

Oh!

I don't understand.

Listen, I'm sorry.

Your car...

Your car is fine.

Mine is...

You don't need...

"Last known address, 32

cardinal Lane, apartment 1A,

San Francisco, California."

Okay...

How's it been

making friends at school?

Fine.

How's miss Harris?

Is she...

Fine.

Gilly...

Answering "fine"

to every question I ask you

is not what I want from you.

What do you want from me?

I want to know you're okay.

Well, I'm better than your car.

Is that you,

William Ernest, honey?

No, it's me,

Maime trotter, sweetie, baby.

How about some of trotter's

famous chocolate chip cookies?

Nah. I'm dieting.

Are you sure?

I'm sure, trotter,

sugar pie, honeybunch.

I'm too smart to be bought

by chocolate chip cookies.

Nice try, Maime.

You're going to have to try

a lot harder

to slip old Gilly up.

There's got to be more.

How to get it?

I could use Agnes to help me

get Randolph's loot,

but with that mouth...

I need someone who won't talk.

Somebody who can't talk.

Dum-Dee-dum-dum-dum.

Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy.

Me going to have nice picnic.

Yeah, me got everything me need.

We have cookies.

And more cookies.

And me got some more cookies.

And...

Ah, me got more cookies!

Boy, I hope I can find somebody

to help me fly this sucker.

Man, I just can't get the hang

of this airplane tossing stuff.

Do you want to give it a try?

Pow! It flies really good.

No, that's you, W.E.

You throw really good.

I was just admiring your style.

You've had lessons.

No?

You just taught yourself?

No fooling?

Gee, man, you're a real natural.

Hey, trotter,

you've got to see this.

W.E. Can do this

real good.

Here.

Watch me.

We're watching,

William Ernest, honey.

W.E. Has a paper airplane.

Pow!

How was it?

Oh, Mr. Randolph,

I never thought paper airplanes

was good for anything

except maybe

driving teachers crazy.

Thank you.

Sure.

Mr. Randolph,

how about me helping you

to the dining room?

Well, thank you, miss Gilly.

I want to see it one more time,

William Ernest.

So, first...

What's the matter, W.E.?

I "broked" it.

Let me see.

It's ruined.

Oh, man, this is nothing.

We can fix this right up.

But it's not perfect anymore.

Perfect? W.E., it wasn't

perfect to begin with.

Besides, nobody likes perfect.

Really?

Yeah.

Think of this little old tear

as a battle scar.

Battle scar?

Yeah.

Like in world war ii,

there'd be these planes

that would come back

from bombing missions,

and they'd be all banged up.

Missing parts of their tails,

holes in the wings,

really beat up.

But you know what?

They were the tough suckers.

They flew better

than all the other planes

that looked perfect.

Their pilots didn't want

the planes that were all new.

They trusted

their busted up planes.

They liked their battle scars.

You'll see. We'll fly it

tomorrow before going to school.

Battle scar.

Yeah.

Now go to bed.

Battle scar.

What?

What do you want?

Can I sit with you?

These are all taken.

It was a joke, you spaz.

You can sit here if you want.

Let's start

with small sentences.

Cool.

Smaller.

The absolute value of a number

is the distance between

the number and zero

on the number line.

Now to page 34.

I think we're done here.

But we have a quiz.

I know what I'm doing.

Turning in blank papers.

Drives them crazy.

Works every time.

But that doesn't reflect well

on me.

I'm your tutor.

Your failure demonstrates

I failed in educating you.

Are you freaking kidding me?

When did this become about you?

I have a reputation.

As the king of math nerds?

Oh, nice title, raj.

Seriously, why would anybody

need to know

how to divide one-third

by two-fifteenths?

I'm not sure

if we necessarily need

to question the reason

for the equation.

Yeah, that's how the Nazis

got started.

Just do it and don't ask why.

What?

Nazis were huge mathematicians,

by the way.

A new strategy, I see.

A's to F's.

But you didn't fail completely.

See? You got your plus.

Got your name right

on all of them.

So, if you were attempting

to succeed in 100% failure,

your attempts were flawed.

In order to get a zero grade,

you should follow the efforts

of Jimmy here and cheat.

Or be like Mr. Ramirez

and simply not turn anything in.

Mm-hmm.

Hold up already!

Why are you so pissed off?

She knows I'm the smartest

in the class,

and she knows I failed

on purpose.

Why are you getting

so wound up about Harris?

Because she's trying to do

one of these

reverse "psychologic" things.

Maybe you just

don't like black people.

That's not it, you dummy.

Oh, wait.

You going to call me

something worse?

No, no.

Actually, I take that back.

You're a genius.

Really?

Agnes, could you believe

that your little bit

of misguided lunacy

may actually help me?

So, am I a genius or a loony?

I got to go.

Hey, wait.

Which am I?

For every action there is

an equal and opposite what?

Reaction.

Oh, you can do better.

For every action there

is an equal and opposite what?

Reaction.

All right.

Gilly, would you mind

waiting a moment, please?

Study those vocabulary words

in chapter three,

because there might be

a pop quiz tomorrow, forewarned.

Look it up if you don't know

what it means. Forewarned.

"To miss Harris.

"They say black is beautiful,

"but the best I can figure

is anybody saying that

looks awfully like a..."

A blank space was left.

I'm assuming for me

to finish it, hmm?

Believe it or not, Gilly,

you and I are very much alike.

Mm-hmm.

Both of us are smart

and we know it.

But the thing that brings us

closer than intelligence

is anger.

You and I are two

of the angriest people I know.

Oh, I was always taught

to deny mine,

which I did and still do.

And that makes me envy you.

Mm-hmm.

See, your anger is still

right up here on the surface,

where you can

look it in the face.

Make friends with it, honey.

Channel it for your own design.

Hmm?

But I didn't ask you

to stay after school

to tell you

how intelligent you are

or how much I envy you,

but to thank you for your card.

Oh, Gilly, I took it to the

teacher's lounge at noon...

And cursed creatively

for over 20 minutes.

Oh, I haven't felt so good

in years.

Ah.

So, I will see you tomorrow.

Thanks again.

Thanks, Gilly.

Hey, Gilly.

I need to know how much

a cross-country ticket costs

to San Francisco from Maryland.

One-way to San Francisco,

that'll run you $189.

Trotter and Mr. Randolph

leave yet for the store?

Yeah, and to welfare

to get money.

Mr. Randolph wants me

to do him

a favor while they're out.

Okay, now Randolph

doesn't want trotter

to know about this.

This is kind of a surprise,

so it'll be our little secret

for now, okay?

Okay.

See up there?

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