Wednesday: This is exciting. I've been chosen to test products for XYZ Company. Imagine -- out of all the teenagers in the United States, they picked me for their sample group! I can't wait to start. I wonder what I'll be testing? I know it's nothing harmful. The paper my parents signed stated there'd be no experimental drugs or foods involved. Thank goodness. I'm cautious about what I put in my mouth. I want my brain to last.

There are twenty of us, ten boys and ten girls. Two of the guys are cute. The one with the red hair keeps glancing over. I smile when I catch his eyes, but he always looks away. I hope he comes over and talks to me, but I guess we'll have lots of time for that. After all, we're going to be together for a whole week!
Guess what we're testing a series of homework lessons. Each day the earphones will pipe music into our heads while we're using the computer. That's supposed to make us learn. Unfortunately the music is classical.Yuck!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention -- the guy with the red hair -- his name is Jason, and he's nice.

Thursday: I can't believe I volunteered for this. My brain is so full of mathematics, I could write the silly book. They tested all afternoon. Where's the fun stuff they promised? I thought we were going to play games -- video games. All we get is learning stuff. That doesn't count. I wonder if I could quit – only . . . well, Jason seems to like it. He said he had trouble with quadratic equations before, and now he understands them. I never heard of a homework machine that works this well.


Today they're pumping us full of geometry, but there's no music this time. Instead it's chanting. The voices keep mumbling stuff I can't even hear. How's that going to help? Besides who needs to know parallel lines and polygons?


Oh, I just have to add this. Jason asked me to the dance they're having Friday night. Isn't that awesome? It's a good thing I packed my special blouse, the one with the glitter across the front that says, "Music Rocks."


Friday: Well, I flunked all the geometry tests. They called me into the little room and then talked to me about Algebra. I remembered it just fine. I could practically point my finger to the space where it's lodged in my brain -- like a big, hard lump, glistening with formulas and gyrating numerals.

The scientists didn't seem in the least bit mad that I failed geometry. In fact one of the guys told me a riddle: What did the little acorn say when he grew up? Geometry. (I didn't understand it at first. They had to say it really slowly. Gee, I'm a tree.)


Saturday: I'd planned to write everything down in my diary, but too much happened yesterday. First I had to listen what they call "Oldies but Goodies." My lessons were all on history. I don't know what happened to the math. (Jason was really disappointed. He even learned all the geometry stuff and said he passed with a perfect paper.)

But, wait, much more important than the tests is what happened last night. It was so cool. There were disco lights and a live band. (No, I'd never heard of the band, but they were OK) The best part is that Jason is an incredible dancer -- I mean, like really, really cool!
Oh, darn. It's time for more lessons. Bye.


P.S. We had the best spaghetti for lunch. There was garlic bread, too. Jason and I did algebraic equations while we ate. It was so romantic.


Sunday: Wow! How did it get to be Sunday already? Two of the kids left today. I don't know what happened, but Jason and I were working on some polyhedrons when we saw them dragging their suitcases down the stairs. We yelled out farewells in German and French since we'd picked up the languages yesterday. Today we're going to work on Spanish and Italian. One of the kids said we'd get Japanese and Chinese Mandarin tomorrow. I can't wait.


Monday: It was jazz day. The blues and Chinese lessons just doesn't meld well in my opinion. Doesn't anyone ever explain that kind of thing to these people? Oh, well. Korean is after lunch. I heard we'll be washing that down with Renaissance music.


Tuesday: Plato and Aristotle entertained us for a while. Jason and I've been learning chess during the breaks. Checkmate.


Wednesday: Today is it. We've been here a whole week. It's such a shame that it's almost over. I'm thinking about signing up for another week if my parents will let me. The scientists said Russian and Hebrew are scheduled for tomorrow. I hope my folks say yes. I want to fix the gaps in my geometry, too.

Oh, can you believe the scientists tried to bribe us with another dance? Jason and I and all the others just laughed in their faces. We talked them into a chess tournament instead. All of students plan to challenge the IBM program. I think Jason will beat it, but I'm darn good, too. I calculated that there was a 98.9876 probability I could win.

You want to know the funniest part? The product engineers met with us individually and tried to get us to answer more of their ridiculous survey questions. They're still trying to find out the effects of their education machines. We told them exactly what they wanted to know. The only thing is we didn't bother waiting for them to ask. Mental telepathy is much more efficient than speech; don't you agree?