The Read Drive (Chapter 1)

Cheetah, Deer, and Tortoise

OK, listen up class. I have a special announcement to make. We are going to have a competition!’ Mr. Book announced.

I sat up straighter. I love Maths competitions. Last year I won the Geometry competition and got the “Math’s Champion” badge.

I raised my hand.

‘Yes, Ravi?

‘Is it a Math competition?’ I asked, I crossed my fingers, hoping it would be the case.

From the other end of the room, Gopal butted in, ‘Mr. Books, I am so excited! Please tell us about the competition.’ She raised her hand so high that I thought it would touch the ceiling.

‘ It’s a Reading Competition! It’s something called the Read Drive,’ Said ‘Mr. Books’.

‘Read Drive!” Everyone gasped. Even Rohan, the distracted kid, who never paid attention to anything, stared at ‘Mr. Books’.

I looked at Tejas, my best friend. Tejas was playing with his charming pencil. (his lucky pencil) He did this every time he was happy or nervous.

Last year when Tejas had the Spell Bee exam, he used that pencil and got a high rank! So, from then he uses that pencil as his lucky charm.

‘Read Drive’ Is competition between 5a and 5b. The section that wins the competition gets……………. Mr. Books waited.

‘Wow, a Reading competition! Tejas yelled, as though he had just woken up to the news, this competition is the best in the world! He said, He kissed his red lucky pencil.

‘A Read Drive?’ I asked disgustingly. Did something like this exist? Or it is just an imagination of Mr. Books? I wondered because he loved books. No one even knew his original name! We called him Mr. Books because he was always reading.

And I hated reading!

‘What gets the class? Rio, the talkative girl in the class, with bad English asked Mr. Books.

‘What does the class get? Gopal corrected her.

“The class gets to do a night stay in school, and since we are starting with the Solar System chapter in class, we all get to see the planetary system (Galaxy) through a telescope!

Mr. Books nearly fell off the chair while making the exciting announcement.

‘Yay!” Everyone screamed and jumped up and down.

A night stay in school without Parental Supervision! And seeing through a real telescope! Now, this was something thrilling! I had never done this before.

Tejas did a high five with me.

Then suddenly I realized we had to read in order to stay in school for the night stay and see through the telescope

This was the worst mathematical equation ever!

Rio raised her hand again. ‘But how win Read Drive from 5b? She asked.

Gopal looked at her angrily for always speaking ‘wrong English’ and corrected her again. How can we win this Read Drive from 5b?

I quickly calculated in my mind. 5b had seven Cheetah readers (the fast readers), five dear readers (the moderate speed readers, fighting way up to the Cheetahs), and three tortoise readers, the slooowwwwest.

As for our section, we had five Cheetah readers, five Deer readers, and five Tortoise readers, and the worst part of it all was that I was one of the Tortoise readers!

I had been a tortoise from Sr. kg, along with the distracted kid, Rohan.

‘But Mr. Books, I have already done the calculation, our section is going to lose; 5b better readers than us,’ I said sadly.

Your calculation is good Ravi, but we do have some fine readers in our class too.’ He looked at Tejas, Gopal, and other Cheetah readers.

‘How are we going to decide what kind of books are going to be counted? Tejas asked. ‘I mean I can read a million easy books a day.’

‘Are you count easy books with pictures on each page? Rio asked.

Gopal was about to correct Rio when Mr. Books said,

‘You decide according to which group you are in. If you are in the Cheetah group, you read the longer chapter books, if you are in the deer group, you read the shorter chapter books with fewer pictures and if you are in the tortoise group you read the books where there are very few words on each page. (books with more pictures)

‘But who check what we read?’ Rio went on with her questions.

Gopal annoyingly stamped his foot, looking at Rio.

Mr. Books said, ‘Every morning when you come in, you will write the names of the books you have read on the wall in front of the class. If I think the book is not of your level, I will not count it. More importantly, I trust you all.’

‘So, two weeks from now, Friday evening we are going to total the number of books read by both 5a and 5b. Then, whichever section wins will get to take part in night stay on Saturday and see through the telescope!’ Mr. Books said.