Chapter 1.

"Terrific work, Stacey," said Mr. Schubert, handing back my final report. "According to your summaries, you've earned so much in the stock market that you could retire in — oh, about two years."

I giggled. "Right," I said. "I'll move toMiamiat the ripe old age of fifteen." I looked at the front page of my report, which had a big, red A + at the top of it. It wasn't my first A or anything (I'm a pretty decent student), but I felt especially proud of it. I've always been good at math, but this class was something new. Math for Real Life, it was called. It was part of a program at school called Short Takes, in which all the students in every grade take the same special class. This is how it works: you study a subject intensively for a short period of time, and you learn awesome stuff that isn't usually taught in school. For instance, one really cool Short Takes class was

Modern Living, in which pairs of students had to "adopt" an egg and pretend it was their baby. We've also had Career Class, and special health and civics classes.

Math for Real Life was my favorite Short Takes class yet. In it, we had learned how to balance a checkbook, make a grocery budget, and figure out mortgage payments. We also learned how to play the stock market, which was the best part. Mr. Schubert told us that we each had (an imaginary) five thousand dollars to invest, and then he showed us how to read the financial pages and pick out stocks to buy. The report I had just gotten back showed the results of my investing, which were pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

I'm Stacey McGill, and the school I go to isStoneybrookMiddle School, which is inStoneybrook,Connecticut. I'm thirteen and in the eighth grade, which is why I cracked up when Mr. Schubert said I could retire in two years. I'm nowhere near ready for retirement. I have a long, exciting life in front of me, and there are lots of things I want to do before I start spending my days in a rocking chair. I don't know what I want to be "when I grow up," as we used to say in first grade, but lately I've been thinking about going to business school and becoming a trader on the stock exchange!