"Tim Larsen! What do you have to say for yourself? I must say I am terribly disappointed in you. As you know you and your brother have been at the head of this class, and I certainly expect you of all people to set a good example for the others!"

For the first time in his thirteen years, Tim understood the expression that he'd read and heard on television couched as a joke: You're beautiful when you're angry! For Alice Appleton was most certainly beautiful at this very moment, Tim thought, far more beautiful than his former stepmother who had never been pretty when she was angry, which was quite often.

No, Miss Appleton was something special, that was for sure, and Tim was glad that he and Bennie had chosen her for their little experiment. She would make a perfect subject!

"Well, you see, Miss Appleton…" Tim began, then hesitated. He would have to make this turn out just right for his purposes.

"Yes, Tim? Yes?" Alice was anxious to hear something, anything from the boy that would help restore her faith in him.

"I… uh… Well, none of the paintings and stuff turned me on enough to write about them."

Miss Appleton was genuinely worried. "But… that's just not possible!" she declared. "A boy so sensitive… so…"

"My stepmother always said, art is bunk!" Tim was stealing it from something he'd learned in history. It was Henry Ford's infamous remark that "history is bunk". Actually old Carolyn had never opened her mouth to either one of the boys about a subject as lofty as art, and Tim had no idea what his father's ex-wife thought about the subject. His statement produced exactly the right effect, however, for Miss Appleton replied, "Why, you poor boy… I… I mean… Didn't I read in your record that your father is, uh, no longer married to… uh… your stepmother?"

"Yeah, they got divorced just a little bit ago… that's when we came to this school!" Tim guessed what Miss Appleton was thinking, and he was quite accurate.