Franny was suddenly back at the Science Fair. Anthony Christopher Hernandez had just gotten his certificate for his Never-Miss Baseball Glove, and Franny looked very concerned, again.
“And first prize,” the principal began, “again goes to Franny—”
“Uh, that’s okay,” Franny interrupted nervously. “I’ll, uh, just pass on the certificate.”
“Of course not,” Mrs. Pierce said. “You won fair and square, Franny. You should be proud.”
“Okay, but you don’t have to read my name or anything. We all know my name.”
“Nonsense,” the principal said. “For her Time Warp Dessert Plate, first prize goes to Franny Kaboom Stein.”
The principal looked at the certificate more closely just to make sure she had read it correctly. She even cleaned her glasses.
“Is that right, Franny? Is your middle name ‘Kaboom’?”
Franny walked up and quietly took the certificate.
“Yes,” Franny said. “It is. My middle name is Kaboom.”
The kids looked at the principal. They looked at Miss Shelly. They looked at Franny. They looked at each other.
And then they erupted into an explosion of laughter. Franny Kaboom Stein. They could hardly believe it.
“It’s the most ridiculous name I ever heard!” one of the kids shouted.
“What kind of a middle name is that?”
Even Miss Shelly and the principal giggled a little. And Franny felt a terrible destructive rage start to boil inside her.
Franny knew she had one chance to beat Teen Franny and the horrible future that awaited her if she did not.
I didn’t have to change my name, she thought. I had to change how I felt about people laughing at it.
And then she chuckled. And she laughed. “Kaboom,” she said. “You’re right, it is a pretty ridiculous name.” And Franny suddenly didn’t really mind the kids laughing. It was a silly name, and it made her laugh too.
There are a lot of things worse than being laughed at, she thought.
