So we walked down Sixth Avenue and she had my hand again, and I didn’t want to tell her to just let it go because I didn’t want to be mean or anything like that, but then I wondered if she thought I was going to kiss her good night.
“What are you thinking?” she asked. “You’re so quiet.”
“I was wondering what you were thinking,” I said.
“I’m just liking being with you,” she said.
We got to Waverly Place and I asked her if she needed me to go upstairs with her. She said yes.
We got into the elevator, and she leaned against me and put an arm around my waist.
The elevator stopped at her floor. We walked toward her door. She stopped and lifted her face toward me.
I didn’t want to kiss Caren Culpepper, and I didn’t want to look stupid like I’m afraid to kiss a girl, so I kind of leaned down a little and she came up a little and we kissed. Just as the door opened.
Monday morning. Math finally ended and I was on my way to World History when Kambui and LaShonda grabbed me in the hallway.
“Emergency meeting!” Kambui said in this dramatic whisper. He pulled me into Mr. Goldstein’s empty Typing class. We saw Bobbi, and LaShonda frantically waved her over.
Bobbi was out of breath when she got to us. “What’s up?” she asked.
I was thinking that, at the least, Sidney got arrested again over the weekend. Maybe he even died of an overdose.
“Zander, the whole seventh grade is talking about you and Caren going out Friday night, and how you were all over her!” LaShonda said.
“She said that her father caught you messing with her in the hallway,” Kambui said. “That true?”
“Man …”
“She said you were squeezing her hand so hard in the movie she was almost crying!” LaShonda said.
“Man …”
“She called me over the weekend and wanted me to tell you that you and her are through,” Bobbi said. “She said she wanted to save herself for marriage.”
“Man …”
FROM THE DIARY Of ALEXANDER SCOTT
Dear Diary,
Where are the headlines. The whole world is turning upside down every other minute and there’s nothing about it in the papers. One minute my man Sidney is depressed and acting like a stone-cold addict, and the next he’s a thousand miles away from drugs and back to kicking rump on the chessboard. Where were the headlines about that? And how come nobody writes about how rough a game of chess can be? One minute Jamie Pullman is all world, and the next minute he’s being slapped around by his father. Where were the headlines about that? I think it’s the little stuff going on that pushes the big stuff onto the front page. Ashley asked me to put some words together for The Palette, but what I’m thinking is that I need to learn more about what’s shaking before I throw it into the oven. The real deal lies somewhere between what you see on the front pages and the way some people are living their lives.
I can’t get the pictures that Uncle Guy showed us out of my mind. No way. I guess they weren’t important enough to make the news, but they were people, kids just like the ones going to Da Vinci, or Powell, or Boys and Girls. All they are now are a few pictures left for the world to see and somebody’s pain. That is so foul.
And how about that Japanese model who got too skinny to work because she wanted the job so bad and you have to be skinny to look good?
And yo, diary, what’s up with Caren? One minute I don’t want to see her because she’s not even near to being hot, and then I go out with her and she’s looking kind of hot and I don’t like her but I do like her in a way, but just when I decide that I need to drop a dime and tell her that we aren’t happening she tells the world that we’re not happening because I’m Wolfman chasing her in the moonlight or whatever.
Hey, diary, is the world spinning faster than I can think, or is the whole life thing a Big Secret and we’re only dealing with our little corner of it? How come I don’t have the real deal figured out yet? What’s up with that????
CRACKING THE CODE
Here’s how to decipher the hidden chessboard message that appears in Chapter Six. All sixty-four squares that appear on the chessboard are part of the code. Use the code-cracking grid below. Each chessboard square has five numbers. Find the first two numbers in the vertical column of the grid. Find the next three numbers in the horizontal column of the grid. Then find where the vertical numbers intersect with the horizontal numbers to locate the corresponding letter. These letters spell out Sidney’s message.
COMING UP NEXT … THE THIRD BOOK IN THE CRUISERS SERIES
A Star Is Born
Now it’s LaShonda’s turn in the spotlight, where she’s forced to consider what’s more important — worldwide fame and adulation or loyalty to her autistic brother. To find out whether LaShonda gets a standing ovation or the curtain pulled down on her, read the next book in the Cruisers series. Meanwhile, here’s a peek at some coming attractions from that book.
A STAR IS BORN
You can’t do that, LaShonda Powell!” Mr. Culpepper was already turning a fifth shade of red. “There will be NO nudity involved with any students from Da Vinci!”
“Then you better cancel the whole performance!” LaShonda was getting up close and personal, and Kambui was trying to get in between them.
“This is … this is … the chance of a lifetime, young lady….” Our assistant principal was beginning to sputter and Kambui was practically dragging LaShonda out of the door.
Bobbi McCall was in tears. Yes, tough-as-nails Bobbi was on the verge of a major boo-hoo.
“What’s going on?” I asked Bobbi in the hallway. “I thought LaShonda was doing great?”
“She was,” Bobbi said. “Until they told her that if she took the scholarship they would have to separate her from her brother. No way she’s doing that, Zander. And the Cruisers have to back her up!”
I knew the play we were going to put on would put the Cruisers on the map big-time, especially with all the noise about LaShonda’s costumes. But if we blew it after all the press coverage they wouldn’t be able to dig a hole deep enough for us to crawl in!
When some community activists wanted to do away with Da Vinci for being “too elitist,” the principal, Mrs. Maxwell, called a town meeting to discuss the school. Part of the meeting was a play written by the Cruisers based on Romeo and Juliet. But the hit of the play was the costumes — part Elizabethan and part Electric Grunge — designed by LaShonda. The New York Times called them “stunning!”
Now LaShonda wants to ditch the whole concept?
About the Author
WALTER DEAN MYERS
is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of nearly one hundred books for children and young adults. His extensive body of work includes Sunrise Over Fallujah, which was named one of the best books of 2008 by Publishers Weekly; Amiri and Odette: A Love Story; Fallen Angels; Harlem Summer; and Somewhere in the Darkness. Mr. Myers’s many awards include two Newbery Honors, five Coretta Scott King Author Book Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the 2010 Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. Mr. Myers lives in Jersey City, NJ.
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by Walter Dean Myers
Cover Art Copyright © 2011 By Leo Espinosa
Cover Design By Elizabeth B. Parisi
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
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First edition, August 2011
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eISBN: 978-0-545-38929-7
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