“Well . . . see . . . we—”
“Ahyoo!” Ghost fake-coughed, doing a terrible job at masking the fact that he was saying, you. As in, me.
“I . . . was feeling so . . . so, bad. We all were. But . . . I . . .”
“Just say it, Lu!” From Patty. Coach glanced at her, then back at me. Tilted his head, turned his eyes from circles to lines. I nodded, swallowed.
“Coach, I . . . I suggested we . . . um . . . we forfeit the championship.”
“For me?” he looked confused and honestly, a little mad. “Why would you . . . You all were fully prepared to run it without me. Y’all were ready.”
I looked around at my friends, my teammates, and everyone looked like they were waiting for me to explain, but I couldn’t find the right words. How do you explain something that’s just a feeling on the inside? Lightning in my gut?
“Coach, um, yesterday I learned a new word,” I started, trying to figure out how to make it make sense. “Integrity. You know what that means?” Coach raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms. “Well, if you don’t, it means basically having a gold medal . . . on the inside.”
“Does that mean you have to—” Sunny piped up, but was cut off.
“Sunny.” Dr. Lancaster used one finger to shush him, and his other hand to pat Sunny’s back.
“A gold medal on the inside, huh?” Coach said, now stepping toward me. “And where you learn that?”
“From, uh, my dad,” I said. And as Coach cut his eyes toward my dad, I continued, “From you.”
Coach’s arms dropped. Fell to his sides, loose but heavy.
“And all y’all good with this?” Coach asked, now looking around the room. Everyone nodded, some fast, some slow, some barely. Aaron’s was almost invisible and might’ve been a single nod. But they all nodded.
Coach got right up on me. Tilted his head to the right. Then to the left. Studying me. Looking for cracks. Then he smiled small. Nodded. “Okay. Okay, okay, well, I was going to surprise you all with something after the championship. But since, apparently, this is the championship, I guess I’ll give it to you now.” Coach stepped back. “Everybody line up.”
Huh? But we all maneuvered around the room side by side, lining the walls, going around our friends and families and other people who were sick, waiting to be called, watching us like some kind of stage play. On my right was Sunny, Patty, Ghost, and on my left, the last person in line—Aaron.
Coach reached in his back pocket, pulled out the medal.
The
Olympic
Gold
Medal.
You would’ve thought he pulled a sword out his back pocket the way people flipped out, and I couldn’t blame them. It was as if he was holding a star in the palm of his hand.
“You really were in the Olympics, Coach?” Deja asked.
“I knew it!” Krystal said.
Mikey smiled. With teeth.
Sunny teared up.
But something was different about the medal. It was just the gold plate. No ribbon to hang it around your neck, which is the best part, if you ask me. The best necklace in the world.
“This is my medal. I won this thing about twenty years ago, and it was like lightning struck me. I never felt so electric. It was the greatest day of my life, until Tyrone was born. But I lost this medal for a long time, and recently, lightning struck twice, a friend of mine, um . . . yeah . . . a friend of mine found it for me. And when he brought it to me, I realized something. I realized what I hope some of y’all realized this year. When I lost this medal, I didn’t really lose anything but a piece of gold. A symbol to remind me of my hard work. But I never needed to be reminded of that. When I got this medal back, it came with so much more. A different reminder. A reminder of the friends and family I made on that track putting in all that hard work. The help-ups, the cheers, the pushing, and pulling. Sharing the load. Finding a new kind of freedom. Being a better version of myself every day.” Then Coach dropped his head. “But I’m not perfect.”
“Head up, Coach!” Ghost ordered. Coach picked it up. His eyes were watering.
“I’m, um . . . I’m not perfect,” he repeated, now wiping away a tear. “But none of us are. And what we learn is that if we push, if we aren’t scared to be scared, if we’re not terrified of being uncomfortable, if we can trust ourselves and be honest about where we fall short, where we miss the bar, and can accept a little help, which we all need sometimes, we can be . . . good.”
“We can be great,” Aaron spoke up. And it didn’t sound like a suck-up.
“Yeah,” Coach sniffled. “Yeah. Okay . . . that’s enough of that.” He tried to pull himself together. Took some deep breaths, wiped his face. “So, to finally celebrate you all . . .” Coach reached in his other back pocket and pulled out a bunch of fabric that was all paper-clipped together. He slid the clip off and held the bunch of purple squares in the air. “This was—is—my Olympic ribbon. I cut it up this morning. I want each of you to take a piece and pass the bunch to the person next to you so that they can take a piece. Right now, we get to decide what this—this first-place ribbon—is to us. We get to name ourselves. Some people call us a team. Defenders. Some say we’re just knucklehead kids and a cab-driving coach. I call us family.” More sniffles, as he handed the pieces of ribbon to Whit. Whit took a square off the top, passed them to Krystal. Krystal took one, passed them to Deja. Deja took one and passed them to Chris. Chris to Brit-Brat. Brit-Brat to Mikey. And on and on and on and on until Curron passed them to Ghost.
Five left.
Five of us left.
Ghost took a piece. Passed them to Patty.
Patty took a piece. Passed them to Sunny.
Sunny took a piece. Passed them to me.
And I took my piece, and put the last piece in Aaron’s hand.
He closed his fingers around mine and said, “Thank you . . . Captain.”
I nodded, replied, “All good, bro.”
All good.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Well, we’ve come to the end of what, for me, has been an incredible journey. There are so many people to thank. First and foremost, my editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, and agent Elena Giovinazzo. Also, Holly McGhee, who was there at the conception of this series. I’m grateful to my childhood friends, to the real Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu. To the real Aaron, Mikey, and Curron. To the real Krystal, Deja, and Brit-Brat. To the real Coach Brody. I owe you all and am grateful for the impact you all have had on my life. A special thank-you to Michael Posey, for helping out with the details of the sport. A huge thank-you to Vanessa Brantley-Newton for nailing the jacket art. I think they’re absolutely perfect, and (hopefully) will stand the test of time. And most importantly, thank you to the readers. To everyone who has run these races. To every “This is the first book I’ve ever read, cover to cover.” To every “What?? How you just gonna end it like that?” To every “I’ve never seen myself in a book before.” I love you. And know, you’ve changed my life.
Remember, tuck your elbows, open your stride, breathe, breathe, breathe.
I’ll see you at the finish line,
Jason
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
jason reynolds is crazy. About stories.
Whenever he’s not writing stories, he’s sitting at the window waiting for the ice-cream truck to roll by. But not so that he can run out to get a Popsicle or a cone of soft serve. So that he can dance to the music. And he has a lot of reasons to dance. He’s won a bunch of awards, like the Newbery Honor, the Michael L. Printz Honor, Coretta Scott King Author Honors, a pair of Walter Dean Myers Awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and he was a National Book Award Finalist. See? Dance-worthy, right? But more importantly, he dances because he knows you’re reading.
So if you ever see him, sing the ice-cream truck song and watch him bust out the Robot. Trust me, it’s just as good as his books. Check him out at jasonwritesbooks.com.
A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book
; Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster, New York
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/jason-reynolds
also by jason reynolds
When I Was the Greatest
The Boy in the Black Suit
All American Boys
As Brave As You
Long Way Down
For Every One
The Track Series:
Ghost
Patina
Sunny
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2018 by Jason Reynolds
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2018 by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Atheneum logo is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover and Irene Metaxatos
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Reynolds, Jason, author.
Title: Lu / Jason Reynolds.
Description: First edition. | New York : Atheneum, [2018] | Series: Track ; 4 | “A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book.” | Summary: “Lu knows he can lead Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and the team to victory at the championships, but it might not be as easy as it seems. Suddenly, there are hurdles in Lu’s way—literally and not-so-literally—and Lu needs to figure out, fast, what winning the gold really means”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018025798
ISBN 9781481450249 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481450263 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Track and field—Fiction. | Conduct of life—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction. | Pregnancy—Fiction. | Albinos and albinism—Fiction. | African Americans—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship.
Classification: LCC PZ7.R33593 Lu 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018025798
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