Sellout

  “You interested?” she asked, grinning from ear to ear. She was wearing a white nightgown with red apples on it and still wore her new bracelet.

  “You know I am,” I said.

  I met my grandmother out in the living room and she handed me a fresh bowl of mint chocolate chip. We kicked our feet up and stared out the window.

  “You glad I came, Tilly?” I asked her.

  “Yeah, I’m glad, baby,” she said. She started humming “I Won’t Turn Back, Lord” and I grinned. I closed my eyes and listened to her song.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to my family for reading the earliest versions of this story and for offering your totally unbiased opinions. To Mom and Dad for buying that first story-writing computer game when I was a kid (eleven more to go!). To Davey, Sam, and Nate for your unwavering support, encouragement, and even the jokes. To my New School classmates and teachers for writing and critiquing alongside me. To Lara Saguisag, Ebony Harding, Coe Booth, and Daphne Benedis-Grab for always listening and answering. To Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Jennifer Rees, and David Levithan for the best present a girl could imagine and for encouraging me to take another look. To all of my friends and family who requested copies when Sellout was just an idea, I appreciate you all.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2010 by Ebony Joy Wilkins

  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.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Wilkins, Ebony Joy.

  Sellout / by Ebony Joy Wilkins.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: NaTasha loves her life of affluence in Adams Park, but her grandmother fears she has lost touch with her roots and whisks her off to Harlem, where NaTasha meets rough, streetwise girls at a crisis center and finds the courage to hold her own against them.

  [1. Self-realization—Fiction. 2. African Americans—Fiction. 3. Social classes—

  Fiction. 4. Identity—Fiction. 5. Grandmothers—Fiction. 6. Ballet—Fiction.

  7. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.W64853Sel 2010

  [Fic]—dc22

  2009020522

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-28321-2

  Cover photograph by Michael Frost

  Cover design by Lillie Howard