“Well, he sure shouldn’t have gone along with it. But I wish you would’ve told Stacy not to play a joke on me.”
Julia nods. “I should’ve. I knew it was messed up. It can be hard to stand up to Stacy sometimes. But I shouldn’t have gone along with something I knew wasn’t right.”
“Unless you get commanded,” Isabella says, and she sounds so serious, it takes me a second to realize she’s joking.
Julia smiles. “Yeah, except then.” She holds up her hands, showing her uncrossed fingers, and it’s like she’s daring us.
I want to shout, “Command!” and tell Julia she has to stay best friends with us. But any friendship manual would tell you that’s not the way to keep a friend.
“So . . . what now?” Isabella asks.
“I guess I just wanted to know if . . .” Julia licks her lips. “If I’m still a part of the United Nations?”
“Of course you are!” Isabella says.
“Always,” I say.
Julia pinches the bridge of her nose and takes what our fifth-grade teacher called a cleansing breath. I figure it can’t hurt, and take one too.
I hold out my phone so we can all fit into the selfie. With our heads pressed close together and our smiles as wide as the sky, we look completely united.
Sometimes you don’t even realize you’re holding your breath until you finally let it out.
70
New Path
The next day at lunch, I get a great idea. It is an itchy-palm idea, but I can’t always worry about my hands. After all I went through with the armbands, I don’t want everything to just stay the same at school. It’s time for a change.
I stand up.
“Come on, let’s go!” I say to my friends. Although I understand everything Julia said yesterday, I’m still glad to have the United Nations together again. United.
“What?” Isabella asks. “Where?”
“Don’t worry about that,” I say. “Just come on.”
Julia zips up her lunch bag. “Fine.” She stands up.
I stop at the table where Julia’s other friends are. “Get up, everyone!” I tell them. “Come on.”
Stacy giggles and gets right up. In that moment, I can see what Julia meant about her. That’s one girl who is always going to be up for anything. Lynn sort of shakes her head but gets up too. And then everyone else gets up and follows me to the basketball courts. I figure there’s no reason we can’t all be united.
When we get there, everyone is cool and like, “Hey, how’s it going?” We are all wearing armbands, and I feel really proud about that.
Bernard grimaces at me, which is really him smiling, and I smile big back.
On the other side of Bernard is Yolanda. And on the other side of her is Tyler. They’re holding hands, and she is cheesing that upside-down Y like she just won a huge prize. I don’t know how I missed how big she was crushing on him.
The sun feels great on my face. Seeing the United Nations get a whole lot bigger feels awesome. I lean over and give Bernard a nudge.
“Hey, Bernard,” I say. “Do you think we could ask Mr. Levy for us to be lab partners again?”
He gives me a high five so hard, I have to rub my hand on my pants.
“Ow!” I say, laughing.
Bernard’s laughter is so loud, it’s like a lion’s roar.
71
Pages & Pages
That night, I pull out my eyeball journal. It’s gotten a little ratty over the course of the year.
I flip through the journal, looking over the things I wrote. Some of them are pages and pages long, but most of them are short and to the point.
Green eyes are hot!
Cafeteria lunches are nasty.
As I’m reading, Hana comes strolling into my room. Without knocking.
“You’re almost an eighth grader. You must think you’re all that.”
She joins me on my bed, close enough that our arms touch. The armband on my left arm touching the one on her right.
“Is eighth going to be easier?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah, it’s all chill after seventh,” she jokes, but then she gets serious. “Hey, good job with the armbands.”
I look at her. “But it’s not really going to change anything.”
“Change is hard.” She shrugs. “But that doesn’t mean we stop, right?”
“Right.”
“Besides,” she says, “seems like it changed you. And that’s pretty important.”
She gets up, and as she leaves, she holds her fist up and so I hold mine up too. And then she walks out . . . leaving the door open, of course.
I get up, shut the door, and go back to reading my journal. I went through a lot this year.
I wonder what pages I should paper-clip together so Ms. Jacobs doesn’t read them. There are a lot of embarrassing entries.
I decide not to clip any.
Maybe Emerson was right when he talked about learning through suffering. I mean, this year wasn’t easy, but I sure learned a lot.
I look at the piece of paper I tacked up with the quote Daddy and Hana told me. The James Baldwin one about not being able to change anything unless you face it. I may not have changed much, but I sure learned something important.
I make one final entry.
Some things are worth the trouble. For real.
Acknowledgments
The time between writing this book and getting it published was long. I mean, looooong. I couldn’t have kept going without the love and support of my husband, Keith, and my kids: Morgan and Jordan. My loves. My heart. My husband has always supported me on this journey. He cheered me on and never once said I should maybe stop trying, even after years of rejections. And my kids? Shoot. They just always knew I was going to get a book published. They’d tell their friends their mama was a writer and that was it. And I have to give a special shout-out to Morgan, who read so many variations of this book and loved it (at least so she said) every time.
My critique partner, Jenn Kompos, is the realest, most wonderful person, and I’m so blessed to have met her at an SCBWI conference years ago. Not only is her input always on point, it always, always makes my writing better. This book wouldn’t exist without her and all the times she made me dig deeper and find Shayla’s voice.
So much gratitude for my agent, Brenda Bowen, who called me to say she wanted to introduce Shayla to the world and in that first conversation talked about me holding my book in my hands. And then she went to work to make my dream come true. My editor, Alessandra Balzer, who is no joke and won’t let anything slide, but has the kindest way of letting me know when my work should be a bit more “nuanced.” I love the Balzer + Bray corner of HarperCollins we get to live in. Thank you to all the folks at HarperCollins who worked so hard to get this book out into the world: Kelsey Murphy, Renée Cafiero, Alison Donalty, Robby Imfeld, Ann Dye, Nellie Kurtzman, Patty Rosati, Molly Motch, Kathy Faber, Andrea Pappenheimer, and Kerry Moynagh. And my goodness, artist Alleanna Harris and designer Aurora Parlagreco, who gave me such a gorgeous cover? Goose bumps every time!
Thank you to my sensitivity readers for giving me such great input. Any mistakes with cultural representation are mine and mine alone.
Special shout-out to Jazz, who shared some middle school lingo (but if I got any of that wrong, it is totally my fault).
Mamasita Baunita. There’s just no me without you. My mom is the best. You think yours is, but mine really is. My sisters, Pamela and Linda—we are the Black Brontë sisters—and brother Jimmy: storytellers all. So much better than me. The “in-laws” who are truly blood. Marriages gave me fantastic sisters and some pretty cool brothers. Honestly, I’m fortunate to have such a wide, boisterous, loving family, and to all my aunts, uncles, cousins (especially Rach, who told me over and over to believe until I did), nieces, and nephews, you are overbrimming with love and stories. I owe you all the biggest most heartfelt thank-you.
My BFFs (no, seriously, FOREVER): Marisa, Alane, and Griff.
Don’t tell anyone my secrets, okay? I love you; you each have taught me what real friendship looks like.
My SOTYs, sisters for life: Kim, Kelli, Dawn, Lisa, Lisa, and Marisa. What can I even say? You’re my life support and obviously inspired the book club scene. My critique group—the Panama Math & Science Club. (Don’t ask.) Such a great group of writers who love and support each other. Lydia, Sally, Kath, Stacy, and Rose—we make such an awesome team! Can’t wait for the world to read your books. The NorCal writing community that I’ve become part of, and especially Misa, Kelly, Randy, Sabaa, Stephanie, Stacey, and Lindsay. My coworkers at SU who got to go on the best part of this journey with me and have supported me throughout.
I have a particular fondness for contests, as I gained so much from them. Pitch Madness gave me hope (#Teambowserscastle forever!); #DVpit showed me there was interest in Shayla’s story; WCNV helped me write a fantastic query; and PitchWars gave me such a wonderful writing community. They cheered every request and supported every pass, and if there was room here, I’d thank each and every one of them. Special love to Brenda, of course; Tabitha! And Kit, Tomi, and Adalyn, who were so generous with their time and answered questions, offering support and advice; and my sister-in-arms, Gwynne, who is going to get her shot.
My first publishing girls: Robyn, Nancy, and Virginia—you gave me so much confidence way back in the day, and I’m forever grateful. Speaking of Disney . . . Nikki Grimes, thank you for calling me a writer before anybody else did.
Thanks to Terrie, for listening and always, always being there; Trudy, for maybe being happier about this book selling than I was; Donna, for all the miles we’ve logged together; Keely, for hours on the phone and tarot readings; Karen, for letting me keep it real—it’s so cool being on this journey with you; the always-encouraging Carol, Lori and Sue, and my Zumberas, who have truly kept me sane for all these years (especially Gertrude, Mimi, Judith, and Anne, who are more than Zumberas but also the most wonderfulest of friends).
Thank you to Jacqueline Woodson, who wished me luck the day I went on sub (it worked!); Jason Reynolds, who welcomed me into the writers’ club when I was just a chick with a book deal and he was . . . Jason Reynolds; Angie Thomas, who maybe will never know how much it meant when she told me she liked my book; Erin Entrada Kelly (who let me fangirl all over her) and Jay Coles who are not only inspirations but also blew my mind by agreeing to read the book and said such amazingly kind things; Tim Federle, who gave me direction at a pivotal moment; Adam Silvera, who inspired me to expand Mr. Powell’s role; Dhonielle Clayton, Corey Ann Haydu, Nic Stone, and countless other authors who inspire and encourage me. And thank you to Angela at Kepler’s, who didn’t laugh when I told her I’d hold a signing at her bookstore one day and has cheered me on before there was anything to celebrate.
We need diverse books, Black girl magic is real, and Black lives matter.
About the Author
Photo credit Jordan Ramée
LISA MOORE RAMÉE was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in the Bay Area of California with her husband, two kids, and two obnoxious cats. This is her first novel.
You can visit her online at www.lisamooreramee.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Copyright
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
A GOOD KIND OF TROUBLE. Copyright © 2019 by Lisa Moore Ramée. Emoji icons provided by EmojiOne. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2019 by Alleanna Harris
Cover design by Aurora Parlagreco
* * *
Digital Edition MARCH 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-283670-0
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-283668-7
* * *
1920212223PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5H 4E3
www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida
Uttar Pradesh 201 301
www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
A Good Kind of Trouble Page 20