Miss Cherrybaum came over to her seat behind the desk. She stared at me over the golden microphone. I just knew I would be in so much trouble. What made me do something so dumb?
All of a sudden, Miss Cherrybaum broke into a smile and said, chipmunk-style, “Ruby Booker, THAT WAS GREAT!”
“What? I mean … what do you mean?” I asked Miss Cherrybaum.
“That was the most colorful, well-prepared yet unexpected school announcement I’ve ever heard. Your voice is beautiful!”
I just sat there blinking.
“Ruby Booker, you can come back to sing and read the announcements anytime!” Miss Cherrybaum squeaked. She also said that my voice reminded her of Ella Fitzgerald’s, a famous singer from the old days. That was probably a compliment.
Even if every kid in the school still didn’t know who I was, they would never forget the voice that floated out of the speakers into their classrooms. One thing was for sure. I knew three boys in this school who would now have to see me as an equal Booker. As long as they knew that I would be as big a Booker as they were at Hope Road Academy, that’s all that mattered to me.
When I walked back into Pluto-3, Miss Fuqua and the rest of my classmates gave me a standing ovation. Even Marquetta Loopy was standing.
From my classroom … down the stairs that lead to the door out of the school … out on the blacktop … and everywhere around the buses … all I heard were people talking about that “cool Ruby girl” who burst out singing on the PA system. It wouldn’t be long before everyone knew I was that “cool Ruby girl.”
I met my brothers at the front gates of the school grounds. They stood there, looking at me with their arms folded. They couldn’t believe what I had done. But they didn’t say one word, not even Ro. Out of all the stunts and pranks he’d pulled, he would never be able to top what I did. Ever. Even though Ro’s a prankster, he can’t sing half as good as me. Same with Marcellus, who hates it when anyone else does something he can’t do. And Tyner probably just couldn’t believe what his baby sis found the courage to do.
All of us Bookers walked down Hope Road. We turned on the corner of Fifty-fifth Street and passed Marcellus’s favorite malt shop, Joe Milky’s Place. We hit Chill Brook Avenue and saw the big boys playing basketball in Freedom Park. We made it to our brownstone in no time flat. And for the whole walk home, not one Booker boy said a peep to me. But they were smiling and giving me the Booker bump with their elbows. Ro and Marcellus climbed the stairs to our house and went inside. I sat on our stoop, and Tyner began to walk in, too. He stopped halfway up the steps, came back down, and sat next to me.
“I knew you could do it,” he said, then put an arm around my shoulders. I looked at him and smiled. “All our school needed was a little Ruby Booker flavor, and I’m glad you’re there.” He gave me a pound of Booker, like Daddy does to them, and then ran into the house.
I went in to get my pet iguana, Lady Love, and we came back out on the stoop. I wanted to take in the sunshine, watch the people walk past, and say hey to everyone who knew me. Most of all, I wanted to think about how good it felt to finally be on my way to becoming my own Booker.
If you know anything about Ruby Booker, you know she’s ready to make a name for herself. Well, her chance is coming up: There’s an animal trivia contest, and the winner gets season passes to the Chill Brook Zoo — for everyone in their grade!
The problem is, Ruby needs a little help. And for her entire life, help has come in the shape of Marcellus, Roosevelt, and Tyner. This time around, for the first time ever, she’ll have to face two of them. They’re older, they’re popular, and they’ve each got their own thing. But so does Ruby. And she’s about to show it to the world.
Read Trivia Queen, Third Grade Supreme to find out how Ruby gets the chance of a lifetime.
Extra special thanks to Andrea Pinkney and Regina Brooks. Thanks for not giving up on me, Ruby, and her beautiful family
Derrick Barnes is the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor–winning author of Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut. As well as the Ruby and the Booker Boys series, he has also written Stop, Drop, and Chill and Low-down Bad Day Blues as well as books for young adults. Derrick and his wife, Tinka, reside in Kansas City with their own version of the Booker boys—Ezra, Solomon, and Silas.
Other RUBY books
by Derrick Barnes
Brand New School, Brave New Ruby
Trivia Queen, Third Grade Supreme
The Slumber Party Payback
Ruby Flips for Attention
Text copyright © 2008 by Derrick Barnes
Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
First printing, July 2008
e-ISBN 978-1-338-31907-1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication 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 the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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