Pinned (9780545469845)
Page 13
I’m holding my breath. “I think.”
She goes to the front of the class. She’ll time me for the next twenty minutes. It’s just her and me at tutoring. I’m supposed to read this chapter and answer the questions once I’m done. Inside I feel like Jell-O. Cool and shaky. I been working on these two chapters for two weeks, even reading ’em at home and looking up words.
The other day I asked Peaches if she would help me sound out words I couldn’t pronounce in a book I was reading on my own. She still talking to me. And cooking with me. But she different. I did not choose sides — I want ’em both in my life. Adonis ain’t tell yet.
School’s ending in a month. I’m hoping all her dreams come true: algebra II over the summer, honors geometry in the fall, me and her opening Pinned, all grown-up and happy.
“Go,” Miss Baker saying.
As soon as I start, I’m stuck on the second question. Picking at my teeth, twisting the red plastic ring on my finger, I worry that maybe Miss Baker will give up on me one day ’cause she’ll see that reading and me equals zero.
“Breathe,” she say from the front of the room. “Otherwise you may get nervous and forget what you know, baby.”
I breathe. She’s right. You hold your breath even when you don’t know you doing it. Relax, I tell myself. The answer to the next question come then. Try, I remind myself when I get stuck again. Why is it so hard for some people? I try not to ask myself that again. Breathe. The next question got two parts. I look out the window. May is a pretty month. Not perfect. But getting better.
“Five more minutes.”
It’s not a long test. She say shorter work best for struggling readers. I erase only once. I think that means I know what I’m doing. I write and read and scratch. Looking at the clock, I speed up.
“Pencil down.” She come to my desk, smiling. “You did well?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think … well … I should be quiet.”
Taking the paper to her desk, she marking it right away. “Well … baby. Nice job.”
I’m almost shaking. I mean, I really studied this time. Telling myself I can be a better reader. It’s so hard. I’m starting to believe, though. I can get on grade level if I don’t give up. “Miss Baker …”
She staring at my paper. “Yes, sweetie?”
“How many did I get wrong?”
When she done marking, I walk over to her and look down. “Seventy-five.” It’s written in big, red numbers. “That the first time … in this class.”
“It’s the beginning,” she saying, “of you reading better and better.”
Leaving her class, I go looking for him like the way he looked and found me the other day. At the library, I see him working. King of the books. That’s a good name for him. That make me the queen.
Sneaking up behind him, covering up his eyes, I say, “Break time.”
He looking around ’cause he still be worried about what people think.
It’s almost empty in here. School’s over soon. Mrs. Carolyn’s in the back. He always gonna ask permission, do the right thing, be good. That’s okay. It’s him.
He hand me The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
I’m looking over the jacket. “Eyeglasses make you look smart.” Turning to the back cover. Telling him about my test and how it went. He congratulating me. I’m congratulating myself, too. It wasn’t easy. It been hard this whole year. Wrestling — I miss it.
He turning up the hall. I’m sitting on his lap, listening to him ask why I like to break all the rules. I point to the way we should go.
At the fountain by the bridge, drinking at the same time. Our lips ice-cold and warm. I think I hear him say, “I love you, Autumn Knight.”
Thanks and appreciation go to the following:
My editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney. You are the best. I could not have done it without you.
Coach Chris Edmonds (Pittsburgh Perry High School). Thanks for making yourself and your team available. Your insight and knowledge about wrestling were invaluable. Your kindness and warmth meant a great deal.
Yolanda Harris and Kathy Payne. Your wisdom and friendship over the years has comforted and strengthened me. And made me chuckle, too. Thanks for taking this journey with me.
Caribou Coffee (Freeport Road). I wrestled with this novel for many years. How helpful it was during the final 365 to find myself at your shop, windows pouring forth sunlight as readily as a warm cup of coffee from a pot. Friendly faces. A quiet space where silence does not enter, yet one’s muse surely can and does. I had several breakthroughs there, proving that the right place and space does matter.
Sharon G. Flake exploded onto the literary scene with her novel The Skin I’m In, for which she was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start. Since then she has become a multiple Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor winner and has been hailed as the voice of middle-grade youth and a Rising Star by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Many of Sharon’s novels have received ALA Notable and Best Books for Young Adults citations from the American Library Association. Her writing has been applauded for its on-point narrative that explores issues affecting teens from all walks of life. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Please visit Sharon at her website, www.sharongflake.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.
Copyright © 2012 by Sharon G. Flake
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.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flake, Sharon.
Pinned / Sharon G. Flake. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Adonis is smart, intellectually gifted and born without legs;
Autumn is strong, a great wrestler, and barely able to read in ninth grade — but Autumn is attracted to Adonis and determined to make him a part of her life whatever he or her best friend thinks.
ISBN 978-0-545-05718-9 — ISBN 978-0-545-05733-2
1. People with disabilities — Juvenile fiction. 2. Learning disabled — Juvenile fiction. 3. African Americans — Juvenile fiction. 4. High schools — Juvenile fiction. 5. Best friends — Juvenile fiction. 6. Friendship — Juvenile fiction. [1. People with disabilities — Fiction. 2. Learning disabilities — Fiction. 3. African Americans — Fiction. 4. High schools — Fiction. 5. Schools — Fiction. 6. Best friends — Fiction.
7. Friendship — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.F59816Pin 2012 813.6 — dc23
2012009239
First edition, October 2012
Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi & Nina Goffi
Cover photography © 2012 by Michael Frost
e-ISBN: 978-0-545-46984-5
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.