Contents · 7.MissinginAction 81 8.MoreThanaFriend 87 9.WatchYourSteps 103 10.TheLetter 113...

Contents1. Reunion 92. Welcome to Room 235 253. The Introduction 454. Let’s Get Back to Work 535. She’s Heeeere! 616. Show, but Don’t Tell! 717. Missing in Action 818. More Than a Friend 879. Watch Your Steps 10310. The Letter 11311. Welcome to the Club! 12312. You Don’t Have to See It to Believe It! 12913. A Good Night’s Rest 13714. Something to Jump About! 14515. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! 161

SomethingtoJumpAbout.qxp:Just Jump.qxd 11/16/07 8:16 AM Page 7

Summer had flown by, and signs of autumn’searly arrival could be seen everywhere. It was the begin-ning of September and after a long hot summer, it wasrefreshing to feel a slight breeze passing from the warmwind carrying it. Many of the leaves had already begunturning colorful reds, browns, golds, and yellows. Onthis day, as in years past, there was lots of excitement inthe air at Grover Cleveland Elementary School. Somestudents raced about all over the school grounds search-ing for old friends, while others waited patiently nearthe entrance with smiles of anticipation and hearts fullof hope for what lay behind the freshly coated darkgreen doors.

Reunion

Chapter One


Mixed, though not hidden among the returningpupils, stood a bright sea of brand-new faces. Each oneeasily identified by shared looks of curiosity and stom-achs rumbling with nervousness. It wasn’t unusual forthe new entrants to find themselves joined together bya common thought as well. None of them wanted toappear “too new” on the first day of school. Fitting inon the first day meant everything. For most of the stu-dents it was even more important than wearing newclothes and fashionable sneakers, and toting the latestdesigner notebooks gorged with countless pages of un-used paper. Waiting for the bell to ring signaling thestart of a new term seemed like it was taking forever.One of this year’s newcomers was a seventh-grader

named Brittany Bowman. She, like the others, stoodnervously in the crowd all the while praying that shewould come to like it at Grover Cleveland. Secretlythough, just like the others in attendance, she hoped onthis day, to make at least one new friend. But as quicklyas she had conceived it in her mind, she watched herdream fade away the second she had a slight collisionwith another student. That student was none other thanTanya Gordan, and from the moment their eyes met, itwas clear Brittany’s new school year had gotten off to ashaky start. At twelve years old, Brittany was tall for herage, often towering above her classmates. At five feetthree and one half inches, she stood one inch taller than

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Tanya. And while some might have considered this anadvantage, she often found herself defensive against thegirls who for some reason or another, found her heightthreatening. Though her presence was commanding,she was really quite a shy girl who loved to read storiesof faraway places that overflowed with adventure. Theonly thing she loved better than reading was dancing.Once, when she was eight years old, she had been

able to take dance classes and had begun to learn ballet.This was the style of dancing she loved most. Thelessons had only lasted a year, but what a memorableand special year it had been. Sometimes it bothered herthat no one could recognize the dancer she knew wasinside. It bothered her even more that every time shechanged schools someone tried to put a basketball intoher hands. With great determination she declared toherself, “I will become a great dancer one day.”Her long black braids framed her caramel-colored

face and lightly touched her shoulders. One singlebraid worn in front failed to cooperate and stay inplace. When she moved, it moved too. And when shetried to tuck it behind her ear, within seconds it wasright back in its usual place of partially covering her lefteye. It was clear that one unruly piece of hair could beannoying, but at the same time it acted as a tiny shieldof security. Each time the twist of hair draped itself overher eye, out of habit she took her hand and flipped it to

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the side. At least for now, she thought, fighting withthat bothersome braid gave her something to do.During the middle of August, Brittany had moved

from Virginia to New Jersey. She hated moving, but herfather was a master sergeant in the Marines, so her fam-ily never seemed to stay in one place for very long. Mov-ing was the reason her dance classes had ended. Assoon as she felt like she was getting better, it was onceagain time to move. Maybe that’s why she detested thesight of cardboard boxes outlined and bound withmasking tape. Ever since she could remember, much ofher life had been spent putting her things in cardboardboxes in one place and later taking them out in anotherplace. She often wondered what it would feel like to livein the same place for more than three years.Before coming to New Jersey she and her mother

had been living with her great-aunt Gladys who wasMrs. Bowman’s favorite aunt. She often told Brittany of thecountless summers she had spent with her when shewas a young girl, and how Aunt Gladys made sure thosedays were filled with fun. So when Mrs. Bowman heardthat Aunt Gladys had become too ill to care for herself,she and Brittany stayed with her and did whatever theycould to help. Brittany thought of how Great-auntGladys spent her last days talking about Great-uncleWillis who had passed on almost fifteen years ago.Though to hear her speak, one would think he had only

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walked around the corner to the store and would becoming through the front door at any minute.Listening to her speak of him in her “sweetest”

voice, gave a lasting testimony of her love and devotionto him. It was a sad time, but a special time for Mrs.Bowman because she was able to say good-bye to some-one who had been so special in her life and whom shedearly loved.Brittany thought of the last time she had seen her fa-

ther. That had been almost two years ago when he wasleaving for a long deployment, and this time he couldnot take them along. Mistakenly, she believed if shedidn’t hug him or say good-bye, then maybe he wouldn’tgo. Realizing now how important saying good-bye canbe, she had some regret about what she’d done andhow badly he must have felt. A part of her wished shecould tell him, but another part of her was mad that hehad left them. “He didn’t have to leave,” she told her-self. “We need him here with us.” She closed her eyesfor a few seconds. It was just long enough to say a quietprayer that God would one day bring her father safelyhome.Now, in yet another move, Brittany and her mother

had come to live with her mother’s youngest sisterFlossie. Her real name was Florence, but from child-hood Flossie had been her nickname and somehowhad stuck. Brittany liked her aunt and liked living in her

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house. She had her own room, and Aunt Flossie hadeven allowed her to decorate it in lavender, her favoritecolor. However, as much as she liked it there, it still wasn’tthe same as when it was just her and her mom and dad.The three of them together, she thought, had been thebest time, and having them together again would beeven better.Brittany still hadn’t met any of the other kids who

lived in the neighborhood. A few times she had madean attempt to venture out, but never got past the gate ofher aunt’s front yard. “When I start my new school,” shetold herself, “I’ll make some new friends.” She thoughtabout her best friend Jackie who she’d left behind inVirginia. They promised one another to faithfully keepin touch, but somehow neither of them had written orcalled since the move. She wished Jackie was standingnext to her now so she wouldn’t feel so alone. Taking adeep breath, she reminded herself that the day formeeting new people and trying to make new friendshad arrived.Turning toward the building and pressing both feet

to the ground, she waited with mixed feelings for thenew school year to start. This would be her third newschool in four years and she desperately wanted to fitin. She thought about her height and knew it wouldn’tbe easy. It was never an easy thing to stand taller thanmany of the boys in her class. She could ignore it, but

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what about the other kids? Would they be willing togive her a chance and accept her for the special personher mom and dad had always told her she was?Every few minutes or so, she wiped her hands down

the sides of her pretty new denim skirt and matchingjacket Aunt Flossie had bought her for this special day.Her mom had said it was too expensive, but AuntFlossie didn’t have any children and insisted that herniece have “the perfect outfit” for her first day at GroverCleveland. Occasionally, she glanced down at her cleanwhite sneakers and baby blue–colored ankle socks. Shefelt good about what she was wearing and smiled in-wardly. “This will be a good day,” she whispered. “Yes. . . a real good day.” When Brittany lived with her great-aunt Gladys, she remembered hearing her say each andevery morning, “This is another day given from theLord. It will be a good day, and I am glad to be in it.” Itdidn’t matter whether it was raining or sunny or cold.She would thank God no matter what the day broughther way. She’d say, “If you start the day looking for andexpecting something good, you’re gonna find it.”She missed hearing those words, and wasn’t really

sure if saying them worked, but she felt she had noth-ing to lose, so she tried speaking them to herself. “To-day will be the best day,” she softly told herself.Looking around at the many students in the schoolyard, she quietly hoped her something good was on its

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way. Little did she realize, something was coming allright, it just wasn’t what she’d hoped for or expected.Like so many of the returning students, Tanya had

arrived early looking to compare schedules and home-room class assignments with her friends from the Dou-ble Dutch Club. She hadn’t seen Nancy, Ming, Rachel,Lindsey, or Carla since June and was more than anxiousfor the group to start jumping again. She might not ad-mit it, but she had missed them terribly, and couldn’twait to see them. Anyone who knew Tanya also knewthe only thing that could bring her to school so early onany morning was the opportunity to jump DoubleDutch with the girls she considered her best friends inthe whole world.Surveying the grounds around her, she thought she

saw Carla moving through the crowd. Immediately shestarted waving her schedule high above her head andcalled out to her, “Hey Carla! Over here!” In her excite-ment, she pushed through the crowd in an attempt tomake her way over to the other side.Just as Tanya forged ahead to get by, Brittany leaned

down to tie her sneaker and both girls fell to theground. It wasn’t clear whether Brittany hadn’t seenTanya coming and decided to bend down at the wrongtime, or whether Tanya had failed to see her and some-how tripped over Brittany. Whatever the truth was, every-one could see from that first unplanned, uncomfortable

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introduction, they grated one another’s nerves like twopieces of very coarse sandpaper.Tanya shouted, “Why don’t you look out?” Everyone

knew Tanya wasn’t one to bite her tongue, but on thisfirst day back at school, it appeared maybe she had mether match. “Why don’t you look where you’re going?”the new girl snapped back. Her dad was a marine andbacking down wasn’t in the Bowman family vocabulary.“I was here first! Didn’t you see me coming?”“If I had seen you, I wouldn’t have just stood here so

you could knock me over.”“Knock you over?” Tanya pursed her lips. She was all

set to put the new girl in her place when she felt some-one tapping her on the back. It was Carla. “Did youhear?” she asked excitedly.Brittany picked herself up from the ground and be-

gan brushing grass off of her new skirt. The same skirtthat only a moment ago she’d been admiring, now hada grass stain that would probably never come out.Tanya gave her a disgusted look and turned away. Carlapeered past Tanya. “Who’s that?”“Just some new girl with a whole lotta mouth. . . .

Hear what?”“About Ming? She’s gone. She won’t be here this

year.”Tanya was more than surprised by Carla’s untimely

news. She was shocked. Wasn’t this day already going

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badly enough, she thought. It appeared that Brittanywasn’t the only one having a rough first day. Tanya wasfeeling it too. “What do you mean Ming’s gone? Shecan’t be gone! She’s one of the best jumpers on ourteam! Did she forget about the Jump Off we’re going toin December?”“Her grandfather wasn’t well and he wanted to go

back to see his homeland in Beijing. Ming said her par-ents thought it might be his last time, so the whole fam-ily went with him.”“When will they come back?”Carla threw up her hands. “I don’t know . . . maybe

never.”“Why are you sayin that?” Tanya demanded. “This is

Ming’s home. She loves living in America. I’ve heard hersay it a million times!” Tanya didn’t give Carla a chanceto disagree. “No, she’ll be back. I’m sure she’ll be back.Besides, we need her, and not just for jumping . . . she’sa good friend.”Carla nodded. “She is a good friend, and I miss her

too, but I think we’d better start looking for a newjumper for the team as soon as possible just in case.”“Just in case what?”“In case we never see Ming again.”Both Tanya and Carla found themselves caught in

the reality of the moment. Ming wouldn’t be with themthis school year to haggle over routines or to impart

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words of wisdom she had learned from her elderlygrandfather. They looked at each other and knew thisyear was going to be different. And maybe now theyweren’t so anxious to see it begin.“Hey!” a familiar voice shouted. “Let us see your

homeroom assignment!” It was Nancy. Walking besideher were Lindsey and Rachel. The three of them wereracing toward Carla and Tanya. Following close behindthem was Amber, the chubby little third-grader theyhad met at the end of last school year. Amber was well-liked by the group. In fact, having her around was likehaving a little sister. The girls didn’t mind her hangingaround, but everybody knew it just wasn’t cool to be aseventh-grader and be seen walking day after day with athird-grader. Amber was quick to remind them her sta-tus had changed. She was a fourth-grader now. Thoughshe didn’t like the tradition of the older kids sticking to-gether, she honored it. She was glad, however, thatwhen the time came to jump Double Dutch, none ofthose silly time-honored rules applied. She was wellaware if you knew how to jump, turn, and rhyme,whether you were seven or seventy-seven, you were justas important as anyone else in the group.In the world of Double Dutch, the only thing that

mattered was “the jump.” A good jump had to be cleanand smooth. Every move needed to look easy and effort-less. However, anyone who jumped regularly knew there

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were countless hours of hard work and sincere attemptsmade to get the routines to appear flawless. In the fewshort months since Amber began learning how to turn,she had become as good as any of the other girls in theclub. As far as she was concerned, that whole walking to-gether thing was nothing more than a technicality. Atechnicality that she believed once her jumping skillswere as good as the others, would forever disappear.Tanya was obviously glad to see her friends, but part

of her attention was focused on Brittany, who was stilltrying desperately to remove the stains from her skirtand sneakers. Nancy noticed Tanya staring over into thecrowd of students. “What are you looking at?” sheasked.“Nothing,” Tanya said wiping the dust off of her

new jeans. “I guess y’all heard about Ming leaving?”“Yeah,” said Lindsey, “we heard. I miss her already.”Rachel stepped into the middle of the circle of girls.

“You know what that means don’t ya? We better getbusy looking for a new jumper. We’ve got that big JumpOff coming up ya know.”Nancy’s smile seemed to annoy Tanya. “What’s so

funny Nancy? This is serious.”“I smiled because I remembered something Ming

told me. She said sometimes when it looks like a doorhas been closed or your way has been blocked, that isthe time you must let God help you. No matter how big

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or heavy the door might be, God will open it when Heis ready. We just have to remember to ask Him.”Grinning, Tanya poked Carla in the arm. “Hey, I

thought you said Ming was gone?”“She is. Whadayamean?”“I could have swore I just heard her voice. Only her

face was different. It was Nancy’s.”Nancy smiled. “I will take that as a compliment.”Tanya gave her a short puzzled stare and continued

her conversation. “Are any of us in the same home-room?”Lindsey pulled out her schedule. “I’ve got Mr. Car-

son. I heard he’s nice.”Carla was anxious to share her homeroom assign-

ment. “I heard he gives a whole lotta homework. I’mglad I’m in Miss Nelson’s class. At least I know we’ll getrecess.”“Look!” Nancy said excitedly shaking the hand that

held her schedule. “I’ve got Miss Nelson too!”“Not me,” said Rachel. “I lucked out. Looks like I’ve

got ole Mrs. Rumson. She’s been around forever. Carlatold me her mother had her when she was a girl. Doyou believe that? Who’d you get Tanya?”“I’m in Mr. Stevens’s homeroom.”“Who’s that?” asked Rachel. “I don’t know. He must

be new. If he is, this just might turn out to be a fun yearafter all.”

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“Why do you say that?” Nancy asked.At that moment, a huge smile beamed across

Tanya’s face. “Because everybody knows that new teach-ers don’t know nothing. How could they when they justfinished going to school themselves?”Carla agreed. “Yeah, and it takes a good three years for

them to really catch on to how things work around here.”Tanya gave Carla a “high five” to show she agreed.

“And by the time they figure things out, we’ll be on ourway to high school!”“In my homeland, a teacher is highly respected and

admired,” Nancy told them. “For one to teach is toshare knowledge and willingly give it to others.” Shethought hard. “I may want to return home somedayand teach the children of Sierra Leone.”Rachel looked at Nancy in disbelief. “You really

want to be a teacher? A teacher who gives tests, home-work, and maybe detentions?”Nancy laughed. “Yes, I will give homework and yes,

I will give detentions if and when they are needed.”“You would,” joked Rachel.Tanya brought the focus of the discussion back to

the homeroom assignments. “You mean none of youare in my class?”“Don’t worry about it,” Nancy assured her. “At least

we all have the same lunch period. We can still practiceand get ready for the Jump Off.”

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Finally, the bell sounded and the students, old andnew, hurriedly filed into the building. At the door’sentrance, the girls spiraled off in four different direc-tions. Five, if they counted Amber’s departure downthe fourth-grade corridor. “See ya later!” she calledlooking back and waving at the others. “See ya on theblacktop!”Tanya glanced at her schedule one more time as

though hoping the number 235 would miraculouslychange into something else. She wished hard that shecould be in the same homeroom as Rachel. She wouldn’teven mind getting Mr. Carson and the tremendousamount of homework assignments he was known togive. She just wanted to have at least one of her friendsthere with her.She looked at the schedule again. Everything was

the same so she found herself saying good-bye to every-one while she sauntered up the stairs in the direction ofhomeroom 235. When she got inside, Mr. Stevens wasalready writing an assignment on the board. The guessthat he was a new teacher was correct. He looked nomore than twenty-two and his eyes gleamed with ex-citement while his bushy red hair moved as he put uphis message using bright colored chalk. In big yellowcapital letters he wrote and underlined the words,YOUR FAMILY TREE.In addition to getting an assignment much too

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soon, Tanya also noticed something else that she founddisturbing. There was only one remaining empty seat inthe third row, but it was the person sitting in the seatbehind the empty one that really made her so tense. Itwas Brittany, the new girl from outside. Tanya quietlytook her seat, folded her hands, took a deep breath, andsighed. “It’s going to be a real long year.”

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Tanya sat waiting along with the rest of herclassmates for Mr. Stevens to stop writing on the black-board. “You don’t have to fill up the whole board to-day,” Tanya joked to herself. “You’ve got the wholeyear.” He finally finished listing the assignments thateveryone hoped he didn’t expect to be completed onthe first night, and turned around. With a great bigsmile he cheerfully announced, “Welcome to Room235! My name is Mr. Stevens and in addition to home-room, you will also have me for social studies.”

Welcometo Room 235

Chapter Two


Checking the list of work on the board, Tanya saidto the person on her left, “This is going to be harderthan I thought.” To complicate matters even more, sheremembered who was sitting in the seat behind her. Itwas Brittany, and she could feel the eyes of the “newgirl” reading the back of her head. Perhaps that was thereason she sat up so nice and straight in her seat whenMr. Stevens stated he was going to put everyone in theclass in alphabetical order. It was quite clear that Brit-tany wanted no part of sitting near Tanya either. “Yes!”Tanya exclaimed silently at hearing his announcement.“That’s the first good thing that’s happened today,” shethought.Carefully, she watched Mr. Stevens read through his

list one name at a time. Hearing him call Brittany’sname was music to Tanya’s ears. “Bowman, Brittany,”he declared. Knowing Brittany’s last name began withthe letter B helped Tanya feel confident that the chanceof them sitting close together wasn’t going to happen.Once Brittany was placed in the third seat of the firstrow, that confident feeling grew even more becauseTanya’s last name began with a G. Now she could relaxbecause she was pretty certain she’d end up in a differ-ent row. It couldn’t happen any other way.She watched student after student take his or her

place in the vacant seats behind Brittany. “Good!” shethought when she saw that the row had been filled. Mr.

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Stevens continued by calling the names of those whowould occupy seats in the second row. “JonathanFinn!” he called pointing at desk number one. The nextperson called was Melissa Garner, then Todd, whoselast name was Goodman. Tanya waited for Todd to takethat third seat.“Excuse me, Mr. Stevens,” Jonathan said. “Todd

Goodmanmoved.”So with one swift move of his pen, Mr. Stevens

crossed Todd’s name off his list and continued his rollcall. Tanya looked around at the students who were leftand suddenly got a bad feeling in the pit of her stom-ach. It came as no surprise that the next name calledwas hers. “Tanya Gordan!” he announced.Hearing her name gave her that same bad feeling

she got whenever she heard fingernails being scratchedfrom top to bottom on a chalkboard. She didn’t move,so he said her name again, “Tanya Gordan!” She didn’twant to believe it. There had to be some kind of mis-take. “How could this happen?” she asked herself. “Ofall the empty seats still left in the room, why did I haveto end up right next to that new girl?”“Please take your seat Miss Gordan,” Mr. Stevens

said, waving his seating chart. It was official.The third seat in the second row of room 235 be-

longed to Tanya. She followed her teacher’s directionand sat in the seat that just happened to be on Brittany’s

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right. She didn’t want to, but lost control of the move-ment of her head the second she sat down. Somethingimmediately caused her to turn and look to her left.Brittany, on the other hand, didn’t look back. She staredstraight ahead pretending to read the assignment list onthe blackboard. Tanya figured it was her own little wayof ignoring her. “Two can play this game,” she told her-self as she turned her head around and looked straightahead as well.Mr. Stevens continued with his roll call and made

sure everyone had a seat. By the time he called the verylast name, every seat in the room had been filled. Tanyasaw her hopes of throwing herself on his mercy andbegging for a different seat quickly go down the drain.Looking to her right Tanya noticed that the person

who had been placed next to her in the third row wasnone other than Theodore Lane, the person who manyof the kids considered to be the smartest boy in thewhole seventh grade. At least that’s what everyonethought about him last year in sixth grade. The goodthing was, he had probably used his summer months toget even smarter. She looked at him and smiled. Shewas pleased when she saw him smiling back.Most of the kids called Theodore “Bookworm” be-

cause he always had his nose buried in some kind ofbook. It was even rumored that in his spare time hestudied the dictionary and any volume of an encyclope-

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dia he could get his hands on. He was tall and skinnyand carried a little notepad and two sharpened pencilswherever he went. Anyone in seventh grade would betthat behind his slender face and dark brown eyes was amind equal to or surpassing that of even the smartestninth-grader. The kids who didn’t call him “Book-worm” referred to him as “the Professor.” Rarely didanyone ever call him Theodore. He even asked Mr.Stevens to call him “Professor.” Though it was a nick-name, it was a nickname he liked and wore proudly.Tanya figured having him sitting so close by could onlybe a benefit. At some point his presence, armed with astorehouse of knowledge, would have to come inhandy, especially on test day. She remembered Mr.Ames, her science teacher from last year, talking about aprocess he called “osmosis.” She was convinced thistheory was correct. She would get smarter just by sittingnext to someone who everyone knew was smart.At that very moment she resolved to make the most

of what the new term had brought her way thus far. Shethought about the interesting pair she had been placedbetween. On her left, the new girl whom she alreadyknew she would never see eye to eye with, and on herright, one of the smartest students to ever attend GroverCleveland. “I guess,” she told herself, “this is whatGrandma means when she says, ‘Sometimes we have tolearn to take the bitter with the sweet.’”

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Once Mr. Stevens had everyone in place, he posi-tioned himself at the front of the room and looked outat his new charges for the term. “Yes, I like this,” he said.“We’re going to have a splendid year. I can just feel it.”He began talking about social studies and why it

was such an important and a fun subject to study. Tanyalaughed to herself thinking she’d probably hear thesame speech from every teacher as she went to her newclasses that day.All teachers, she thought, believe their subject is

more important than the rest. Although Mr. Stevens inhis dark blue jeans and corduroy blazer was a bit un-usual, one could easily tell by the way he moved hishands as he walked up and down each aisle and staredinto the eyes of his students, that for him, this really wasthe most important subject any student could ever havethe pleasure of learning. Tanya hoped his passion forteaching about states, capitals, and economies wouldn’ttranslate into difficult test questions in the near future.But on the other hand, if they did, good old Theodorewas right there sitting next to her. One way or another,she knew no matter how much a teacher smiled on thefirst day of school and tried to make his or her classsound exciting, eventually it would all be reduced intosome kind of test. A test that if not passed, could easilyturn into an unwanted opportunity to hear the samelessons and face the same test questions all over again

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next term. At that very moment, she declared inwardlythat that was not going to happen to her.As Mr. Stevens outlined the topics they would learn

about this year, Tanya cut her eyes over to Brittany whogave the impression that she was pleased about every-thing she heard. Next to reading and hearing about thelands and places she had already visited, hearing aboutthe ones she one day hoped to see came a very closesecond. Seeing pictures of such places was the closestthing to actually being there. Brittany liked the way Mr.Stevens’s eyes came alive as he described some of theplaces he had been. He had toured places as far away asGreece, Italy, and West Africa. Looking at him, it washard to believe someone so young could have been tosuch exciting places in such a short lifetime. Later, every-one came to know he had come from a family that formany years had traveled around the world because ofhis father’s service for the government.Brittany realized she had something in common

with Mr. Stevens. Surely, he understood what it felt liketo move all the time, but unlike her, he seemed to haveloved the time he’d spent living in different placesaround the world. Making friends for Brittany was hard,but holding on to those friendships was even harder.Brittany found herself shouting out on impulse, “Didyou travel to all the places your father was assigned to?”“Everywhere,” he answered proudly. Hearing his

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response, Brittany knew he couldn’t possibly fully un-derstand what she was feeling since he had never beenseparated from his dad for long periods of time. Shewondered if Mr. Stevens had any idea how fortunate hehad been when he was growing up.Not missing a beat, Mr. Stevens shared a few of the

adventures he’d experienced as a boy when his father wasstationed in different parts of the world. Tanya, like otherstudents in the class, was amazed when he demonstratedthat he could speak four languages—one of them beingSwahili. Upon hearing this, she raised her hand. “Canyou say something to us in Swahili, Mr. Stevens?”Mr. Stevens was more than happy to oblige. “Kuna

nini?” he said. “That means, what’s up?”Some of the students tried to repeat the words, but

found it a little difficult. With patience and enthusiasm,Mr. Stevens again said the words, only more slowly. Theclass repeated after him, and this time their attempt wasmore successful.While not willing to fully admit it, there was a part

of Brittany that was happy about being in homeroom235. Tanya still wasn’t sure. After all, it was only the firstday, and every teacher goes out of his or her way tomake the first day of school appear more exciting thanthe last one their students remember before leaving forsummer vacation.Most of the morning was spent getting acquainted.

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Mr. Stevens passed out to his students a light blue–coloredpiece of paper covered with squares. Every square onthe sheet contained a question that needed to be an-swered by someone in the room. Each student had tofind someone to answer a question while trying to getfive answers in a row in any order. As soon as they gotthose five answers, they could sit down, hold up theirpaper, and say, “Five in a Row!”Tanya read the question contained in the first box of

the first column. “Find someone who is wearing darkblue and write his or her initials in this box.” The rulesstated that you could only ask a person for an answeronce. When she saw that Carl Brundidge was wearing ablue shirt, she moved quickly across the room to havehim initial her paper. Unfortunately, by the time shereached him, he had already initialed someone else’spaper, so she couldn’t get him to mark in the box onhers. No one had to tell her what she dreaded most. Shecould feel that Brittany was the person she needed tosign inside the box on her paper. She was wearing thatpretty dark blue denim skirt—the same skirt she waswearing when Tanya knocked her over out in the schoolyard. Tanya desperately looked around the room hop-ing to find someone else wearing blue. But they had allbeen taken, except for Brittany. Tanya pointed to theempty box on her paper. “Write your initials in thisone,” she demanded.

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Brittany took her pen and obliged. She wrote the let-ters BB in the box on Tanya’s paper, and said, “Now yousign this one.” She pointed at a box on her paper thatsaid, “someone you met before coming into room235.” Tanya took the paper and likewise signed her ini-tials, TG.Soon, Mr. Stevens’s room was buzzing with conver-

sation. Students who may have been new were talkingand laughing with students who had been at GroverCleveland for years. It was a good way for the studentsassigned to homeroom 235 to get acquainted. After alittle time had passed, one after another, students beganshouting, “Five in a Row!” in different areas of theroom. Mr. Stevens smiled, knowing the activity hadbeen successful. “Please return to your seats everyone.”Once his students were back in their seats, he looked atthem expectantly and asked, “Did everyone get achance to meet someone new?”“Yes,” the class responded.“Good!” he said. “Because I believe if we can get

along and work together this will be a terrific schoolyear for us all!” He waited a few seconds after lookingat the faces of his students. “Don’t you agree?”Tanya looked over at Brittany and this time Brittany

looked back. Though not entirely convinced theyagreed, both chimed in and responded with the rest ofthe students. In unison they all said, “Yes Mr. Stevens.”

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“Wonderful!” he said.Walking toward the blackboard, he picked up a

slender pointing stick that he used as he explained theassignments he’d written on the board. Tanya’s eyes fol-lowed the stick and felt relieved when he finally pointedat the fifth and last item on the list. It said, Your FamilyTree. While Brittany and Tanya looked straight ahead,each of their faces carried identical expressions of fear.They had only just met, but suddenly found themselvesgoing through similar emotions as they listened to Mr.Stevens explain that their first project for the year wouldbe that of putting together a family tree. “This project,”he said, “will be presented in class and later hung onthe classroom bulletin board. The exceptional ones,” hetold them, “will be displayed throughout the seventh-grade hallway.”That was a reward neither Tanya nor Brittany wanted

to receive. Both girls sat wondering how and where tobegin. Tanya didn’t remember much about her motherwhom she hadn’t seen since she was very little. And ex-cept for an occasional visit from her father, GrandmaLorraine was her family. Brittany, on the other hand, wasmore than a little mad at her father whom she hadn’tspoken to since he shipped out. She couldn’t evenimagine herself putting together any kind of project de-picting wonderful family ties and relationships.Tanya remembered a visit she’d had with her father

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on her birthday three years ago. She hadn’t heard any-thing from him since, and often wondered why. He toldher he would keep in touch, but hadn’t kept hispromise. The memory of that day was fading, and if itweren’t for the picture she had of the two of them shar-ing her birthday cake, she would not have believed hewas ever really there.Both girls inwardly dreaded the idea of doing the as-

signment and entertained thoughts of finding a way toavoid it. Tanya glanced up at the clock and saw therewere still two whole hours left before lunch. That wasthe only thing left that might make this day better shethought: jumping out on the blacktop with her friends.At least then she could erase the assignment from hermind while she was jumping, if even just for a few shortminutes.Mr. Stevens went on to explain that the family tree

assignment could be as creative as the students wantedit to be. “Understanding our past helps us as we live inthe present, and it connects us to our future.”Neither Tanya nor Brittany saw herself having a

problem living in the present, but looking back at thepast was sometimes hard and painful. They didn’t feelthey needed the past, knowing nothing could be doneto change it. Though each of them was unaware of thefeelings of the other, Brittany and Tanya had more incommon than they realized. Brittany wanted to raise

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her hand and tell everyone how mad she was about herdad being away for so long. And the idea of standingbefore the class telling about what she saw as a familybroken into pieces, made her feel sick inside.Mr. Stevens explained the task for the morning

would be to begin listing family members and memo-ries about each person on the list. So without takingany time to gather her thoughts, Brittany followed hisdirection and began her work. Tanya glanced over at herand tried to see what Brittany was writing. She didn’tappear to be having any trouble at all. And Tanya wasamazed to notice that from the moment Brittanypicked up her pencil, she steadily glided it across herpaper. The only time she lowered her head was whenMr. Stevens began walking up and down each aisle tosee how everyone was progressing with the assignment.Tanya, on the other hand, struggled with every thought

and every word, and she prayed for some ideas to beginswirling around in her head. She thought she couldwrite that she was the granddaughter of a rich AfricanQueen who would someday pass on her riches, land,and power to her beautiful grandchild in America.“Why can’t I just make it all up?” she asked herself.

“It would be so much easier and a lot more interestingthan my real life.” Making up and creating a familywould be no trouble at all. But telling the truth was an-other thing. And it was a lot more difficult thing to do.

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She resolved that whatever she decided to write on thepaper placed in front of her, she wasn’t going to missout on recess even if none of the words she put downon her paper were true. So once more, she picked upher pencil and waited as though it would begin writingall on its own. She pressed its point gently against thepaper and expected something to happen.At the top of her list, she wrote the name Lorraine

for her grandmother, and then the names Alfred andJanet. “Now,” she told herself, “I just need to writesomething I know about each of them.”One thing they shared was that all were kind, help-

ful, and caring people. Grandma Lorraine, she knew,loved her like she was her own. And the AJs had takenthe time to travel with the Double Dutch Club and sup-ported them in their first jumping competition. As faras Tanya was concerned, the kindnesses Mr. and Mrs. AJhad shown their group by sponsoring them gave them aspecial place in her heart and made them honoraryfamily members.The next name she wrote on her paper was that of

Edith Hughes, her Double Dutch coach whom shegreatly admired and respected. Tanya listed her nameright beside the AJs. These were people she consideredfamily and dared anyone to try to tell her she couldn’tinclude them in her family tree.The time the class was given for planning the assign-

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ment seemed to go on forever. Next, Tanya decided to listthe names Rachel, Lindsey, Nancy, Carla, and Ming. Noone could dispute the fact that these five girls were likeher sisters. “They will be part of my family tree,” shewhispered to herself proudly. Suddenly a project thatonly moments ago appeared so troublesome, got mucheasier every time Tanya jotted a name on her paper.Finally, Mr. Stevens asked everyone to turn their papers

over and they were dismissed for recess. Though anxiousto get outside to the blacktop, Tanya waited for Brittany toleave first. She didn’t want to chance having another run-in with her, so she pretended to erase something from herpaper until she saw Brittany turn her paper over andleave the room. The whole time they were working onthe assignment, Brittany never put her pencil down.Tanya could only assume her new rival had probablywritten something wonderful, interesting, and exciting.Once Brittany was safely out the door, Tanya got up

and brushed her hand alongside Brittany’s desk andknocked the paper to the floor. When she reacheddown to pick it up and return it, she saw nothing hadbeen written on either side of the paper. For one fleet-ing moment Tanya thought of giving the paper to Mr.Stevens. “That would wipe that smug look right off herface,” she told herself. But without warning, her desirefor revenge left her and she found herself suddenly feel-ing sorry for the girl she saw as her biggest adversary.

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She gently placed it back on the desk and quietlywalked outside.By the time Tanya got outside, she could see Brittany

standing over by the swings. She also noticed that theropes were already turning over on the blacktop. For abrief moment she thought she might go over to Brittanyand try to make amends for what had happened earlier.Maybe if she attempted to make things right, Brittanywould have a better impression of her new school.Tanya thought about the blank paper on Brittany’s deskand felt bad that she hadn’t tried to be nicer and helpher feel welcomed at Grover Cleveland.Just as Tanya started walking toward her, she noticed

two other girls from Mr. Stevens’s class approaching herto say hello. For Tanya, that was all she needed to see.She instantly turned herself around and raced over tothe blacktop area to meet up with her friends.Lindsey called out, “Hey, what happened to you?

You’re late ya know!”Tanya didn’t stop to answer. She immediately posi-

tioned herself to jump into the ropes with Rachel.“I know,” she said as she began to rock back and

forth a little. She waited for the perfect opportunity tojump in. “I had to finish up this family tree thing Mr.Stevens told us to do.”“Musta been pretty tough to make you get out here

so late,” Carla said.

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Tanya saw an opening and jumped inside. “It was alittle hard at first, but I’m getting it.”Suddenly, Carla noticed something different about

Tanya. “Hey,” she said. “Where’s your little red hat?”Everyone in the club knew she never jumped without it.“I stopped wearing it!” she yelled back while turn-

ing around as she jumped. “I’m in seventh grade. That’sfor little kids. . . . Don’t need it anymore!”Nancy wasn’t sure she believed what Tanya had told

Carla. She knew how much that little red hat meant toher. She figured now wasn’t the time to ask, so she de-cided to change the subject.“What is a family tree?”Lindsey stopped turning. “You don’t know what a

family tree is?”Nancy shook her head no.“You make something like a diagram that shows the

people in your family. It can go back for generations,”Carla offered.“Oh,” Nancy said, “kind of like pictures and words

about your life.”Tanya looked pleased. “Yeah, that’s it; pictures and

words. And you’re all going to be in mine. So make sureeverybody brings me a picture!”The girls weren’t sure what Tanya had in mind, but

they all said yes to bringing in a photograph and givingit to her as soon as they could find just the right one.

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She smiled, but then remembered the blank paperBrittany had pretended to write. She hadn’t listed anynames or descriptions of the people in her family, andTanya couldn’t get the sight of that empty page out ofher mind.Her jump abruptly came to a halt and she took her-

self out of the ropes. “Wait a minute,” she told the oth-ers. “I’ll be right back.”Tanya ran across the field over to the swings where she

had seen Brittany earlier. The two girls from Mr. Stevens’sclass she’d seen talking to her earlier were gone. Brittanysat still on the swing and focused her eyes on theground. “I’m sorry about this morning,” she heardsomeone say.Brittany lifted her head to find Tanya standing in

front of her. She squinted to shield her eyes from thestrong rays of the sun. Every muscle in her face formeda frown the second she saw who was standing aboveher. “Oh, it’s you again.”Tanya couldn’t believe she had stopped jumping

and left the blacktop to be on the receiving end of Brit-tany’s sarcasm. She turned and began walking awaywhen she heard Brittany call out to her. “Wait!” sheyelled. “It was my fault too.”Tanya wanted to leave it at that and call it even, but

she could feel something moving her to invite Brittanyto come and jump with the group. She could hear

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Coach Hughes saying, “To have friends, you must alwaystry and be friendly.” Remembering that, Tanya spoke be-fore she would allow herself to change her mind. “Youknow how to jumpDouble Dutch?”In a second, the frown was gone and Brittany’s face

lit up with excitement. “Yes I do! I used to jump at myold school.”“Well c’mon then,” Tanya invited. “We need another

person. One of our best jumpers ain’t here.”Brittany didn’t need her to ask twice. She hopped off

the swing and walked alongside Tanya. All of a suddenshe asked, “Is that the girl who went to China?”Tanya looked surprised. “What girl?”“The jumper you were talking about?”“How did you know about Ming?”“I heard you all talking about her earlier.”“I hope she comes back soon. We have a big compe-

tition coming up in a couple of months. And we’regonna need her.”By the time Tanya and Brittany got to the blacktop,

the students were being summoned; recess had ended.“Maybe you can jump with us after lunch tomorrow.We usually have about fifteen minutes left if we eat realfast.”Brittany looked puzzled. “Won’t that make you feel

sick?”

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Tanya laughed and said boldly, “Nothing can evermake me feel too sick to jump Double Dutch.”“Okay then, after lunch tomorrow,” Brittany

promptly agreed. “Isn’t this something?” she thought.The very person she figured to be the individual mostlikely to make her life miserable at her new school, sud-denly looked like she might become her new bestfriend. The girls headed back to class thinking maybebeing placed in homeroom 235 could turn out to be agood thing after all.

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Contents · 7.MissinginAction 81 8.MoreThanaFriend 87 9.WatchYourSteps 103 10.TheLetter 113...

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Transcript of Contents · 7.MissinginAction 81 8.MoreThanaFriend 87 9.WatchYourSteps 103 10.TheLetter 113...