A Special Gift by Marcia L. Simon

Author:Marcia L. Simon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: peer pressure, bullying, Juvenile Fiction, Ballet
ISBN: 9780152778651
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Published: 1978-08-14T14:00:00+00:00

“Crutches!” said George, when he met Peter in school on Monday morning. “How neat. Can I try them?”

“Sure,” said Peter, sitting down at his desk. But just then the bell rang. Peter needed his crutches to stand for the flag salute, so George had to wait to try them.

“I thought you just twisted your ankle,” George whispered. “What did you do, break it or something?”

“I did twist it,” Peter said, his voice muffled as he rummaged around inside his desk looking for his math book. “At basketball,” he added, pulling out his spelling and social studies books and a wad of uncollected homework papers.

“Boy, it sure must have hurt a lot,” George said. “You really acted brave, just getting up and walking off the court like that.” Peter practically had to crawl into his desk to find his math book, so George never heard whatever it was that he mumbled in reply.

At lunch time, George carried Peter’s jacket and lunch bag for him, and stood in line an extra time to get him a carton of chocolate milk. He held the school door open so Peter could swing himself outside after lunch, and he even brushed the snow off a bench so Peter could sit down.

What a great friend, Peter kept thinking. I wonder if he’d act this nice if he knew how I really hurt my ankle.

“Now can I try them?” George asked.

“Sure,” Peter said, sitting back and carefully lifting his injured leg up onto the bench. It still hurt if he bumped it. George took off across the snow, his red and black striped scarf flapping behind him. A few kids came over to ask if they could have a turn, too. Peter’s basketball buddies wanted to know when he could play again. They seemed disappointed when Peter said, “Not till after Christmas.”

“You know, we won on Saturday, by the skin of our teeth,” one of Peter’s teammates said. “Score was 21-19, too close for comfort. We could have used you.”

Even Elizabeth came over to see how Peter was. She hadn’t paid any attention to him in school since his first week of kindergarten, when she had given him a good, hard push each morning right into his classroom. She was mean and bossy then, and she seemed not to have changed for the better. “You’d better be careful with those crutches,” she said now. “They don’t belong to us, you know. If they get broken, you’re really going to be in trouble.”

“Mind your own business,” Peter answered pleasantly. It was a nice day even though it was below freezing. The sky was a clear, dark blue, almost purple, and the sun shone so brightly off the snow that everyone had to squint. When George circled around, Peter got him to return the crutches. Peter broke open a fresh pack of bubble gum and offered a piece to George. The gum was so cold that it shattered instead of bending, but it tasted just as sweet as ever. Peter examined the new baseball card that came in the gum.

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