Anger Is a Gift Sneak Peek by Mark Oshiro

Author:Mark Oshiro [Oshiro, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250312792
Publisher: Tor Teen
Published: 2018-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

19

The news passed from person to person.

Moss saw people whispering in homeroom when he arrived on Monday morning; one was that girl Njemile currently had a crush on, and there were two guys on the football team on the opposite side of the room who glanced at Moss quickly, then looked away, their voices hushed and husky. Mrs. Torrance had her eyebrows raised when he looked her way. Would this plan get back to the other teachers at some point? Mrs. Torrance was at the church, but what if the less-invested administration got wind of it beforehand?

Stop thinking of the worst, Moss told himself as he sat down. We’ll deal with that if it happens. He looked over at Njemile, and she was already smiling at him. “What?” Moss said.

She shook her head. “It’s kinda cool, isn’t it? The way everyone seems so excited.”

“I hope they’re excited,” he said. “I still don’t believe it’s happening.”

“Oh, Moss,” she said. “How little faith you have in others.”

“Do you blame me? I don’t have much faith to go on these days, what with the world ending around us.”

“You know, sometimes it does feel like we’re in one of those trendy dystopian novels,” she admitted. “Except a lot less white.”

He laughed, but Mrs. Torrance cleared her throat at that moment, so he didn’t get to continue. The class focused their attention on one another as she began to take attendance. When Mrs. Torrance got to Moss’s name, he could have sworn she winked at him.

This is going to be a very strange week, he realized.

* * *

Tuesday morning. A searing sun already sat in the sky, and Moss wiped the sweat off his hairline before putting his fitted cap on his head. “You ready for this?” Moss said.

Reg shuffled in his chair, his right hand massaging his thigh just above the spot where the gauze ended. “I hope so,” he said. “I don’t want to sit at home any longer.”

“We got you,” Kaisha said. “Anything you need.”

“I’m just glad those detectors are off,” he said, and then he sighed loudly. “I wish they weren’t even here, though.”

“Maybe they’ll come to their senses,” said Moss, “and actually get rid of them.”

Kaisha and Reg scoffed at that simultaneously, then fell into a fit of giggles. Those two are made for each other, Moss thought.

“Well, no sense delaying this,” said Reg. He put his hands on the wheels on either side of his chair and gave himself a forceful shove forward. Kaisha stood behind him to help him up the makeshift ramp, and Moss stayed to the right. A crowd of students still milled about on the front lawn of campus, but Reg had wanted to give himself extra time to get inside, just in case he needed it.

He never made it to the ramp. Moss heard the applause first; then someone yelled out Reg’s name. The students of West Oakland High converged on Reg, and before Moss could react, they had grabbed ahold of his wheelchair.

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