Farah Rocks Summer Break by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Author:Susan Muaddi Darraj [Darraj, Susan Muaddi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction; Stone Arch Books; Farah Rocks; school; friendship; bullying; bullies; family; Arab American; Palestinian American; children with special needs; summer vacation; summer break; 9781496583406; 9781496583451
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2020-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Ms. Rivera recommends me to another friend, who also has a first grader.

Allie’s dad tells a neighbor about me too, and I get another “client” that way. I am up to one hundred and eighty dollars.

On Day Twenty-Two of summer vacation, Dr. Sharif, who lives two blocks away and also goes to our church, calls Baba. From Baba’s end of the conversation, I can tell he wants me to tutor his son in math.

“Looks like you have a reputation already, Farah,” Mama whispers to me as we listen to Baba talk to him. “You’ve started a little business here.”

Baba looks at me and raises his shoulders. He’s asking me what I think.

I give him a thumbs-up.

He hands me the phone so I can talk to Dr. Sharif myself.

“We will make blans after shursh on Sunday,” Dr. Sharif tells me. I try hard not to giggle because he sounds just like Baba. “And I will let others know too. Does your business have a name?”

“No, but maybe I should think of one,” I tell him.

“Every business needs a name that beoble will remember!” says Dr. Sharif.

Before I hang up, I remember Mama’s words: “You have to prepare. Make sure you are ready to work hard for the full hour.”

Marwan is a rowdy, funny kid with thick black eyebrows, but I don’t know him that well.

I ask Dr. Sharif about what Marwan learned last year in second grade. I make a note that he did mostly addition and subtraction. In third grade, I know he’ll be doing multiplication and division because that’s when I learned it.

Then I call Allie. “My tutoring is a real business now,” I tell her.

She sounds excited. “We should advertise it!” Allie says. “You can get more customers that way.”

We make a plan to get together the following week, and I hang up. I should feel happy that my plan is working out.

Why am I suddenly so nervous, then?

If I mess up somehow with Marwan, Dr. Sharif will know. And it’s different with him because he’s close friends with my parents. And what if he tells other people too?

I didn’t realize there would be so much pressure in having a business.

I think about other times I have been nervous. Sometimes I’d get nervous before a big math exam. Definitely the night before. I used to study and study until I knew I would be okay.

So maybe, I think to myself, I need to study to become a tutor. I had some good ideas with Samir and Esmeralda, but what if I run out?

I get Mama’s permission to use the iPad to research. I spend the next two hours on YouTube, watching videos of tips to help children learn. I also find some teacher resource websites with some ready-to-print worksheets.

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