Listening for Crickets by David Gifaldi

Author:David Gifaldi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781627796781
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Chapter Eleven

MR. WYATT FINISHES the math lesson early and says we can start on our homework. We’re finding the areas of shapes.

Michelle sits directly across from me, so close we could touch each other’s faces. She wants to know if I ever get cold. “Without much hair like that,” she says. Her shoulders jump up like someone dropped an ice cube down her back.

She’s got thick brown hair. Some days she makes it into a ponytail. Today it hangs plain to her shoulders. It shifts a little with the shiver, then settles back.

“No,” I say. “I’m used to it.”

“Not even in winter?”

I don’t tell her I had long hair last winter. “Nope.”

“Bet your ears get red, though.”

She’s not dissing me. Her look is more like a scientist’s. Like she’s trying to figure just how red and cold ears the size of mine could get when the temperature drops below freezing.

Andy looks up from his notebook. “I’m already on number eighteen. We gotta measure something and find the area.” He snickers. “How ’bout your ears, Jake? Can we measure your ears?”

“Only if we can measure your butt,” I say right back.

Michelle laughs.

“Ha-ha,” Andy says, but he shuts up.

I tighten my grip on my nubby pencil, and draw the rectangle for problem number four. Slow and steady wins the race. That’s what Mrs. Maw says when someone has a hard time reading out loud. Slow and steady wins the race. But it’s not true. Michelle and Andy are always done before me. If Mrs. Maw wasn’t so nice I’d tell her that her slow and steady idea stinks.

At five to eleven Mr. Wyatt tells everyone to put away the math and get ready for reading. That’s when I’m supposed to go with Desiree and Austin to Mrs. Maw’s.

“Come on, Jake,” Desiree says as she walks by our group. Like she has to make sure I get to Mrs. Maw’s on time. Like the world will end if I don’t make it there exactly at eleven.

“Go ahead,” I say, pretending to be getting something from my desk.

She rolls her eyes, but leaves. I want to wait today because the class is reading a story about World War II. Yesterday Mrs. Maw was out sick, and the LEPs got to stay in the room for reading. We had work to do, but I mostly listened.

Dad said his Granddad Louie was in that war. He jumped out of airplanes. Dropped down behind enemy lines and almost got killed lots of times. But he didn’t. That’s why Dad is here and why me and Cassie are here too.

I lower my head so Mr. Wyatt doesn’t notice me. The story’s about the German Nazis. There’s a girl and her family that the Nazis are after and these other people are trying to help the family get away to safety. All the good people have to be really watchful. Really careful. They use code words so the Nazis don’t know that they’re trying to get the Jewish family to another country.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.