Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Author:Kathryn Erskine [Erskine, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Contemporary, Young Adult, Childrens, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781409538585
Publisher: Puffin
Published: 2010-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

okay?

I fell off my bike, Rachel says.

How? someone asks.

I was riding past the middle school and I heard

sirens and I thought there was another shooting.

117

Oh my gosh! Was there? a girl asks.

No—duh! a boy says. We would’ve heard by now.

Rachel shakes her head. No. But I was watching the police car coming up the road so I wasn’t watching where I was going and I went off the sidewalk and fell off my bike.

She looks down. It really hurt. I was riding so fast to try to get away because I was scared of being shot like . . . She stops talking and turns to me. So does everyone else. It is very quiet.

You should watch where you’re going when you’re riding a bike, I tell her. That’s what Devon always told me.

Some people turn away and some shake their heads

but I know I’m right. Emma and some of the other girls stand around Rachel so she is in the middle of a circle and they are all staring at her. I wouldn’t like that so I stare at them and hope they get the message to leave her alone.

Finally Rachel asks if her face looks really bad and Emma says, Of course not. It looks totally fi ne.

Rachel says, Really? She looks around and her eyes stop at me.

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I look away because I wasn’t staring at her like those other girls.

What? she asks. Her voice is soft and shaky. Does my face look bad?

Even though I’m not looking at her I can feel her Look At The Person. I wonder how she knows that honesty is one of my skills. Yes, I say. It looks bad. It’s purple and puffy and really gross.

Rachel starts crying and runs out of the room.

CAITLIN! Emma yells. That was so mean! Didn’t anyone ever tell you how to be a friend?

That’s when I realize that maybe I should listen to Mrs.

Brook when she talks about friends. Now that Devon isn’t here to tell me.

I try to say that purple is actually my favorite color but too many of the girls are yelling at me. They say that Rachel will be self-conscious and embarrassed and it’s all my fault.

I hate self-conscious and embarrassed. I decide to help Rachel. I’m a very helpful person. I look around the room but I know there’s no place for her to hide. There’s no sofa 119

or blanket or anyplace where she can be in her Personal Space and not have people staring at her.

Then I have an idea. I pull her desk out of the row and push it all the way to the back corner of the room and shove it up against the wall where the terrarium was until the turtle died.

I hear voices saying, What is she doing?

She’s such a weirdo!

She’s fi nally cracked!

But I don’t care. I’m being a friend.

I go back and get Rachel’s chair and put it under her desk so it’s facing the corner. Now no one can see her face and she can hide from everyone.

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