One Kid's Trash by Jamie Sumner

Author:Jamie Sumner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2021-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Vij walks me to the nurse’s office. Like my mom, Nurse Ruby is from Texas. Except unlike my mom, you can really tell. She’s got a big accent and even bigger hair.

“Here, hon.” She hands me a bag filled with ice and wrapped in a towel. “I know it’s cold, but you’ve got to keep that on there or the swelling’s going to turn you black and blue.”

“Thanks, Nurse Ruby.”

“Sure thing.”

She turns to Vij. “You look pretty ragged yourself. Want some juice?”

He shakes his head but grins up at her. Nurse Ruby is new this year and pretty. When she walks out, Vij whispers, “Think you could look in her trash?”

I smile, but it hurts—because of my face, but also because Vij felt like he had to save me on the court. He threw himself in front of the ball to protect little baby Hugo, again. So much for the legend that was the Garbologist.

“Sorry about your shirt,” I mumble. A few drops of blood leak out onto the towel.

I’m lying on the cot, and Vij sits in the blue plastic chair near my feet. We look down at the balled-up undershirt in my hands. It’s covered in rusty red spots from my bloody nose. Apparently, he donated it to the cause when I was passed out on the gym floor.

“I think the blood is an improvement,” he jokes, but then looks out the window. “In the locker room… I should have said something. Chance is an idiot.”

When it comes to what hurts worse, it’s a tie between my nose and the embarrassment.

I close my eyes. “It’s cool.”

He nudges my foot with his knee, so I look at him.

“Hey, but you’re a celebrity now with the whole garbology thing. You have to admit it’s pretty awesome.”

He’s trying to make me feel better, which makes it a thousand times worse. Between what happened in the locker room and my total defeat on the dodgeball court, I lost any credit I’d just built up by being the Garbologist.

“Yeah, the infamous trashman,” I say with fake cheer. A dribble of ice water runs down the side of my face and into my ear.

Vij grins and adds, “Star Trash: The Next Generation.”

“Oscar the Grouch 2.0.”

“King of Compost. No, Master of the Dump!”

Vij salutes me and then shakes his head. “Chance, man. What a waste of so much space.”

“No kidding,” I say, and make myself smile.

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