Run for Your Life by Trevor Kew

Author:Trevor Kew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lorimer
Published: 2017-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

10

Worn-Out Sneakers

“Why are you walking like a pirate?” asks Yongwon the next morning at school. “Are you planning to audition for the school play?”

“Shut up,” I tell him. I start running up the steps just to prove I am fine. But every muscle in my body complains and I have to stop before I reach the top. “It’s probably just a cramp or something. Stupid Fun Run yesterday.”

“Haven’t you got some other race today?”

I nod. “Yeah — it’s the qualifiers for the city final!”

Yongwon lets out a long low whistle. “Hope you’re not too tired to run.”

“I’m never too tired to run,” I tell him. “And never too tired to win either.”

The math classroom is empty, so we sit right at the back. That is when I tell Yongwon about what happened the night before in Cavendish Park. I don’t bring up the groceries that we carried over or the tears in my dad’s eyes. But I do tell him about the eggs and the insults that were hurled at Jason’s place.

“That’s horrible,” says Yongwon. “They’ve already been through so much. And now some idiots go and do that.”

“I know. It makes me feel ashamed of Victoria.”

Yongwon shakes his head. “Nah — there are people like that everywhere. At my elementary school back in South Korea, we had a few kids whose families had escaped from North Korea.”

“There were North Korean refugees in your school?” I exclaim. “You never told me that.”

“Yeah. It was really hard for them. They didn’t understand how anything worked in South Korea. Most people were nice and tried to help them out. But there were a few kids at school who were pretty brutal. They called them enemies or spies or said their parents had come to steal our parents’ jobs.”

“Did you ever think about doing anything about it?” I ask him. “What about telling the tough kids to shut their fat mouths?”

Yongwon shakes his head. “Maybe I should have. But it was easier to just stay quiet, you know? They were really mean kids. I am ashamed to say it, but I was just glad they weren’t picking on me.”

“Well — if I find out who egged Jason’s place,” I tell him, “they’re toast.”

He laughs bitterly. “Eggs and toast.”

“That’s not funny, Yongwon.”

“It’s a bit funny,” he says.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Yongwon thinks for a moment. “There’s one more thing I remember about it. My mom always said that the kids who bullied the North Koreans had learned that kind of thing from their parents. So yeah — it is the kid’s fault. But the parents are part of the problem too.”

Yongwon always calls himself a dumb jock. Most of the time, he plays that part pretty well. But he isn’t one. Forget grades. Yongwon is actually a pretty smart guy.

In math class, equations, fractions, square roots, and variables swirl around me. There is no room in my head for anything right now except for the race after school. Well — that and what happened to Jason and his family.

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