Soar by Joan Bauer

Author:Joan Bauer [Bauer, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-11-22T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter

22

I HAVE A million questions I want to ask Franny about her dad, but everything says Don’t.

I’m trying to show Jerwal how to pick up a garbage bag. I’m live-streaming this to Yaff, but Jerwal’s not getting it.

“When you learn this, Jerwal, you can begin to clean my room,” I explain. “Won’t that be great?”

“Then you can clean my room,” Yaff tells him.

Jerwal shuts down at that, except for the blinking light in his eyes.

“We’ll talk about this later, Jerwal.”

Yaff sends me pictures of the science fair. Our tables were supposed to have been next to each other. “They put Lanie Costrider next to me! She won first prize with ‘How We Can Save the Ozone Layer.’ But I got more traffic.”

Yaff brought his gerbil, Brucie, to the fair. He built a maze for him to follow and tested how fast Brucie went through it. He changed the treats and colors so you could see what got Brucie moving and what made him stop. Yaff got awarded a SCIENCE IS FUN ribbon for his project. He hung the ribbon over the maze to show off, but Brucie got hold of it and started shredding it.

“When are you coming back?” Yaff asks.

I sigh. “I’m not sure.”

“So, see you pretty soon, Eagle Man.”

“Yeah . . . pretty soon . . .”

I don’t know how long I’ve got to rescue baseball.

And here’s the worst part: I don’t want to go back. I like my life in St. Louis, and I really miss Yaff—but wait! I can’t think this way!

Head in the game, Lopper.

Across the street, Bo is lugging an old suitcase from the garage. Then he carries out a broken rocking horse. Franny runs out of the house.

“No! Not the horse. That’s mine.”

Bo puts the horse down. It doesn’t rock; it flops over. He shakes his head. “It’s dead, Franny!”

“It’s not dead!” she yells.

El Grande stands up slowly and says something to them I can’t hear. Now El Grande is walking across the street toward me. Adler follows him. “Son, I want to talk to you.”

“Yes, sir.”

He looks at Jerwal, whose robot eyes glow. El Grande shakes his head. “I feel like I’m in a space movie.”

“It’s just everyday robotics.”

He unfolds the Hillcrest Herald. “I’ve heard from people on both sides about baseball at the middle school. I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet.”

IS BASEBALL HISTORY IN HILLCREST?

I feel my heart racing.

I’m getting sick of this!

Chill, Alice!

“We need a break here! How can we keep playing when nobody cares?” I flop down on the porch steps and put my head in my hands.

Jerwal beeps. El Grande lowers himself on a step.

“I figured you’d feel that way, and I came to tell you something. You know what blinders do for a horse when it’s running a race?”

“I think they keep the horse from looking around at other things.”

“That’s right. And I’m inclined to think you need to figure out a way to tell the team about keeping their eyes away from all these voices that are squawking and discouraging everybody.

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