Stuck by Jennifer Swender

Author:Jennifer Swender [Swender, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

After the morning message, Ms. G. had us clear our desks.

“We’re going to do some practice for the Safety test,” she said. “I realize not all of you may be taking it on Friday, but the information is useful for everyone to review.”

She made a big sweep with her arm to divide the class into two teams. Bertie was on one side. I was on the other.

Then Ms. G. gave us three minutes to come up with team names. Our team decided to be the Safety Superstars. The other side was Lightning, which didn’t really make sense, except it had started to thunder outside. It was still far away, low and rumbly.

Ms. G. asked for one player from each team to come to the front of the room. Bertie’s hand shot into the air.

“Okay. It’s Bertie for Team Lightning,” Ms. G. said. Bertie skipped to the front and bounced from foot to foot. She looked at me and made a “come on” motion with her hand.

The last thing I wanted to do was stand up in front of the class and say “Look at me. Here I am.” But no one else from the Safety Superstars was raising their hand.

“Who can help us out?” Ms. G. asked.

I wanted to. I wanted to be the kind of kid who helped out.

I didn’t want to be the kind of kid who made a lot of noise and smudged other people’s papers and called them things that were really bad. I hadn’t read the study guide yet, but if it was mostly about how to be at school…

I raised my hand.

“Okay. It’s Austin for the Superstars,” Ms. G. said.

I walked to the front of the room.

“Raise your hand to answer, please,” Ms. G. said. “Here is your question. Imagine you are monitoring the hallway at dismissal. A second grader is running. What should you do?”

My hand and Bertie’s hand shot into the air at exactly the same time.

“Tie!” Ms. G. shouted. “And with a tie, we go to written responses. Please wait to start writing until I say Go.”

She handed Bertie an index card and a pencil. She handed me an index card and a pencil.

“On your marks,” Ms. G. said.

The yellow jackets started revving up. “Now, this is more like it,” they were saying. “This is what we’re talking about.”

“Get set.”

It’s not like I could ask to go to the bathroom. Why would I raise my hand to volunteer if I had to go to the bathroom?

I could do a coughing fit. But I didn’t know the nurse rules at this school. Maybe they would tell my mom to come get me, and she’d get mad and upset because they called her at work and I wasn’t really sick.

The palms of my hands started feeling slippery.

“Go!”

Bertie turned to the wall and held her card against it. Then she started writing super-fast. Maybe that’s why their team was called Lightning. I couldn’t see her letters from where I was standing.

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