The New Kid Read online

  She shrugs. “It’ll do.”

  He sighs again, but not so loudly that she can hear him. It’s mainly in his head.

  GAM pats the bed. “Now come on over here and tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  Gavin doesn’t want to sit down next to GAM and tell her what he’s been up to. He wants to go to the kitchen and get some chips before his mother gets home from her job at the train station. He wants to relax. Yet he sits on the foot of the bed and waits.

  “So how have you been doing?”

  “Fine,” he says.

  “How’s school?” she asks, looking at him intently.

  “Fine,” he says.

  “Are you getting good grades?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What’s your favorite subject?”

  “Science.”

  “Mmm. Go get me a nice cup of tea. Would you?”

  “Yes, Aunt Myrtle.”

  He doesn’t sigh again until he’s on the other side of the guest room door. Now his snack will be further delayed, which means his homework is going to be delayed, which means getting permission from his mom, who should be home from work any minute, to ride his bike over to Richard’s after homework will be delayed.

  He goes into the kitchen to put the teakettle on the burner, and there’s his mother, carrying in a bag of groceries. She reaches into the bag, takes out an apple, and rinses it under the tap. “Here,” she says, handing it to him.

  He looks at the apple in his hand and tries not to frown at it.

  “Oh, Gavin,” his mother continues, “go see if Aunt Myrtle needs anything.”

  Once again, Gavin sighs inwardly. Then he has a kind of sneaky idea. “I already know,” he says. “She wants a cup of tea.”

  “Okay, I’ll take care of that.” His mother puts the kettle on and gets a mug out of the cabinet. While she stands beside the stove and starts to go through a stack of mail, Gavin is able to get the package of chocolate chip cookies out of the cabinet, pluck out three, and slip them into his pocket. He returns the package to the cabinet and almost tiptoes out of the kitchen.

  “Wait,” his mother says.

  He stops. Did she see him? She picks up the apple he left on the counter. “You forgot your apple.”

  Gavin grabs the apple and finally eases out the back door onto the porch. He sits on the top step and looks at his new bicycle and eats his cookies. He loves that silver-and-blue bicycle. It’s the best, most beautiful bicycle he’s ever seen. Well, maybe not the most beautiful in the whole wide world, but it’s the most beautiful one to Gavin.

  After a while he gets up, returns to the kitchen, and places the apple in the fruit bowl with all the other apples. He settles at the table to start his homework. He doesn’t want to chance doing it in his bedroom. He’d have to pass the guest room to get there, and Aunt Myrtle might see him and think of something else she wants him to do.

  Three

  Here Comes the Bike Squad

  So the plan is for him, Richard, Carlos, and Calvin to ride their bikes to school the next day. Each boy has already promised his parents that he will be sure to ride with a helmet on.

  They all had to promise that they would stay on the quiet side streets instead of the busy main roads, too. Gavin has never ridden his bike to school before. He can hardly contain his excitement.

  In the morning, Gavin slips out of his bedroom and tiptoes past the guest room, hoping that Aunt Myrtle can’t hear him. He’s anxious to get started on his day. The last thing he needs is to be quizzed by GAM about chores and school and if he’s being helpful and how he’s doing. And he certainly doesn’t want to go through that window-opening-and-closing thing again.

  He slips into the bathroom and quickly brushes his teeth and runs a brush through his hair. Hoping he’s out of her earshot, he dashes down the stairs, grabs his lunch from the refrigerator, downs a bowl of Cheerios while standing at the sink, and turns to head out the back door.

  But his mother appears in the kitchen doorway with her arms crossed.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she asks.

  “I made up my bed, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, ate breakfast—everything. We’re all meeting at Richard’s and riding our bikes to school together.” Surely his mother can’t find fault with that.

  “You have your helmet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t you dare ride your bike without it.”

  “Okay,” Gavin says, hoisting his backpack higher onto his shoulder.

  “Come straight home after school.”

  “I will.”

  Finally he’s released. He heads out the door toward his beloved silver-and-blue bicycle from Wheel World. It’s waiting for him right where he left it outside the garage. He grabs his helmet, which hangs from the handlebars, and slips it on. He adjusts his backpack, climbs onto his bike, and at last—he’s off.

  Biking with his friends toward Carver Elementary feels great. They stick to the side streets but still arrive at school much earlier than usual, which is actually not what Gavin had in mind. He’d pictured arriving when the playground was full of kids and all of them stopping their play to turn and stare at the bicycle brigade. But there are only a few students on the playground, and maybe only two or three notice Gavin and his friends.

  There’s no bike riding allowed on the playground, so they have to dismount and walk to the bicycle rack at the side of the building, next to the schoolyard gate.

  Gavin’s friends take their locks out of their backpacks and prepare to secure their bikes to the rack. It’s only then that Gavin realizes he forgot his! While the others are locking their bikes to the rack, Gavin is just standing there, staring at his beautiful silver-and-blue bicycle.

  “What’s wrong?” Richard asks, putting the key to his lock in his pocket.

  “I forgot my lock.”

  “Wow,” Richard says. He frowns. Then he turns to the rest of the group. “Hey, Gavin forgot his lock.”

  “He should take his bike back home and get a ride to school,” Carlos suggests.

  “No. Then he’ll be super late,” Calvin says.

  “Better to be late than get your bike stolen,” counters Richard.

  “You think my bike’s going to get stolen?” Gavin asks.

  “I think people going by will just think it’s locked,” Calvin says. “Or maybe one of us can lock our bike to Gavin’s.”

  The boys study their own locks.

  “They’re not long enough,” Carlos points out.

  Gavin positions his bike between Carlos’s and Richard’s, hoping everyone will just assume all the bikes are locked. He and his friends walk toward Room Ten’s lineup area. Gavin looks back at his bicycle with a pinch of dread. Then he tells himself that it will be all right. Nobody’s going to steal his bike. Nobody’s going to think that it’s not locked.

  Gavin repeats this to himself as he’s putting his lunch and helmet away in his cubby. Happily, he’s one of the students who are allowed to hang their backpacks on their chairs. Some kids don’t have that privilege because they’re constantly going in their bags for small toys or snacks. Those are the ones who must keep their backpacks in their cubbies.

  He takes his seat at his table and checks the whiteboard for the morning journal topic. It’s open, he’s relieved to see. He gets to write about anything he chooses. He’s going to write about his bike. Yes, his bike! He thinks of it sitting out there in the rack all silvery and gleaming. His bicycle. He looks over at the weird new boy’s empty seat and momentarily wonders where he is—Khufu. Then he gets to work on today’s journal entry.

  I’m feeling pretty happy today, Morning Journal, because I worked really hard and I was able to get me a new bike for my birthday. I’m so happy. I had to get 100s on my spelling tests for a month. I had to not argue with my sister, Danielle. And she’s really hard to not argue with because she likes to argue and pick on me and try to make things hard for me, like she’ll tell on me if I don’t
clean my room the way my mother wants and she’ll tell on me if I might sneak in one video game when I’m supposed to be reading. Stuff like that. So I had to go a long time and not argue. Plus I had to do all my chores without being reminded. Take the trash out, take the cans to the curb, make my bed, put all dirty clothes in the hamper, do my homework. Oh, and now I have to be nice to Aunt Myrtle (she’s my great-aunt, and I call her GAM—but not to her face), who’s staying with us until Uncle Vestor comes back from his barbershop convention thing. Why do they have to have a convention about barbershop singing groups anyway? So I got my bike and I’m so happy. I will keep it forever and ride it forever because I see old people on bikes, especially at the lake. So I’m keeping my bike forever.

  Ms. Shelby-Ortiz rings her bell when it’s time to stop and says, “Put away your journals.” Gavin is disappointed. He was hoping Ms. Shelby-Ortiz would call on a few kids to share what they’ve written. He wants the whole class to know how he feels about his bike. Now he’s just waiting for recess so he can check on it. So he can make sure his bike is still in the bike rack—with no lock.

  Khufu comes in late while the class is doing silent reading and Ms. Shelby-Ortiz is sitting at her desk grading papers. He puts away his lunch and heads toward his desk at Gavin’s table.

  “Khufu,” Ms. Shelby-Ortiz says, “why are you late?”

  Khufu, who has just sat down, stands up to answer. Why’s he standing? Gavin wonders.

  “My father’s car broke down in the middle of Ashby, and I had to walk the rest of the way. I didn’t leave early enough to walk. I left early enough to be driven.”

  Ms. Shelby-Ortiz looks like she’s stifling a smile. “I see,” she says, and that’s that.

  The bell finally rings, and Gavin can’t wait for his teacher to call his table to be dismissed for recess. Miraculously, she calls his first. Gavin and his tablemates march to the door like soldiers, form an extra-straight line, and wait for the other tables to be called. Then everyone has to wait for Richard to pick up bits of paper from the floor under his table. What’s he doing with torn paper under his table, anyway?

  He takes a long, long time cleaning up. Gavin has to hold himself back from tapping his foot, which probably wouldn’t go over well with Ms. Shelby-Ortiz. He has to just stand there and wait.

  Finally, everyone is in line and Ms. Shelby-Ortiz can let the class out with the same old words: “Walk. Don’t run. And we have foursquare this week, and that’s where I expect to find you when I come out at lineup time.”

  Every day. Every day she says the same thing while precious seconds of recess are lost. As soon as Gavin is outside, the class goes one way and Gavin goes another. He hurries toward the bike rack.

  It’s there. His bike, looking like it’s just waiting for its rightful owner—him, Gavin. He can’t wait to ride it home. He wants to go over to it and check it carefully, but the bike rack is off-limits during school hours, so he examines it from a distance. His heart has finally stopped beating fast, now that he’s seen that his beautiful silver-and-blue bike is still there. Now he can run off and play in peace.

  Later, when Ms. Shelby-Ortiz lets them out for lunch, Gavin does the same thing. His classmates go left, heading to the cafeteria or the lunch tables, and he goes right, to check the bike rack. I will never leave my lock at home again, he vows. This is too nerve-racking.

  After lunch, the day drags. He checks the clock. Dismissal seems a hundred years away. He thinks of his bike. Is it missing him? He knows that’s a crazy thing to think.

  While the students are at their desks getting ready for math, Ms. Shelby-Ortiz has them form pairs to quiz each other on their multiplication facts. Khufu turns to Gavin and stares at him. Which means, Gavin guesses, he’ll have to be Khufu’s partner. He pulls his fact sheet out of his desk and deliberately starts with the sevens.

  Of course Khufu knows all of his sevens. His eights, too. And nines. Gavin’s not even surprised. Then it’s his turn. Khufu quizzes Gavin, and he can hardly get anything right. Sevens are his weakness. He knows only seven times seven and seven times ten, actually.

  Soon, it’s time for the actual quiz. Ms. Shelby-Ortiz tells the class to take out a piece of paper, head it, and number it from one to twenty. Khufu does this quickly, then sits tapping his pencil on his desk—waiting. Gavin thinks, Genius school.

  Ms. Shelby-Ortiz begins calling out problems, and Khufu seems to write the answers without even having to think. He does something Gavin finds super annoying. Each time Khufu writes his answer, he taps his pencil and looks at Gavin while Gavin’s still trying to think of the answer. Gavin wonders why he does that. Maybe it’s to show what a genius he is.

  Gavin has no problems with the fives and twos, but for most of the rest, he has to quickly guess. He knows he needs to study. More.

  As soon as they turn in their quizzes, Khufu raises his hand. “Ms. Shelby-Ortiz, I have to leave early today. I have a dentist appointment. And my dad is already here. I saw him in the hall outside the attendance office.”

  Ms. Shelby-Ortiz frowns. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  Khufu doesn’t answer her. Instead he says, “I have a note.” Before Ms. Shelby-Ortiz can say anything, he’s out of his seat and bringing it up to her.

  She unfolds the note and reads it. Then she scrunches her mouth to the side like she’s thinking. “Did you change the time on this?” she asks, looking down at Khufu. “It looks like it’s supposed to be at three. Your appointment. But that’s been scratched out and two o’clock is written over it.”

  “The dentist’s receptionist did that—not me. Someone else had the three o’clock appointment. So she had to give me the two o’clock appointment. And my father’s already here,” Khufu adds quickly.

  “Stop in the office and show them your appointment slip.”

  “I will,” he says. Then he grabs his backpack and hurries out.

  Four

  Dismissal, at Last

  Finally, finally, finally the dismissal bell rings and Ms. Shelby-Ortiz begins her usual routine of looking for a table that seems “ready.” Table Three, where Antonia sits, outshines Gavin’s table, and they get to line up at the door first. Then Ms. Shelby-Ortiz looks carefully at the rest of them. She calls Carlos’s table next. It’s all Gavin can do to keep himself still and standing straight like a soldier behind his chair. He takes in a deep breath and waits.

  His table is next, and he fast-walks to the line at the door. They can’t leave until everyone is lined up, and Rosario is delaying everything by not keeping her stupid mouth shut. She’s in the middle of a spat with Beverly over her Hello Kitty pencil. Beverly claims she loaned the pencil to Rosario, and Rosario says Beverly gave it to her.

  Ms. Shelby-Ortiz walks over to their table, plucks the pencil out of Rosario’s hand, and puts it away in her desk drawer. “You’re holding up the class. We’ll settle this tomorrow.”

  Gavin could hug Ms. Shelby-Ortiz then. Sometimes she seems to know just what to do.

  “Class dismissed,” she finally says, and Gavin fast-walks out of there. Once he’s rounded the side of the school building, he breaks into a run toward the bike rack.

  As soon as it is in sight, he stops. He blinks a few times. Where’s his bicycle? Where’s his shiny new silver-and-blue bicycle? He blinks again and walks slowly toward the bike rack. It’s not there! Richard and the others come up behind him. The four of them stand there staring at the empty slot that once held Gavin’s bicycle.

  Richard asks the obvious. “Where’s your bike?”

  Gavin can’t speak. His throat feels as if it’s closing. He has to keep swallowing. He can’t stop blinking. Finally, he squeezes out, “I don’t know.” Then he looks up and down the street as if he might see someone riding by on his bike—by mistake. The street is clear, both ways. Calvin, Richard, and Carlos unlock their bikes and hang their helmets on the handlebars. Gavin’s helmet dangles from his hand. He looks at it. What does he need that for? He’s got n
o bike.

  They start for Gavin’s house, walking their bicycles to be in solidarity with him. Gavin barely notices. He’s in shock. “Someone stole my bike,” he says finally. Then he’s quiet almost all the way home.

  Richard breaks the silence with, “What are you going to do? Are you going to tell your dad?”

  “I have to. He’ll notice I don’t have it.”

  “Your dad is going to feel sorry for you, probably.”

  “Not when he finds out that I forgot my lock. He’ll say that I was irresponsible. Then he’ll lecture me about money and being careless and on and on.” Gavin feels tired just thinking about the lecture he’s going to get. There will probably be a punishment, too.

  Once they reach his house, his friends wave goodbye, mount their bikes, and ride off. Gavin watches them. Then he turns toward his front door. He knows Danielle is behind that door somewhere. Once she gets a whiff of Gavin’s carelessness, she’ll go in search of their mother, who’s off work on Tuesdays, to make the announcement. Maybe his mother will be kind of sympathetic. She’s usually the sympathetic one. But Danielle will just be ready to spout off about the situation to their father as soon as he comes through the door. And GAM . . . He can just imagine the long lecture he’ll get from her.

  He goes around the side of the house and slips in through the back door. Of course Danielle’s sitting at the kitchen table doing her homework. Couldn’t she be doing that in her bedroom? She’s eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while she’s hunched over her math book. She licks her fingers and looks up at Gavin. “What’s wrong, Gavmeister?”

  What? Is it that obvious? He sighs. He might as well spill it, he decides. “Someone stole my bike.”