Double Dutch Read Online Free PDF Page B

“I’ve been jumping since I was eight, and I bet Delia can outjump you.”
    Delia glanced at Yolanda as if to say, “Why you wannado me like that?” but she said nothing and continued to stretch. Charlene grinned. She knew what was coming.
    After Yolanda started jumping with the team when she was eight, she had always asked Delia to come with her to practice at the YMCA gym, but Delia never really believed that Yolanda was on a team, because Yo Yo talked about competitions in Madagascar and Greenland. When Delia finally realized that the team was real and the competitions were held in ordinary places like Columbus, Ohio, she went to one practice and was hooked. She loved the feel of the ropes in her hands and the sensation of electricity when she jumped. And she loved a challenge. Shana and Jackie had shown up just in time.
    â€œChallenge you to a speed jump?” Delia asked casually.
    â€œBet,” Shana and Jackie answered together. Shana giggled nervously while Jackie took a deep breath and got ready to enter the ropes.
    Delia and Yolanda turned while Jackie jumped. Charlene and Shana pretended to ignore each other. The turners started off slowly, turning in time with Jackie’s feet, and as her speed increased, so did the whirling of the ropes over her head, so that soon nothing could be heard but the tapping of her shoes and the whirling of the ropes as they made a breeze in the corner of the gym.
    Jackie finally missed, jumping out and laughing, taking the ropes from Delia so she could take a turn. Nobody had really counted the number of jumps, or even timed them—it was the challenge of the speed and the ropes that they jumped for. It was all in fun, but deadly serious at the same time.
    Delia missed after just a few jumps, and so did Charlene,but when it was Yolanda’s turn, she was jumping so fast and so well that even Shana and Jackie were cheering for her.
    When she finally jumped out of the ropes, she said, laughing, “Don’t be hatin’, girlfriends. You know I’m bad!” The five girls laughed and chatted as if they were old friends. They all got some water, then Shana and Jackie wandered back to the other side of the gym. Delia knew the day would be fun as well as challenging.
    Delia hopped back into the ropes, jumping easily while Charlene and Yolanda turned, when Yolanda laughed and started reciting a chant that they had all jumped to as kids.
    â€œDown in the valley where the green grass grows,
There sat Dee Dee as sweet as a rose,
She sang, she sang, she sang so sweet,
Along came Randy and kissed her on the cheek!
How many kisses did she receive?
Was it one, two—”
    â€œStop, girl! I’m not jumpin’ if you want to be playin’ like that. We don’t have time for kids’ games. The championship is coming up. Besides, why you want to put Randy’s name in the chant?” Delia jumped out of the ropes, tossed a towel on her head, and strode over to the cooler to get some more water. Her hair, cut short like a cap on her head, felt damp and sticky from the hair spray she used to keep it from jumping up and down when she did. She laughed as Yolanda and Charlene kept turning and singing. “You knowthe rules. You’re s’posed to put the ropes down when I jump out.”
    They ignored her. Yolanda, who stood with her knees slightly bent and her legs slightly bowed, never took her eyes from the ropes that whipped and popped on the shiny gym floor. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. . . . Girlfriend, you gonna catch something, kissin’ on that boy like that. He told me he loved you, you know. You heard him, didn’t you, Charlene? He was standing right over there by the gym door. Last night. About eight o’clock. Remember?” Yolanda waited for Charlene to back up her story.
    Charlene dropped her end of the ropes, scratched her head, and said, “Yo Yo, you trippin’, girl. He