EllRay Jakes Rocks the Holidays! Read Online Free PDF Page B

Oak Glen Primary School look like little upside-down space capsules. They could
definitely
be hiding security cameras inside.
    “So, listen,” Kevin whispers, giving up on us snooping inside the envelope. “Like I said before school, you
owe
me. You know, for throwing shade last week.”
    “Throwing shade?” I repeat.
    I have heard this expression before. I just can’t remember what it means.
    “You know,” Kevin says, shaking his head as wepause near a “What Not to Bring to School” poster. “Pretending to give a kid a compliment, when you’re really dissing them. Like, ‘Oh, you’re so brave going out in public with that haircut!’”
    Oh. Okay.
    Kevin has a teenage sister who thinks she’s the expert on everything. Tania, I think her name is. She’s big into hip-hop, and most other kinds of dance, too.
    And she talks like she’s on a reality TV show. “Throwing shade” must be coming from her.
    “But I didn’t—”
    “
Pretending
in front of everyone that you really wanted to clean desks with me?” Kevin interrupts, like he’s making this really obvious point. “Because we’re such good friends? Only you already had all these plans with Corey? You made me look bad in front of everyone—
on purpose
. You disrespected me, dog. I looked like a fool.”
    This sounds like pure Tania to me. She got him all worked up.
    We are deep into “The Land of Hurt Feelings,” as Mom calls it when she’s talking about Alfie andher friends at Kreative Learning and Playtime Day Care. And hurt feelings mean Girl Land. In my opinion, anyway.
    Not that I’m telling Kevin that.
    “So, you’ll have to do whatever I say, so we can be even,” he tells me.
    “What are you talking about?” I ask. “Can’t you just sock me one, and get it over with?”
    “You embarrassed
me
,” Kevin says, ignoring what I just said as he spells it out. “So I get to embarrass
you
. That’ll make us
even
, and then we can be
friends
again. I figured it all out.”
    He sounds so sure of himself! And he’s always been obsessed with things coming out even. Potato chips. Cookies. Taking turns playing a game. The number of pillows he has during a sleepover.
    “But I’m
already
embarrassed,” I try to explain. “Especially lately. Just walking around, even. I stick out like a sore thumb! Can’t I just tell you I’m sorry?” I ask. “Or—how about if I apologize in front of everyone at lunch? That would make me suffer.”
    “Not enough,” Kevin says. “Anyway, that would only make you look better and me look worse, EllRay.And you know it! No, you gotta do a challenge. At
least
one. And I get to say what it is.”
    “A CHALLENGE ?” I say, echoing his words. “Is that like a dare? Because we’re not allowed to do dares. Remember? It’s against official Oak Glen Primary School rules.”
    “A challenge is different from a dare,” Kevin says.
    “I guess you’re right,” I say, thinking about it. Because you can challenge yourself, can’t you? To do better at something: a spelling test, jumping far, raising your score in a game. Or you can challenge a friend to do something as well as you can, like in a contest, or to do better at something than he did before. But throwing down a dare is trying to make someone do something he does not want to do.
    “Of course I’m right,” Kevin says, looking prissy as he lifts his chin in the air.
    His
brown
chin.
    “Listen,” I tell him, inspired. “We gotta stick together, Kev—because of the
community
. Because we’re
linked
.”
    I don’t really see it, not the way Dad means. At least not yet.

    But hey. Anything’s worth a try.
    “What are you talking about?” he says, looking madder than before, even.
    “I
mean
, we both have brown skin,” I inform him—as if he didn’t already know.
    “Oh, that,” Kevin says, shrugging. “I thought you were talking about us being friends.”
    “We’re linked that way too,” I say, nodding.
    “Well, we’re not linked