Kendra Read Online Free PDF Page B

someone looking after you, not thinking about no man.”
    And there it is again, her big fear. That I’m gonna do what Renée did, go and get pregnant at fourteen. “You don’t have to worry about me, Nana,” I tell her. “I’m good.”
    “We’ll see,” she says, and she looks at me for a split second, but it’s not me she’s seeing. She never sees me anymore. It’s likeshe’s always looking into the future or something, at how she thinks I’m gonna turn out.
    I been seeing that look ever since my birthday in December. It was like, all of a sudden, I was in danger or something and I needed her protection. Her overprotection . Nothing ever happened to make her think this way. The only thing I did was turn fourteen.
    Sometimes I think Nana looks at me like I’m her second chance to get it right. Because I know for a fact she feels like she messed up with Renée. And no matter what, she’s not about to let the same thing happen with me.

SIX
    After school the next day, the stage crew gets together for the last time before dress rehearsal tomorrow. It’s not an official play practice. It’s really just for us to do finishing touches on the set and work out any problems we might have now, before the first show on Friday.
    Even though it’s a lot of work, the funny thing is, no matter how tired I am from school all day, the second I come into the theater, everything changes and I have energy all of a sudden. It’s like I just had three cups of coffee or something. I love being here, smelling the wood and the paint, and hearing the hammering and the drilling. Not that there’s all that much hammering and drilling going on now. I mean, the set is just about done and it looks nice, too. And the best part about it is, I’m the one that designed it.
    Well, I came up with the sketches, anyway, in my theater design class. My teacher, Mr. Melendez, told us about the showcase and how it’s a chance for us to get some experience in the theater. Our school’s big musical is in March, but mostlyonly juniors and seniors get to have anything to do with it. So the school came up with this freshman/sophomore showcase, which is basically six really short plays, no singing or dancing.
    All of us in our theater design class had to come up with a set that could work for the showcase, with all six settings. It was one of our class projects that we got a grade on, and Mr. Melendez said he was gonna actually use the most functional set. Everything about theater design is how functional it is. Yeah, it has to look good and be creative and everything, but if the actors are gonna break their neck standing on it, or if a beam or something is too low and someone trips and gets hurt, it don’t really matter how pretty it is.
    So I kept my design simple. Really, I thought it was too simple, but Mr. Melendez thought it was good, and he picked it to be the one they used for the play. I mean, all I did was sketch this weird huge triangle kinda merry-go-round thing. Each side has a “floor” that can hold furniture and props and stuff, and there are hooks on the wall that we can hang different backdrops from.
    When one side is facing the audience, the other two sides are behind the curtain, and that’s when we have to get to work making a three-sided set into six separate settings. Like, we have to change the apartment setting into the subway car setting. And the classroom gets turned into the beach. And the bus stop is the restaurant, too. So behind the scenes, we change all the background art and furniture and props, and then, when the scene is over and the stage is dark, all we have to do is spin the set and lock it into place.
    For me, I’m just happy they used my design. After it was picked, my whole class, which is only eight of us, had to work as a team to get this thing done. Mr. Melendez helped a lot with thetechnical stuff. He had us make sure all the dimensions and measurements were gonna work and all that, and then we had to