Miami Jackson Gets It Straight Read Online Free PDF Page A

screams. “You bought Ms. Rollins a grungy old coin! I knew it. I knew it. I knew you were going to mess up!”
    Lisa looks at it. “You should have bought her something pretty like a scarf or a fancy pin. This is ugly. Just like you!”
    “You aine seen ugly ’til you look in the mirror,” I say. “That’s ugly.”
    Destinee holds the token in her hand. It is her turn to hate it. “What was on your pea-sized brain when you bought this?”
    “We should take this back. Get our money and buy another gift!” says Lisa.
    “I wouldn’t give this to a monkey,” says Amika, shaking her head.
    “I think Ms. Rollins will like it,” says String.
    Nobody hears him at first.
    “You paid money for this?” Destinee says.
    I bounce back hard. “It’s a great gift, dummy.”
    “Who you calling dumb?” Destinee puts in.
    “You, monkey breath.”
    We’re all up in somebody’s face, calling each other names.
    Suddenly, String pounds his fist on the table. “Shut up! I’m sick of you, Destinee. I’m sick of you, too, Miami.”

    You can hear a pin drop.
    “It aine about who bought the gift. It aine about who likes the gift. It’s about Ms. Rollins. Is it right for her? That’s what should matter. I think she’ll like the coin.”
    String hasn’t put that many words together in his life.
    I’m expecting Destinee to go off. But she is really quiet—spooky quiet. What’s on her mind? I’m wondering.
    Then Destinee says, “Okay, let’s vote on it. All in favor of giving the friendship token to Ms. Rollins, say aye.”
    Right away, I say aye.
    “I say aye, too,” says String.
    Destinee thinks about it. Then she says, “I do, too. Aye.”
    Lisa and Amika are even more shocked than me. They stammer and mumble. Butthen they do what they always do—follow Destinee. “Okay. Aye,” says Lisa, sock puppet number 1.
    A second later, Amika, sock puppet number 2, whispers aye, too.
    It is unanimous. We give Ms. Rollins the gift tomorrow. Unanimous. I’ve changed my mind. That’s a good word, even though it cost me four tickets to see the Red Birds.
4:00 P.M.
    String and I are sitting on the front steps, eating fresh strawberries and instant replaying the day. He doesn’t know it, but he has saved me from a fate worse than death. “If you hadn’t told those girls off like you did, they would have never let us win.”
    String shakes his head. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
    “What?”
    “It aine about none of that! The friendship token is a great gift. But you didn’t buy it for Ms. Rollins.”
    “How did you know?” I say.
    String looks surprised. “Know what?”
    Uh-oh! He didn’t know.
    “I was talking about you buying the gift to please the girls,” says String. “Okay. What really happened?”
    I’ve never kept a secret from my partner before. So I tell String about the real gift, about losing it, almost thinking about stealing money from Mama, and finally getting the idea to give Ms. Rollins the friendship coin I’d really bought for myself. “Nobody knows the real truth but you,” I say.
    “What are you going to do?” String asks.
    “Do? Nothing. Are you going to tell?”
    String shakes his head. “No, I won’t tell,” he says, “but you can’t make me like what you’re doing. You’re wrong for buying Ms. Rollins a gift just to impress the girls. And you’re double wrong to give her a gift you didn’t even buy for her. I can’t hang with that!”
    And for the first time, String goes home without finishing his snack.
    I feel rotten inside. I wish to be beamed to another planet far away from here.

10
A Gift that Matters
Friday, June 5, 8:45 A.M.
    The last day of school. This is it!
    At Turner Elementary, everybody wears dress-up clothes on the last day of school. I don’t know why. It makes no sense. We just do it.
    String has been quiet all morning. Not much to say. I know he’s mad at me. First thing, we meet with the girls. They vote that I be the one to give Ms.