Moon Runner Read Online Free PDF

new to sports, but I do run fast. I don’t think I’d let the team down.”
    Coach finished his sandwich, balled up the baggie, and put it into his lunch box. He drained the last of the juice, leaving a line of purple above his upper lip.
    “I don’t usually make changes once I’ve made up my mind.” He paused and looked at Mina.
    It seemed as though he wasn’t really looking at her, but at imaginary possibilities, picturing the races and all the different outcomes, good and bad. Mina clutched the top of her lunch bag.
    “I’ll tell you what, Mina. I won’t do the changing. It’ll be up to you to convince one of those girls to change with you. You have my permission to ask them.”
    Mina let go of her lunch bag and stretched out her fingers.
    After Coach had packed up and left, Mina found Cassie on the playground, near the basketball hoops. She was trading a cookie for a juice box.
    “Can I ask you something, Cassie?” Mina still held her bag of uneaten lunch. “In private?”
    Cassie got up from her friends and walked across the basketball court with Mina.
    Mina deliberately walked on one of the white stripes — as though the straightness could guide her words. “I was wondering if you’d trade places with me. Run my fifty meter and let me run on the relay team.”
    “Why?” Cassie asked.
    “Because Ruth Largness is my good friend and I’d like to run with her.”
    Cassie stared into the sky above the basketball hoops. “No, I can’t do it. My softball throw is happening at the same time as the individual fifty meter. Sorry.”
    “Thanks anyway,” said Mina. She walked off the straight white line and onto the wide expanse of grass.
    During library time right after lunch, Mina whispered to Liz behind the shelves of biographies.
    Liz didn’t even ask why Mina wanted to change. She just said loudly, making no attempt to whisper: “The fifty meter is over with too quickly.” Liz snapped her fingers. “Just like that. Even though I won’t be running the whole time, the relay lasts four times as long. Just think, though — if you win the individual, you get all the glory.”
    Mina knelt down to tie her shoes.
    Mina caught up with Shawndra on the way to PE.
    When Mina asked the favor, Shawndra shrugged. “Doesn’t make any difference to me.”
    “Let’s tell Coach now, then,” said Mina. She didn’t want Shawndra to change her mind.
    They waited until Coach Lombard had finished assigning his high-school helpers for the day. He fanned himself with his big hat as he talked.
    When Coach turned to Mina and Shawndra, Mina was afraid he might have forgotten their lunchtime conversation.
    “Shawndra’s trading with me. Remember we talked about that?” Mina shifted from one foot to the other.
    Coach continued to fan himself. “Are you sure about this, Mina?”
    “Yes, Coach Lombard.” She nodded in case he hadn’t heard her.
    But as she was walking away, a new thought struck her. Maybe Ruth wouldn’t want her on the team. Maybe she’d been happy with the way things were. Maybe she planned to make Cassie, Liz, and Shawndra her new Fellow Friends.
    At home, on her bed, Mina found another library book that Mom had left her. On the cover was a woman running. Mina picked the book up. Inside, there were a few photos and miles of tiny words.
    At first her brain marched slowly over the words, but then it began to jog, and then to run as Mina grew interested in the story of Wilma Rudolph, who had overcome polio and wearing an ugly leg brace and teasing by other kids to become the world’s fastest woman runner.
    As Mina read, all of her own problems seemed like such little stuff. Even losing a friendship was nothing compared with almost not being able to walk, much less run.

The next afternoon, the relay team had the first practice. The sun flooded the playground with a yellow, even heat. Flutters of hot air rose from the flagstones of the lunch patio.
    Mina faced the girls with her hands in her pockets