The Birth of Super Crip Read Online Free PDF Page B

raised his anxiety further by teasing him about
taking on Chuck again after lunch. Red told the lunch monitor he
had to use the bathroom so he could leave the cafeteria even
earlier than usual, and he avoided Chuck altogether.
     
    That worked for a day, Red thought. But he wasn’t
going to be able to avoid Chuck for the next two years until they
graduated. Not that I want to, he thought. I’m not afraid of him.
But he knew Chuck was pretty pissed. According to Andre, one of his
buddies said Chuck was already hearing about getting knocked down
by Red from his teammates on the football team. Red certainly
didn’t know if he could do it again if Chuck decided he needed to
give him some payback.
     
    I’m still not sure how I did it the first time, he
thought. He’d been spinning the events from yesterday and last
night around in his mind most of the day. His mom made a face when
he asked if she had checked on him after he went to bed as if she
hadn’t done it in years. She even teased him about what she always
called his “silly habit” of turning the clock around when he
couldn’t sleep. Apparently, nobody had any trouble sleeping or was
up late enough to have been doing anything that would have made
noise downstairs in the early morning hours either. He was at least
relieved that the rush to get going in the morning had allowed him
to ask the questions without anybody wondering too much about why
he was asking.
     
    Unfortunately, that was the only relief he got. He
still didn’t have any answers. If Mom didn’t touch the clock, Red
wondered, how did it get turned? And how did I knock Chuck
down?
     
    Mr. Francis walked past him as he entered the
classroom from the hall, and the subject drifted from his mind. Red
nodded as a way of saying hello when he made eye contact with Adam,
sitting a few rows in front of him. Adam had been designated to use
carbon paper under his notes in a couple classes that they shared
to give Red a copy to help him get everything.
     
    “Hey,” Adam said. “You have everything from social
studies so far? We have our first test next Tuesday, I think.”
     
    “Yeah, thanks,” Red said. “I keep forgetting to get
my textbook out of my locker to read that chapter he keeps telling
us to read for the test.”
     
    “I know,” Adam said, putting his hand out in a
gesture of confusion. “He never refers to the book in class, just
lectures nonstop from his own notes, but that chapter is on the
test?”
     
    Red nodded in agreement. They both turned their
attention to Tara, who hustled into the classroom as if she’d had
to sprint just to make it on time. It was the same every day. She
seemed to search through fifty things in her book bag before she
found something to take notes on. Finally, she looked back the two
seats and a row over to where Red sat. The room was arranged with
the desks to the right of the door and lab stations to the left,
which made Red feel like the entrance was in the middle of the
room. Three weeks earlier, on the first day of class, Red had sat
in the last row so he could easily park his power chair and get to
a desk.
     
    “Did he bother you again today?” she asked.
     
    It was only mildly surprising that she was talking to
him. She was like a different person when Chuck wasn’t around. Red
always thought it was a little strange that she would begin a
conversation as if they talked all the time, but he didn’t mind
since she seemed more comfortable talking to him than most of the
other girls in school.
     
    He shook his head. “Didn’t see him,” Red said. “I
usually only see him after lunch, and I left early to use the
bathroom.”
     
    “Well, I won’t be seeing him at all anymore,” she
whispered. “We had a huge fight after I asked him why he’s always
bothering you. He just flipped out, telling me I’m in love with the
cripple, all this stuff.”
     
    Red felt the wave stir. It was like a knee-jerk
reaction to the word cripple. I’m not a