The Blueprint Read Online Free PDF Page A

seen him with a mustache.   Look, can we talk about something else?  I don’t want you to think I’m bragging.”
    “We don’t think you’re br agging.”  Jenny stopped walking and the other girls lined up like dominoes. “We’re happy for you.  Everybody wants to get out of here and we’ve never heard of anybody getting to before they’re sixteen.  So maybe if you get to leave, somebody will come get us too.”
    “There’s paper in the activity room.  You could draw us a picture of him,” Karen added through a mouthful of hair.
    “All right, if that’s what you want.”
    We entered a large rectangular room with high ceilings and tall windows.   Mismatched furniture in shades of dirt and grass were grouped together around an old TV that didn't appear to work.  Clusters of tables of different sizes and more mismatched chairs littered the rest of the room.  I saw Dani huddled together with older girls talking and fiddling with each other’s hair in the farthest corner from the supervising adults.  She waved at me and returned to campaigning for the office of leader of the big kids.
    I drew a picture of my daddy and told the girls about ho w silly he was at the restaurant that morning.  They seemed to like the story, but then it got quiet and weird, so I changed the subject to school.  Ms. Sweaney had said I’d be starting school in the morning.  They all agreed that their teacher, Mrs. Fox, was nice and recess was the best part of the day.  They said the food at lunch was okay and they almost never had homework other than some spelling words to memorize.  I asked about the other kids in their class and they started acting weird again.
    Jenny explained, “The other kids won’t talk to us or play with us because we’re from the home.   So Mrs. Fox lets us sit together in class."  She shrugged.  “You get used to it.”
    Karen leaned toward me with her face pinched in anger.  “The girls from town whisper and point at us, but we act like we don’t notice." She pushed her sleeves up and gripped the magazine she was holding. "But the meanest person at school is Bobby Davis.  He pulls our ponytails and spits on us.  And he never gets in trouble for it--- ever .”
    “I hate him,” Amy grumbled.
    “They won’t like you either once they find out you live here. "  Jenny gave me a hard look and waited for my nod of understanding.  "But we’ll be your friends.  We promise.” The others agreed. 
     
    Before my momma left and we had to move out of our house, I attended school and loved it.  Mrs. Reynolds was my teacher and she was super pretty and super nice.  She had a piano in her room and on days when everybody behaved she would play and sing songs to us as our reward.  She even knew some Beatles songs , and she'd let us sing along .  I hugged her every morning when I arrived at school and again before I left to go home for the day.  Each student had a piece of paper where she put gold stars for good work and good behavior.  I had the most stars in the class with twenty-five.  I tried to get Momma to come up to school and meet her.  I always thought Mrs. Reynolds would be a good friend to Momma and help her feel better like she did when I fell off the slide and bumped my head, but Momma told me to go away and stay out of her business.  I cried for a week when Daddy told me I wouldn’t be going back to school.  The whole time we were driving around staying with different people the thing I missed the most was school.  It was safe and predictable unlike Momma or traveling.
     
    With a roar from one of the night supervisors, we were told it was time for my group to get ready for bed.  We were sent back to our rooms to get our toiletries and then off to the bathroom.  Thankfully, I wasn’t expected to shower again.  Like everything else there’s a routine to this many girls all doing something at the same time, so I watched and followed along. 
    I was sharing a sink