A Star is Born by Walter Dean Myers Read Free Book Online

and started running the whole set down in fast-forward time.
    â€œThey’re talking about how everyone has to wear the same uniform, but I think it’s just because they don’t want their precious darlings to get beat and they don’t even have the fastest girls in this school on the team because they need a ‘cute’ factor and our girls don’t play cute!”
    I knew Bobbi was coming from a feminist position and everything because she lived with two women, but our girls, except for Sagal, were just too cute, especially on the relay team. We had the Hopkins sisters, Shantese and Zhade, both of whom I would die for, Maria Torres, who could fly and was fly, and Sagal bringing it home.
    Dr. Barnwell, FDA’s principal, came out on the floor and called the FDA coach and Mr. Weinstein over. They had a meeting in the middle of the floor and you could tell by Mr. Weinstein’s body language that things were not going good for Da Vinci.
    Finally, the FDA coach got on the loudspeaker and made an announcement that the Da Vinci relay team had withdrawn. All the FDA kids started hooting at us.
    But then …
    But then Sagal went to the center of the floor and took the mike from the FDA coach’s hand and spoke into it.
    â€œWe are withdrawing from the race because you Americans are afraid to compete against a Muslim girl. If your girls can’t run fast I can understand that. I feel sorry for you.”
    She handed the mike back to the FDA coach and walked away.
    All the FDA students started yelling and saying how they would run away from us and we weren’t this and we weren’t that. Well, what that did was to get all the school officials back onto the middle of the floor with their heads together.
    â€œWe have to get Sagal into the Cruisers,” I said to Bobbi.
    â€œHer parents are too strict,” Bobbi said. “They won’t let her join. The only reason she’s on the track team is that she ran with her brothers in Afghanistan.”
    Body language. Mr. Weinstein started toward us and beckoned toward the girls. They were going to run.
    There were four teams in the relay: FDA as the host school, Wadleigh, Arts and Sciences, and Da Vinci. I thought our girls could beat FDA but I knew that Wadleigh was just plain tough and you could never tell about a team from Arts and Sciences. Sometimes they would show up ready and sometimes they would be jiving around.
    The race was four by a hundred, which meant that each girl would run one hundred yards and then pass the baton on to the next girl. The biggest danger was falling too far behind and then getting careless with the baton. You only had a small area in which you could pass the baton, and if you dropped it you were just out of luck. The race would be over before you picked it up.
    Shantese was down in the starting blocks and she looked ready. She was wearing really short running pants and her stomach was bare.
    â€œYo, Zander, push your eyes back in their sockets,” Bobbi said. “You’re embarrassing the school!”
    Down the track, Zhade was waiting with the other girls who were going to run the second leg. Maria Torres was straight across from me. On the far side, to my left, I could see Sagal. She was wearing a green hijood that covered her hair and neck. Her arms were covered down to her wrists and her legs were covered down to the tops of her running shoes. The girls from the other teams around her were running their mouths.
    Body language.
    â€œYo, Kambui, check out that scene,” I said. “They’re trying to intimidate Sagal.”
    â€œYou think we should go over there and stare them down?” Kambui asked.
    â€œDon’t bother.” Bobbi was leaning against Kambui. “She’s been wounded in her body and face, shot at by the Taliban, and she’s still got the nerve to compete. They’re not making her nervous.”
    The gun went off and the race was on. Shantese