Boy21 by Matthew Quick Read Free Book Online Page A

smart. If you’re polite and seem well behaved, you get placed in the AP classes.
    To our teachers, Boy21’s very respectful and formal, always maintaining eye contact.
    He says nothing to the other students in the building. Even when they speak to him, he continues to look at the floor or the ceiling, not answering.
    I worry that the other students will find him arrogant, which is not a good thing to be in our neighborhood, unless you like being beaten down.
    During lunch, noticing his size and stature, the other basketball players come over to my table, and Terrell says, “Yo, White Rabbit, who dis?”
    “This here is Russ Washington. He’s new,” Erin says.
    “You play sports?” Sir says. Sir is our starting small forward and our number one wide receiver. His mom named him Sir because she wanted people to show him respect. He’s half Puerto Rican, which is a bit of a rarity around here.
    Boy21 just shakes his head.
    “Maybe you should try basketball,” Hakim says. He’s our power forward. “You’re tall. You got the body for it.”
    “I see you’re in our AP English class. Who’s your favorite author?” Wes asks. Like I said before, Wes is our center, and he’s a bit of a bookworm. He’s always reading books on the bus when our team travels. He wears a headlamp at night so he can keep on reading when it’s dark out.
    Boy21 doesn’t look up or answer the question.
    “Okay. I see how it is,” Terrell says. “You a quiet one, just like your new friend here.”
    “What’s wrong with being quiet?” Erin asks.
    “Nothing, White Rabbit’s lil baby,” Terrell says.
    I see the hurt look on Erin’s face, but I don’t say anything when she gets up and throws her trash away. I
wanted
to say something. Sometimes I really hate being a minimal speaker.
    “Ladies and gentlemen!” Terrell yells with his hands above his head. “Ladies and gentlemen!”
    Everyone in the lunchroom stops talking.
    When the room is hushed, Terrell says, “Please welcome the new student. This here Black Rabbit, good friend to White Rabbit, and just as quiet. These people friends of mine too, understand? So just let them do rabbit things as they wish without paying them no mind. That’s it. Enjoy your lunch.”
    Some people laugh at Boy21’s new nickname, but everyone understands that Terrell is officially putting Boy21 under his family’s protection.
    “Okay,” Terrell says. “Now you rabbits do whatever rabbits do. And, White Rabbit, you get ready to rack up the assists this winter, you hear?”
    “Sure thing.”
    Terrell is wearing a huge diamond in each ear. Those are new. He never wore diamonds last year.
    When my teammates leave, Erin returns to the table, but she won’t look at me.
    I know she wanted me to stick up for her when Terrell called her White Rabbit’s lil baby, but I need Terrell to like me so that the basketball season will go well, which is my number one priority, and there are much worse nicknames that other girls in our school endure. This is why I’m looking forward to basketball so much. When it starts there will be plays to memorize and I’ll bein the gym just about every night. The rest of the world will disappear.
    When Boy21 finishes the sandwich his grandmother made him, he says, “We are not rabbits.”
    For the first time all day, Boy21 is looking into my eyes, and maybe it’s me who’s crazy, but it’s like he’s trying to communicate with me, sending messages through our pupils. The weirdest part is I think I sort of understand the message he’s trying to convey.
    When we leave the lunchroom, in the hallways, we’re greeted by hundreds of references to rabbits.
    “Yo, Black and White Rabbits!”
    “What’s up, Biggie Rabbit and Smalls Rabbit?”
    “Carrots are comin’. We gon’ feed dem rabbits!”
    It’s all playful teasing, especially since we are under Rod’s and Mike’s protection, but it gets kind of annoying nonetheless.
    Neither Boy21 nor I say a word, and I