Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Read Free Book Online

detention. Then she repeats what she just said in Spanish, though it seems as if she tosses in a few extra phrases. I don't know why she hasn't figured it out yet. If she just taught us all the swear- words the first day, we would have done whatever she wanted the rest of the year. Detention does not sound appealing. I do my homework — choose five verbs and conjugate them. To translate: traducir. I traducate. To flunk: fracasar. Yo am almost fracasaring. To hide: esconder. To escape: escapar. To forget: olvidar. 51 JOB DAY Just in case we forget that "weareheretogetagoodfoundation- sowecangotocollegeliveuptoourpotentialgetagoodjoblivehap- pilyeverafterandgotoDisneyWorld," we have a Job Day. Like all things Hi! School, it starts with a test, a test of my de- sires and my dreams. Do I (a) prefer to spend time with a large group of people? (b) prefer to spend time with a small group of close friends? (c) prefer to spend time with family? (d) prefer to spend time alone? Am I (a) a helper? (b) a doer? (c) a planner? (d) a dreamer? If I were tied to railroad tracks and the 3:15 train to Rochester was ready to cut a path across my middle, would I (a) scream for help? (b) ask my little mice friends to chew through the ropes? (c) remember that my favorite jeans were in the dryer and were hopelessly wrinkled? (d) close my eyes and pretend nothing was wrong? Two hundred questions later, I get my results. I should con- sider a career in (a) forestry (b) nrefighting (c) communica- tions (d) mortuary science. Heather's results are clearer. She should be a nurse. It makes her jump up and down. Heather: "This is the best! I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'll be a candy striper at the hospital this summer. Why 52 don't you do it with me? I'll study real hard in biology and go to S.U. and get my R.N. What a great plan!" How could she know this? I don't know what I'm doing in the next five minutes and she has the next ten years figured out. I'll worry about making it out of ninth grade alive. Then I'll think about a career path. FIRST AMENDMENT Mr. Neck storms into class, a bull chasing thirty-three red flags. We slide into our seats. I think for sure he's going to ex- plode. Which he does, but in an unpredictable, faintly educa- tional way. IMMIGRATION. He writes it on the board. I'm pretty sure he spelled it right. Mr. Neck: "My family has been in this country for over two hundred years. We built this place, fought in every war from the first one to the last one, paid taxes, and voted." A cartoon thought bubble forms over the heads of everyone in the class. ("WILL THIS BE ON THE TEST?") Mr. Neck: "So tell me why my son can't get a j ob. " A few hands creep skyward. Mr. Neck ignores them. It is a pretend question, one he asked so he could give the answer. I S3 relax. This is like when my father complains about his boss. The best thing to do is to stay awake and blink sympatheti- cally. His son wanted to be a firefighter, but didn't get the job. Mr. Neck is convinced that this is some kind of reverse discrimina- tion. He says we should close our borders so that real Ameri- cans can get the jobs they deserve. The job test said that I would be a good firefighter. I wonder if I could take a job away from Mr. Neck's son. I tune out and focus on my doodle, a pine tree. I've been try- ing to carve a linoleum block in art class. The problem with the block is that there is no way to correct mistakes. Every mistake I make is frozen in the picture. So I have to think ahead. Mr. Neck writes on the board again: "DEBATE: America should have closed her borders in 1900." That strikes a nerve. Several nerves. I can see kids counting backward on their fingers, trying to figure when their grandparents or great- grandparents were born, when they came to America, if they would have made the Neck Cut. When they figure out they would have been stuck in a country that hated them, or a place with no schools, or a place with no future, their hands shoot up. They