Chapter One Candy and Complaints Brrrring Brrrring As the final bell of the day blared through the Charles Taylor High School Amari Johnson jumped You jump every day Amari You’d think you’d just seen a ghost her best friend Jackie teased I know It’s crazy isn’t it I’ve been at this school since September and I’m still like a jumping bean Amari grabbed her stack of books and notebooks and headed down the hall to her locker She filled her leather school bag with all the things she needed for the night’s homework Then she and Jackie headed into the chilly January air Walking down Morton Street Amari and Jackie had their favorite blowing-off-steam after-school routines They always spied on the boys playing handball at the court in 6
Dorchester Park Amari tried to stifle a giggle when she saw Marcus Coleman on the court She’d had a crush on him since the fifth grade when he moved to Mattapan from Virginia She loved his accent the way he seemed to linger over every syllable with that southern drawl And when Marcus played Mack the Knife on his acoustic guitar in last year’s talent show she was completely won over Cute and talented some people had it all After they passed the court the girls stopped in at Parker’s Corner Store Good afternoon girls Are you here for a candy run Mr Parker the elderly shop owner winked at Amari and Jackie They used their allowance and babysitting money to buy a treat nearly every day after school Yes sir Amari got a few Necco Mint Julep taffies and a pack of Red Vines licorice Jackie went with her favorite treat the sweet and chewy Bit-O-Honey bar Digging nickels and dimes from their change purses the girls 7
paid Mr Parker and headed toward Amari’s house Jackie was never in a huge hurry to go home Her mom was a maid for a rich white family in Milton and usually didn’t get home until after dinnertime Walking the twelve blocks from Mr Parker’s shop to the Johnson house never seemed to take very long Jackie and Amari could talk nonstop for hours especially after being practically silent all day at school They’d been the best of friends since their kindergarten days Did you see how half the pages of my science book fell out today Amari asked Jackie These books must be twenty years old I honestly have no idea how I’m going to keep this pathetic old thing together until the end of the school year I know Jackie said The same thing happened to my math book last year That’s because most of our textbooks are hand 8
Never Jackie replied If you are smart Does that happen at Isaiah’s school me-downs from wealthier towns or la-di-da neighborhoods in Boston By the time we get them the books have already been deemed junk so they get passed along to inner city schools like ours Sometimes the books are so old that information is out of date Amari wondered enough to get into Boston Latin And a boy Amari interrupted Yeah yeah and a boy Jackie continued Like I was saying if you get into Boston Latin then you get books in fabulous condition and excellent teachers My brother says the science labs there are amazing He wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up Jackie’s older brother Isaiah was sixteen two years older than Amari and Jackie But they were all excellent students and took 9
