who teased him about his belly which stuck out in front of him and was the palest shade of white He knew exactly what time to leave at the end of the day to avoid his worst critics in the schoolyard and which teachers he could complain to about having a stomachache the ones who would let him go down to the nurse’s office until he felt better or until it was time to go home whichever came first This new school was an unknown world There was one kid Jordan noticed who hadn’t clustered up with anyone else He sat at the top of the playground slide scribbling in a notebook and looking much too busy to care about anyone else He had dark skin and a cloud of curly hair a pair of mirrored sunglasses 4
and a flower-print button-up that opened to reveal a T-shirt with words Jordan could read from all the way across the yard NO THANKS Just looking at those words sent the party in Jordan’s stomach into a frenzy It felt like a very bad sign 5
At his old school Jordan had tried his hardest to be invisible True it hadn’t always worked but as far as Jordan could tell it was the only way to make it through the day without some kind of trouble Would there be less trouble at his new school He wasn’t sure But there was no time to dwell on it Just then the school’s intercom sounded a long low tone It was time for class 6
CHAPTER TWO As the students in Jordan’s classroom took their seats their teacher stood up and addressed the group Welcome she said My name is Ms Davenport I’m looking forward to getting to know each one of you this year To start why don’t we go around the room and introduce ourselves Each of Jordan’s classmates sat up straight in their chairs as Ms Davenport called on them one by one As they spoke 7
