1 Enly Enly Wait for me I was boarding the school bus at the end of the day and turned around on the steps to see my best friend Pinky jumping up and down at the back of the mob of kids waiting to get on Her four thick coils of hair bounced around her head the chunky beads on the ends of them clunking together as she waved a brightly colored piece of paper at me I have to show you this she yelled over everyone’s everyone’s heads I tried to get off the bus but the kids behind me were crowding up blocking my way Tia the self-appointed bus monitor stood towering over the steps She leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder shoulder Uh-uh buddy boy where do you think you’re going Her fingers went snap snap and then she 1
pointed over her shoulder Get your jumbo bones up here and go sit next to Kenny It was on the tip of my tongue to say You can’t tell me what to do but something about her whip-like bossiness and her already-developed chest intimidated intimidated me I glanced over at Ms Screws who was sitting behind the steering wheel sucking up a soda through a straw and looking at her phone I knew she wouldn’t be any help She always just let Tia tell everyone what to do I tromped up the rest of the steps and down the aisle into the reek of armpit and cheap body spray kicking aside discarded contraband snack bags to get to the middle of the bus Kenny was one of the smallest smallest kids in the whole school whereas I was one of the biggest My mom always said my father’s white genes overtook the Chinese ones when it came to size I was bulky and tall which meant I had to sprawl my knees apart when I sat down so they wouldn’t be jammed against the seat in front of me Tia turned around and snickered at Kenny and me Unfortunately puberty hadn’t quite hit for either of us and for some reason Tia thought it was hilarious hilarious to see an overgrown half-Chinese kid sitting next to the palest white-blond kid who was barely 2
visible over the seat I rolled my eyes but she just tossed her curly head and went back to dominating the bus riders Hey Enly Kenny said flashing a mouth full of braces at me Hi Kenny I had the Chinese lunch in the cafeteria today His voice was always high-pitched and squeaky I sighed trying not to cross my eyes in weariness Just because I was half Chinese Kenny apparently thought he should share his Chinese food experience with me But unlike Tia he was at least trying to be nice Oh really Yeah it wasn’t anything like Dragon Palace he said The eggrolls tasted like sweaty feet I had never eaten at Dragon Palace and I wondered wondered how he knew what sweaty feet tasted like but I only grunted Hmph because I was busy watching watching for Pinky and trying not to get clocked in the head by backpacks as the eighth graders squeezed past to the back of the bus Actually I had kind of liked the school lunch My mom might be Chinese but she certainly wasn’t making eggrolls and fried rice every night Or ever She didn’t have time for all that chopping folding 3
