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  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Gameplay

  Wake Up Call

  Questions

  Why couldn’t your dad

  In the elementary school spelling bee

  Giddy-up

  Mom

  Blackjack on the Way to School

  Ms. Hardwick’s Honors English class

  The Beautiful Game

  The thing about daydreaming

  Busted

  After School

  At Miss Quattlebaum’s School of Ballroom Dance & Etiquette

  Chivalry

  The Pact

  Ever since first grade

  Best Friend

  Bragging Rights

  The Letter

  Dad’s back in town

  Trash Talk

  PUT. THE. PHONE. AWAY, Nicholas

  Trouble

  Dean and Don Eggelston

  Fists of Fury

  The library door

  When you walk inside

  Welcome to the Dragonfly Café

  Hey, DJ, Drop That Beat

  Skip MacDonald

  Huckleberry Finn-ished

  Class ends

  Usually at dinner

  Breaking the Silence

  No Heads-Up

  Thought

  Broken

  For the rest of the week

  Conversation Before the Match

  Playing Soccer

  Game two

  No Problemo

  Problemo

  Conversation with Mom

  Dear Nick

  You Want to Talk About April, but Coby’s Mind Is on the Dallas Cup.

  Nothing Good About Bye

  The Way a Door Closes

  The Next Day

  In the hallway

  Conversation with The Mac

  First Dinner Without Mom

  I’m sorry

  Hanging Out at Coby’s

  Conversation

  Let’s call April, he says

  Home Alone

  Why You No Longer Play Football

  The next morning

  The Homework Questions

  Texts from Mom

  Texts to Mom

  Jackpot

  Insomnia

  Standing in the lunch line

  Big Trouble

  Stand Up

  Back to Life

  Do-Over

  Consequences

  The day after

  Conversation

  The Last Time You Got into a Fight

  Last night you couldn’t watch TV

  April is

  Caught

  The walk to her desk

  Then She Smiles

  Limerence

  Coby’s Back

  Blackjack in the Library

  You and Coby

  Note from April

  Change of Plans

  Conversation After Soccer

  Conversation with April

  The only thing

  Probability

  Boy rides his bike

  Kentucky

  Breakdown

  A Good Cry

  What are you doing here?

  1 on 1

  This morning

  Conversation with Mom

  And Just Like That, Things Are Out of Control Again

  Dressed in camouflage sneaks

  Conversation with The Mac

  Shrink

  You miss

  When Mom Starts Crying, Dad Takes Her Out, Leaving You Alone with the Shrink

  Doctor Fraud

  Chimichangas

  How Did We Get Here?

  Introductions

  Alarm Clock

  Cool?

  Not Cool

  Bad

  After Soccer Practice

  You wake up at four a.m.

  The Big Match

  Game On

  Score

  Right before halftime

  Guess Who’s Back?

  Halftime

  Coach asks

  Second Half

  Nine Minutes Left. Can’t This Be Over Already?

  Booked

  Hospital

  Ankle sprains

  Surgery

  Fact

  How are you feeling, Nicky?

  Bad

  Worse

  Only

  The End

  TV Therapy

  This Sucks

  New Rules

  Mom kisses you goodbye

  The Next Morning

  Breakfast

  Conversation with Coby

  Dear Skip

  Rapprochement *

  Visitors’ Day

  Hello, Nicholas

  This has got to be a sweven.

  You’re not really into baseball

  All the Broken Pieces

  The Next Day

  Conversation with The Mac

  Read Aloud

  He sounds

  Texts to April

  Text from April

  Discharged

  Driving Home

  Out of the Dust

  You dial April’s number

  Phone Conversation

  Books You Find on Google

  Dreams Come True

  Today, Coby called

  Knock Knock

  Twain *

  Nerds and Words

  A Long Walk to Water

  Your Suggestion

  Bye, Nick

  Family Meeting

  Text to Coby

  When April

  Rock Horse Ranch

  Afterward

  You absolutely love

  Thank You

  Later, at Dinner

  Conversation with Mom and Dad

  What happens to a dream destroyed?

  On the way to the airport

  Sinking

  Conversation with Dr. Fraud

  Regular Communication

  At Miss Quattlebaum’s

  Regular Communication

  After School, You Stop in to See The Mac

  Playoffs

  Text from Mom

  Regular Communication

  Winnifred may be a gadfly *

  Waiting at the Bus Stop When a Police Car Pulls Up

  Thirty Minutes Later

  I’ve been thinking

  Conversation with Dad

  Hey, Mom

  Mom Calls Immediately

  Blue Moon River

  Inside the Bag Is, Get This, FREEDOM

  Sub

  After the Game

  While you and Coby

  HEY, DEAN, you scream

  One Down, One to Go

  Ouch!

  Freedom

  Sample Chapter from THE CROSSOVER

  Buy the Book

  Middle Grade Mania!

  About the Author

  Footnotes

  Copyright © 2016 by Kwame Alexander

  Text on page 284 used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

  www.hmhco.com

  Cover photo © 2016 by Steve Gardner

  Cover design by Lisa Vega

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

  ISBN: 978-0-544-57098-6

  eISBN 978-0-544-78771-1

  v1.0416

  For Lynne, Stacey, Mary Ann, John, and Deborah,

  some of the coolest librarians and teachers on the planet;

  and to the best English teacher I never had:


  Joanna Fox, the real dragonfly lady.

  Gameplay

  on the pitch, lightning faSt,

  dribble, fake, then make a dash

  player tries tO steal the ball

  lift and step and make him fall

  zip and zoom to find the spot

  defense readies for the shot

  Chip, then kick it in the air

  take off like a Belgian hare

  shoot it left, but watch it Curve

  all he can do is observe

  watch the ball bEnd in midflight

  play this game faR into night.

  Wake Up Call

  After playing FIFA

  online with Coby

  till one thirty a.m.

  last night,

  you wake

  this morning

  to the sound

  of Mom arguing

  on the phone

  with Dad.

  Questions

  Did you make up your bed?

  Yeah. Can you put bananas in my pancakes, please?

  Did you finish your homework?

  Yeah. Can we play a quick game of Ping-Pong, Mom?

  And what about the reading. I didn’t see you doing that yesterday.

  Mom, Dad’s not even here.

  Just because your father’s away doesn’t mean you can avoid your chores.

  I barely have time for my real chores.

  Perhaps you should spend less time playing Xbox at all hours of the night.

  Huh?

  Oh, you think I didn’t know?

  I’m sick of reading his stupid words, Mom. I’m going to high school next year and I shouldn’t have to keep doing this.

  Why couldn’t your dad

  be a musician

  like Jimmy Leon’s dad

  or own an oil company

  like Coby’s?

  Better yet, why couldn’t

  he be a cool detective

  driving

  a sleek silver

  convertible sports car

  like Will Smith

  in Bad Boys?

  Instead, your dad’s

  a linguistics professor

  with chronic verbomania*

  as evidenced

  by the fact

  that he actually wrote

  a dictionary

  called Weird and Wonderful Words

  with,

  get this,

  footnotes.

  In the elementary school spelling bee

  when you intentionally

  misspelled heifer,

  he almost had a cow.

  You’re the only kid

  on your block

  at school

  in THE. ENTIRE. FREAKIN’. WORLD.

  who lives in a prison

  of words.

  He calls it the pursuit of excellence.

  You call it Shawshank.

  And even though your mother

  forbids you to say it,

  the truth is

  you

  HATE

  words.

  Giddy-up

  she hollers,

  SMASHING the ball

  to the edge

  of the right corner

  of the table

  with so much force,

  it sends you diving

  into the laundry stack,

  trying and failing

  to lob it back.

  Loser does the dishes tonight.

  You can’t say that now, Mom. It’s game point.

  She drops a shot

  right over the net

  that you can’t get to.

  You’re a one-trick pony, young boy.

  Stick to soccer, she jokes, then

  headlocks you,

  hits you on the backside

  with her paddle,

  and soaks your forehead

  in kisses

  after beating you

  for the fourth game

  in a row.

  Mom

  used to race horses,

  but now she only trains them.

  Correction: she used to

  train them,

  which was pretty awesome,

  especially when you

  got to cowboy

  around the neighborhood

  or watch

  the Preakness

  from luxury box seats

  with unlimited Coke and shrimp.

  But she doesn’t do it anymore

  since there are no horses

  in the city.

  Last year,

  she did get asked

  to train

  a horse named

  Bite My Dust,

  but when she revealed

  that we’d have to move

  to some small town

  with no university

  (or travel soccer team),

  Dad said No

  with a capital N.

  Blackjack on the Way to School

  With two sevens showing, you

  say, Hit me! Coby curses

  when you get a third. BLACKJACK!

  Ms. Hardwick’s Honors English class

  is one boring

  required read

  after another.

  So you’ve become a pro

  at daydreaming

  while pretend-listening.

  The Beautiful Game

  You’re pumped.

  The match is tied

  at the end

  of extra time.

  Players gather

  at center circle

  for the coin toss.

  You call tails

  and win.

  Real Madrid scores

  the first goal.

  Ours bounces

  off the left post.

  They make

  the next two

  in a row.

  We make three.

  They miss

  their final two.

  It’s 3–3.

  Your turn

  to rev the engine,

  turn on the jets.

  Score, and you win.

  Teammates

  lock arms

  for the final kick.

  The crowd roars,

  screams your name:

  NICK HALL! NICK HALL! NICK HALL!

  Like a greyhound

  coursing game,

  you take off

  from twelve yards out,

  winding

  for the kill.

  But right before

  the winning kick

  of your Barcelona debut,

  Ms. Hardwick

  streaks

  across the field

  in her heels and

  purple polyester dress

  yelling:

  NICHOLAS HALL,

  PAY

  ATTENTION!

  The thing about daydreaming

  in class

  is you forget

  what was happening

  just before ninety thousand fans

  started CHEERING you

  to victory.

  So everything blurs

  when your best friend whispers

  from behind,

  She’s talking to you, bro,

  and your teacher SLAMS

  you with a question

  that makes no sense:

  The expression “to nip something in the bud”

  is an example of what, Nicholas?

  Uh, to nip it in the butt

  is an example of

  how to get slapped by a girl, you reply,

  as confused

  as a chameleon

  in a bag

  of gummy worms,

  which sends

  almost everyone

  in class

  into fits

  of contagious snickering.

  Everyone except

  Ms. Hardwick.

  Busted

  Nicholas, I’ve warned you

  about not paying attention
r />   in my class.

  This is your final warning.

  Next time, it’s down to the office.

  Now, can anyone answer

  the question correctly?

  I can, I can, Ms. Hardwick, says Winnifred,

  the teacher’s pet (and a pain in the class).

  What is the correct phrase, Winnifred?

  Nip it in the bud, not butt, Ms. Hardwick, she answers, then adds,

  Sorta like when you prune a flower

  in the budding stage, to keep it from growing.

  Then she rolls her eyes. In your direction.

  Precisely. It is a metaphor

  for dealing with a problem

  when it is still small

  and before it grows

  into something LARGER, Ms. Hardwick says,

  looking dead at you.

  Ironically, Nicholas, by not paying attention,

  you have stumbled upon another literary device

  called a malapropism.* Do you know what it means?

  And of course you do, but before

  you can tell her Winnifred raises

  her hand and starts spelling it:

  M-A-L-A-P-R-O-P-I-S-M, from

  the French term mal à propos, meaning

  when a person, or in this case, a boy,

  uses a word that sounds like another

  just to be funny.

  Excellent, Winnifred, and since

  you’re such a comedian, Nicholas, Ms. Hardwick howls,

  how about you finish reading

  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

  and find

  an example of a malapropism

  in the text

  to present

  in class next week.

  ARRGGGHH!

  After School

  Better pay attention,

  or Ms. Hardwick’s gonna

  give you a good kick

  in the grass,

  Coby says

  while you both wait

  for Mom

  to pick you up.

  That was a malaprop, he jokes.

  I know what it was!

  Wanna play soccer? he asks.

  Of course you do,

  but you can’t

  because

  it’s Tuesday

  and you have a ridiculous,

  mind-numbing