Text copyright © 2021 by Rebecca Caprara
Cover illustrations copyright © 2021 by James Weinberg
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Charlesbridge and the author are not responsible for the content or accessibility of any website.
Published by Charlesbridge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Caprara, Rebecca, author.
Title: Worst-case Collin / by Rebecca Caprara.
Description: Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2021. | Summary: “In the two years since his mother was killed in an automobile crash, Collin has been anticipating further disasters, writing down what to do in the event of an avalanche or mentally practicing the Heimlich maneuver just in case—but the real trouble is that his mathematician father is obsessed with a classic math problem and has a hoarding problem that is spiraling out of control, leaving Collin desperate to hide this chaos from his friends and everyone else, even as he struggles with his own grief.”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019046483 (print) | LCCN 2019046484 (ebook) | ISBN 9781623541453 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781632899224 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Compulsive hoarding—Juvenile fiction. | Bereavement in children—Juvenile fiction. | Fathers and sons—Juvenile fiction. | Parents—Death—Juvenile fiction. | Mathematicians—Juvenile fiction. | Friendship—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Novels in verse. | Compulsive hoarding—Fiction. | Grief—Fiction. | Death—Fiction. | Fathers and sons—Fiction. | Mathematicians—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | LCGFT: Psychological fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.5.C38 Wo 2021 (print) | LCC PZ7.5.C38 (ebook) | DDC 813.6 [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046483
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046484
Ebook ISBN 9781632899224
Production supervision by Jennifer Most Delaney
Ebook design adapted from print design by Kristen Nobles
a_prh_5.7.0_c0_r0
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Before
After
Swimming
Sidestroke
T-Minus 119 Days
Math
Dad’s Dream
Magnificent Boy
Georgia’s Dream
Worst-Case Scenario #11: Avalanche
Nicknames
Discovery
Collections
Numbers
8
Prime Time
2
Moving Forward
Remembering
A Better Goodbye
Going Back
Layers
Grossbombs
The State of My Heart
Bullies
Worst-Case Scenario #432: Riptide
Outside
Spectacular Deal
Lost
T-Minus 108
High Dive
Warm Welcome
Georgia
Unexpected
Bloom
Full
Growth
Baffled
History
T-Minus 101
The Blob
Genius
Impossible
Hole in One
Worst-Case Scenario #441: Rock Climbing
Sweaty Betty
Keeping Busy
Nickname
Bravery
Worst-Case Scenario #558: Starvation
Hunting
Missing Chapter
Vacant Lot
A Memory
Healing
Trying
T-Minus 96
Home State
Appearances
Stinking
The Hoard Is Born
Refuge
Bus
Hygiene
Laundry
Away
Crossing Over
Borders
Breach
Worst-Case Scenario #320: Piranhas
Water
Uniform
Treasures
Back to Life
Collin Versus the Hoard
Thin Ice
T-Minus 81
Worst-Case Scenario #212: Indigestion
Incandescent
Splash
Suits
Small Victories
Good Riddance
Worst-Case Scenario #119: Earthquake
Doorbell
Trash Talk
Doorbell Dread
Worst-Case Scenario #129: Gila Monster
Heatstroke
Smells
New Smells
Worst-Case Scenario #l80: Heatstroke
Gila Breath
Crazy
Kissing
Worst-Case Scenario #178: Halitosis
Everything
Everything and Nothing
T-Minus 68
Ocotillo
Movie Night
Space Invader
Restored
How I Feel at Home
Clear
Boundaries
Trim
Challenge
Tsunami
Vocabulary
Candy Roulette
Bad Ideas
Halt
Churn
Borderless
Perfect
Leaving
Worst-Case Scenario #226: Jammed Door
Nest
3
Giving
Space and Time
Equations
Unknowns
Why
T-Minus 62
Worst-Case Scenario #741: Typhoon
Peace Offering
Traitor
Show-And-Tell
My Turn
Worst-Case Scenario #1003: Zombies
Fossils
Strike One
Secret
Photographs
Stay
So Clever
Stand Up
One More Secret
Clumsy
Solved
New Solution
Payback
No Fun Phone
Worst-Case Scenario #477: Runaway Train
Georgia Versus Gravity
T-Minus 54
Rain
Strike Two
Ocotillo
The Best Week
Reboot
Ka-Boom!
Splitting
Unsolvable
Help Wanted
Drift
The Accident
Sinking
Hummingbird
Email
Reaching Out
Sludge
Checkmate
10
T-Minus 41
Worst-Case Scenario #194: House Fire
SOS
Worrying
Weightless
Decisions
No Warning
Exposed
Shock
Stuck
Can’t Go
Fess Up
Escape Plan
Construction
T-Minus 33
Diversions
Building
Yard Sale
Logistics
Value
Last Chance!
Not a Bird
Vocabulary
Searching
Surprise
Conversations
Scorpions
Take Back
T-Minus 24
Lost and Found
6
T-Minus 17
Letter to Mom
Wake-Up Call
Left Behind
Message
Excuses
Rats
T-Minus 13
Field Day
Strike Three
Tug-of-War
T-Minus 6
Return
T-Minus 1
Night Sky
Alternate Route
4
Colors
Swirl
Relief
Embarrassing
Reveal
Thankful
Amenities
Messages
Gone
Loss
The Human Heart
Perennial
Confession
One Condition
Best-Case Scenario #1: Winning the Lottery
Best-Case Scenario #2: Riemann Hypothesis
Best-Case Scenario #3: Tacos
Death by Hugging
Worry
Tyson
Little by Little
DCS
Room to Talk
Swimming
Unknowns
Starting Over
Jaws
Blossom
Smile
Kiss
Not Dead
Kalamazoo
Acknowledgments
BEFORE
I used to dream
about normal stuff like
making the swim team,
acing my social studies quiz,
getting revenge on Liam for pranking me all the time.
These days
my main goal
is to prevent disaster
from striking again.
Or, at the very least,
to be better prepared.
Which is harder
than it sounds
when you’re in middle school
and calamities of various sorts
occur daily.
AFTER
Now I carry
a bright orange book
in my pocket
at all times.
It has instructions for:
outrunning killer bees,
crawling out of quicksand,
surviving an earthquake.
There’s even a part about escaping
from a car submerged in water.
My friend Georgia says,
If any of those things actually happened,
you’d never have the time or wits
to check your little orange book.
She has a good point.
So I’m memorizing every chapter,
starting with the one about the sinking car.
SWIMMING
I’ve become a good swimmer:
backstroke,
freestyle,
butterfly (which is the most challenging)
My friend Liam is a decent swimmer, too.
But he prefers to invent his own wacky strokes.
Watching him from the pool deck after school
makes me laugh so hard
I snort Gatorade through my nose,
especially when he attempts
the Slippery Noodle Double Kick.
My favorite is sidestroke
because it’s low intensity
and can be sustained over long distances
(handy if you become lost at sea, for example).
Coach Baker says sidestroke,
along with all of Liam’s inventions,
aren’t official strokes,
at least not in competition.
That’s fine by me.
I’m not in this for speed.
Survival is more important
than winning medals.
SIDESTROKE
Pick a cherry,
put it in your basket.
One.
Pick a cherry,
put it in your basket.
Two.
That’s what I repeat
in my head
when I practice.
Making sure to avoid
the danger zone
under the diving board.
Pick a cherry,
put it in your basket.
Three.
I stretch my arms,
kick my legs.
Counting each cherry,
not how many laps I do.
Which is a lot.
I’ve been swimming
every day
since the accident.
Except for the days
when lightning threatens
to shock the water
and everyone in it.
Or the days
when the water gets shocked
with chemicals
because some knucklehead
pooped in the pool.
Pick a cherry,
put it in your basket.
Four.
I swim, swim, swim.
Pick, pick, pick.
The cherries never
weigh me
down.
They’re not real,
thankfully.
T-MINUS 119 DAYS
X
X
X
Liam makes a calendar—
a countdown
until the last day of school.
Each red X makes him and Georgia giddy
for the freedom of
summer vacation.
Each red X twists my stomach
into a knot.
MATH
The kind of math
my dad teaches
is brain-numbingly hard.
Not like 1 cherry + 1 cherry = 2 cherries.
Dad’s math has more letters
than numbers,
which makes
zer0
sense to me.
Then again
I’m not the genius—
he is.
DAD’S DREAM
For as long as I can remember
my father has dreamed
of solving something
called the Riemann hypothesis.
Lots of very smart people consider this
impossible.
Which only makes Dad
more determined
to figure it out.
Which I think
is very cool.
MAGNIFICENT BOY
Every time we’d visit Da
d at work,
the big green quad
buzzed with people
studying,
tossing Frisbees,
lying in the sun like lizards.
Mom would pack a picnic lunch.
Dad would meet us in the shade
on a checkered blanket.
Students would wander over
all starry-eyed.
Hi, Professor Brey, they’d say,
tripping over their words.
Dad would put down his sandwich,
wipe crumbs from his beard,
introduce us:
This is Melody,
my brilliant wife.
And this fine young man is Collin,
my magnificent boy.
Mom would blush,
but I would sit up straight,
suddenly growing
three
inches
taller
basking in his attention
like the sunbathers
soaking up golden rays.
GEORGIA’S DREAM
Georgia says she has the same dream
over and over:
She goes to school and realizes
she forgot to get dressed.
She’s so mortified she runs home.
Why do you run home? I ask.
Because I’m buck naked!
Wouldn’t you?
To Georgia, home is a safe place.
My turn! My turn! Liam says.
Sometimes I dream
that I go to school.
And?
That’s it.
That’s it?
Yeah. School’s the worst.
Except recess. Recess is the best.
We stare at him.
What? I thought we were sharing nightmares.
I don’t share mine.
* * *
When traveling in areas prone to avalanche, wear a small radio beacon to transmit your location to rescue crews.
If you feel snow and ice shifting underfoot, attempt to move uphill, above the crack line.
If you are swept into the avalanche, try to “swim,” or thrash, to the top of the snow.
Reach for the sky, keeping one arm above your head.
This will help rescuers find you and make climbing out of the snowpack easier.
If you are buried deep, spit into the snow to create a vital pocket of air.
Note where gravity carries your saliva. Dig in the opposite direction.
BREATHE!
NICKNAMES
Tyson and Keith
think they’re so hilarious,
making other kids laugh
when they call me names:
Leggy Peggy