The Get Over, Page 3

  Twig stood up and almost everybody gave him a hand. Everybody but Midnight and Tall Boy. Both of them put their hands over their mouths and laughed.

  Why does laughing replace so much for some people? If something wasn’t funny, why were they laughing? It was as if they could somehow make things less important, or people less important, by just laughing at them. Could I write a poem about Tall Boy? How would I avoid the clichés? How would I avoid such adjectives as stupid and gross? What could I say on Tall Boy’s level that he would understand?

  When Twig sat down, Midnight started kicking the back of his chair again. It really made me mad, but I knew I couldn’t beat Midnight in a fight. Neither could Twig.

  Mrs. Nixon’s talk was all right—how she expected each of us to do our best and how she knew how good our best was. I was just happy with Mr. Day for having Twig stand up.

  If you knew Twig, you would like him. Even if you just met him, you would think he was okay. He looks like an average kid until he smiles, and then his whole face lights up and you just want to smile with him. Twig is two inches shorter than me. He’s five eight and a half and I’m five ten and a half. He’s thin, with light tan skin, dark hair and eyes, and a wide smile that makes him seem always pleased with something. My mom says he would have made a pretty girl. He told me that when he was born, he was premature.

  “My mom said she was expecting me in October and I came along in August,” he said. “I guess I couldn’t wait.”

  “You didn’t have anything to do with it,” I said. “It’s like . . . nature or something.”

  “Too many people are born in October, anyway,” Twig said. “You don’t hear about a lot of people being born in August.”

  “I saw Midnight and Tall Boy kicking your chair in assembly,” I said.

  “They don’t bother me.” Twig’s voice was low as he looked away.

  “They bother me,” I said.

  “Yeah, they’re like a blister on your foot,” he said. “Even if they don’t hurt when you start a race, you know that sooner or later they’re going to show up.”

  About the Author

  WALTER DEAN MYERS is the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award, the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers has received every single major award in the field of children’s literature. He is the author of two Newbery Honor Books and five Coretta Scott King Award-winning titles. He is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and is a three-time National Book Award Finalist as well as the first-ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was the 2010 United States nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and is considered one of the preeminent writers for young people. You can visit him online at www.walterdeanmyers.net and www.who-is-america.com. Walter lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.

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  Copyright

  THE GET OVER. Copyright © 1999, 2013 by Walter Dean Myers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  EPub Edition April 2013 ISBN 9780062269096

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