Addy's Race Read Online Free Page A

“You have a long stride.”
    Was I supposed to say thank you?
    “Jim Ryun wears hearing aids,” she said.
    Again, I had no idea what she was talking about. “Who?”
    “Jim Ryun. First American high school student to run a mile in under four minutes. In 1964.”
    Was she telling me I could run fast because I had hearing aids?
    “He lost his hearing when he was a kid,” she went on. “Measles.”
    “I was born this way,” I said. I guess that meant I wouldn’t be running a mile in under four minutes.
    Miss Fielding looked like she was going to say something more, but Lucy didn’t give her a chance. “I. Have. To. Stop,” she said. Her face was so red, I could practically feel the heat radiating off it. “My chest hurts,” she panted. “And my legs feel like logs.”
    “Let’s stretch,” Miss Fielding said. She bent Lucy over so her arms dangled near her feet like a rag doll’s.
    “I hate this,” she said, crumpling to the ground. “I can’t do it. I hate my mother.”
    “It’s okay, Lucy,” I said, helping her up. “We don’t have to run the whole way, remember?”
    “It takes time to build endurance,” Miss Fielding said. “In a month you will amaze yourself.”
    “But the first race is next week,” Lucy said.
    “Don’t put pressure on yourself,” Miss Fielding said. “You don’t have to do the race.”
    “I do,” Lucy said. It was hard to tell whether her body was heaving because she was fighting back sobs or if she was still out of breath. “My mother said so.”
    “If you’re not ready, I’ll talk to your mom,” Miss Fielding said. “But let’s keep walking so your muscles don’t get stiff.”
    My legs felt twitchy. I wasn’t tired or sore. It was as if I hadn’t run at all. If Lucy hadn’t been there, I would have kept running.
    After we had walked a little way on the path, Miss Fielding looked at her watch. “Everyone will be coming back soon. Let’s head in.”
    “Do we have to run?” Lucy asked.
    “Not if you don’t want to,” Miss Fielding said.
    A look crossed Lucy’s face. I knew we were thinking the same thing: Stem was at the front of the pack. If they saw how slow we were on their way back, they’d never leave us alone.
    “I’ll try,” Lucy said. We had to stop a couple of times, but we reached the school before the rest of the club was even out of the river valley.
    Miss Fielding made us do more stretches. “Drink lots of liquids, both of you,” she said as we finished up and grabbed our backpacks. “See you at practice tomorrow.”
    We crossed the street and saw her jog up the block to meet everyone.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Lucy said, speeding up. “I don’t care if I get a cramp. I don’t want to see Stephanie and Emma again today.”

Chapter 6
    At school the next morning, Lucy and I found notes in our cubbies with stick-figure drawings of two people wearing tracksuits and saying, “I’m tired” and, “Why is jogging so hard?” I looked up. Stem was pointing at us and giggling.
    “I can’t wait till we start getting homework so they’ll have something useful to do with their time,” I said to Lucy.
    “Who knew they were such awful artists?” Lucy folded the drawing into an airplane and put it on Stephanie’s desk. “You left your artwork in my cubby,” she said.
    “And you left yours in mine,” I said, dropping my note on Emma’s desk.
    We slipped into our seats as Mrs. Shewchuk came up the aisle. When she saw the airplane, she said, “Stephanie, I expect better from you. We don’t throw paper airplanes in grade six.” Stephanie tried to explain, but Mrs. Shewchuk balled up the paper, dropped it into the recycling box and told her to stop making excuses and get to work.
    I opened my desk and pretended to look for something so no one would see how hard I was laughing. When I had calmed down, I went to give my fm to Mrs. Shewchuk.
    “Thank you, Addy,” she said, as if I had done her a favor. She reached toward