Addy's Race Read Online Free Page B

Sierra, who was behind me with her boom mic. “And thank you, Sierra.”
    I smiled, but Sierra didn’t make eye contact. She turned and was in her seat so fast you’d have thought she had pulled a Harry Potter and apparated into it.
    Emma sat behind her. She poked Sierra on the shoulder and tried to hand her a note. Sierra looked confused and turned back to her book. Emma poked her again.
    If you’re hard of hearing and someone is talking to you, you can pretend you can’t hear them. But nobody can ignore a poke. And Emma kept poking.
    Sierra started squirming. That’s when Mrs. Shewchuk noticed.
    “Emma, keep your hands to yourself,” she said.
    If it had been me, I’d have been embarrassed for the rest of the day, but not Emma. By the time novel study ended and current events began, she was back in suck-up mode.
    The current events topic was a newspaper story about a Saskatchewan town that had banned competitive teams. Nobody had to try out anymore; everybody got to play, no matter how skilled they were.
    “It’s supposed to make it fair, but it’s not,” Emma said. “Because if you’re really good, you should get to play with other really good kids. That’s how you get better.”
    I thought about the kids who weren’t really good. Didn’t they deserve to get better?
    “Addy?” Mrs. Shewchuk looked down at me. “You look as if you have something to say.”
    “I think Emma is right,” I said. “The only way you get better is if you’re challenged. Everybody should be challanged—so kids who aren’t as good should get to play with the ones who are, because they’ll learn more that way.”
    Emma went from looking pleased with herself to looking as if a thunderstorm was brewing under her skin. Her face turned red and her eyes got squinty.
    Mrs. Shewchuk called on Tyler.
    “I think…um, I think…” He was staring at me. He couldn’t remember my name.
    “Addy,” Mrs. Shewchuk said.
    “Yeah. I think Addy is right, everyone should have a chance to play with more skilled kids. But I think Emma had a point—”
    He remembered Emma’s name and not mine?
    He looked at Emma. “If you play with kids who aren’t very good, you get worse,” he said.
    Actually, that wasn’t what Emma had said. But either she had a worse memory than Tyler or she didn’t want to tell him he was wrong, because she didn’t say anything. It was Mrs. Shewchuk who corrected him. Then Tyler said he still thought good kids should play with good kids and bad kids— that’s what he said, bad kids—should play with bad kids, which made me decide he wasn’t so cute after all.
    Mrs. Shewchuk interrupted him before he had a chance to say “bad kids” again. She told him to use the term “less skilled,” which now everybody would know was teacher-talk for “bad.”
    After that, Henry said everyone should have a chance to play because that was more fair, and Kelsey and Miranda agreed with Henry. He beamed as if he’d won the Stanley Cup. Lucy said competing took the fun out of everything, and then the bell rang and it was time for recess.

    The first thing I noticed when Lucy and I got to the playground was Emma and Stephanie hanging around Sierra. They were talking with their hands and smiling big— and what was that? Was Stephanie stroking Sierra’s hair?
    “What is she doing?” Lucy asked.
    “Touching her hair.”
    “That is weird,” Lucy said. “I don’t even think Stephanie and Emma touch each other’s hair.”
    Then Sierra began stroking her own hair. When she stopped, Stephanie and Emma looked at her hand. What was going on?
    “She’s showing them her implant,” Miranda announced. She had come up behind me just as I realized it wasn’t Sierra’s hair Stephanie was touching, it was the transmitter. Sierra must have taken it off so they could touch it. I wondered what it felt like. And could Sierra hear? Probably not, because in a second it was back on her head.
    “Did you know implants cost as much