The Trouble Begins Read Online Free

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    That night on the couch I remember the night my dad stood over me while I pretended to sleep. “You go to school. You work hard,” he said. I worked hard today because I thought he wanted money the most. Now I know he wants me to go to school. Even if they just do stupid things there. What the others said is true. In America school is free but you have to go. He thinks I brought bad luck with me but when I see my family I don't think they were so lucky before I came either. My grandma says I'm a dragon and dragons are the luckiest.

    I go to school now every day even though I hate it. I'm still not talking there. Except I talk just a little so they won't know that I'm not talking. They'll just think I'm stupid and don't know any answers. They think I'm stupid anyway. We read a story about a “dear little mouse” that saves food for the winter. In the Philippines I squashed the “dear little mice” so they wouldn't ruin the food and my grandma and I would have enough to eat. Veronica, who's really stupid, always tells me when it's time to go to my superdumb reading group in Room 10.
    “You better go, Du,” she whispers even though my teacher, whose name is Mrs. Dorfman, has forgotten. If I'm quiet she'll forget all about me.
    “You better go doo-doo, Du Du,” whispers Jorge. When I jump up to hit him Mrs. Dorfman remembers.
    “Time for reading, Du,” she says. She's glad when I leave.
    Everybody in Room 10 is really dumb except me and I'm not talking. I'll read when I have to but I won't talk. Thuy and Lin and Vuong talk just like Americans and sometimes they talk so fast I can't understand them and neither can my mom and dad. My sisters say they think in English but I don't believe them. It's too hard. Everybody talks Vietnamese to my grandma. If they heard that at school they'd really laugh. At recess Anthony pushes up the corners of his eyes and goes, “Ching ching chong dong.” It's supposed tobe Vietnamese but he's so stupid he doesn't even know what it sounds like. But everybody laughs. Then I grab his dumb baseball hat and throw it on the roof. The playground aide sees and I get sent to the Counseling Center. I write “I will respect the rights and property of others” one hundred times. Then I go back to the class and crunch Anthony's pencil when it rolls under my desk.
    Mrs. Dorfman smiles at the end of the day. “Don't forget, students. Jamestown dioramas are due tomorrow. Check your homework assignment sheets so you have all the components.” I hear her say
due
so I listen but it's not about me.
    I walk with some guys from my class on the way home but they don't talk to me. They laugh a lot and I make sure they're not laughing at me by giving them mean looks whenever they start. If I hear
Du
or
Du Du
they're going to be sorry. Before my street they all turn and go a different way. I go down the alley behind the houses because it's more interesting.
    “Free Cooper Farms Chicken!” say the big red letters on the newspaper. I can read
free
and
farm
and
chicken
easily because they're in even bigger letters than the ones in my dumb reading book. Lots of stuff in America is free. I pick up the newspaper near the trash can and shake off the dirt. I tear off the “Free Chicken” part. I'll take home a feast for everybody, free. I open some trash cans even though they're smelly, and I find another “Free Chicken” paper. By the time I get all the way down the alley I have six free chickens. I know the free chickens are at the big market on FortiethStreet because I see the name when we shop. I jog over there to get my chickens.
    Inside I pick six of the biggest chickens to put in my basket. When I wait in line there's a kid from school behind me. I know him even though he's in another class because he doesn't play softball or Three Flies Up at recess. He stands around like me. He doesn't say hi so I don't either. He's with his dad, who's way too tall and skinny and has a big hairy beard that's