Free The Trouble Begins by Linda Himelblau Page B

metal stuff people have thrown out. Even our trash can is piled high today. I wonder why.
    It's full of Lin's speed-seed plants. She took such good care of them she even put them in the trash carefully. Speed-seed plants must mean they grow fast. What if I planted them in the old man's yard under the berries, and huge ugly mutant plants spread all over his yard? He'd be out there trying to pull them up or chop them down but they'd just keep growing too fast for him. Lin says they're not mutants, though, because they're all the same. To be a mutant one has to be different but maybe she's wrong and they're not all the same when they get older. I'll just rescue them all and line them up here by the shed. I'll get them all ready so I can plant them in his yard tomorrow.
    I go in the kitchen for something to eat. “Du, you're all wet. What are you doing out there?” asks nosy Thuy.
    “Nothing,” I say. Lin might tell me I can't have her plants even though they were in the trash. Her eyes are still red and she doesn't say anything. She trails off after Thuy and Vuong to school. I see Thuy wait at the bottom of the steps and put her arm around Lin's shoulders. I've got time to plant a few now if I go over the little side-yard fence and hurry. I don't think the old man's up yet.
    I like these little plants. They look like they really want to grow. Bigger leaves near the bottom, close together, then smaller ones up the stem, until there are the little tiny growing leaves at the top. They look exactly alike, even more than outside plants do. Even these little tiny, tiny hairs on the stem that I can see if I hold them up to the light.
    Wait! Not this one. This one doesn't have any little stem hairs at all…. This one doesn't either. I wonder if that's mutant. Little tiny hairs! They're hidden under the leaves and really hard to see. Too bad Lin's already gone to school.
    No, I won't just say too bad she's gone. I'll take them to her. It won't take long if I run. I'll be late for school but late just means make up double time in the Counseling Center after school. I don't care about that.

    I can't run too fast with these plants, hairy on the right and no hairs on the left. I don't want to wreck them. The high school's one block down now but there's nobody hanging around out front. Classes must have started.
    I find the office by asking a girl in the hall. I park the plants outside the door. I tell the lady inside it's an emergency and give her Lin's name. She doesn't believe me. “I don't know what this is about but you should be in school, young man,” she warns me.
    “It's my grandma's medicine. She has to have it fast and Lin knows where it is. I'll just ask her and be out of here,” I lie. I hope the lie won't come back so my grandma really needs medicine.
    “What is your phone number?” she asks.
    “We don't have a phone,” I lie again.
    The lady goes through a file of cards. “There's a phone listed here,” she says, like she caught me.
    “That's not ours. We got rid of it. Please, lady. Let me just ask her fast.” The lady calls the number but nobody answers. My grandma never answers because she can't speak English. Finally that does it. The lady calls a high school girl to take me to Lin's room.
    “What are those?” The girl sniffs when she sees the plants in the hall.
    “You stay here,” she orders me outside a classroom door. She goes inside. She comes out with Lin and jerks her thumb at me. Then she strolls away down the hall.
    Lin is scared. “What's wrong with Grandma?” she asks, her red eyes getting teary again.
    “Nothing,” I answer. I hold out the plants.
    “What are you doing with those?” Real tears, angry ones now, roll down her face. “Get out of here!”
    “Mutants,” I say. “See.” I pull her under a window where the light is bright. “See the little hairs.” I pull the big leaves at the bottom gently aside so she can see the stem. I'm so excited about it I almost laugh out loud.