Free Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

Turn over to see what it is. It took him a while to learn because our alphabet is different from theirs, but he wrote the whole thing himself.
    Happy 4th of July even though this might not get there in time.
    Your friend Jim
    Maggie turned the letter over. In the middle of the page was a note that had clearly been erased and rewritten several times.
To Maggie-o,
    Thanks for cards. I like!
    Jay
    "You could be pen pals!" Treecie said when she saw the note from Jay. "A pen pal from Korea, that would be SO neat."
    Treecie had a pen pal who lived in Ohio, a girl named Martha whom she had met on Long Island two summers ago. Maggie wished she could have a girl for a pen pal. If she and Jay ended up writing to each other, maybe she could ask if he had a sister or a friend who was a girl. Then she would have
two
pen pals from Korea.
Maybe someday we could even visit each other—wouldn't that be amazing.
    Over the next few weeks, a flurry of small parcels left Brooklyn. Maggie continued to write to Jim, and in almost every letter she included something for Jay. Treecie came up with the idea of sending him a comic book. Maggie thought of a postcard showing the Statue of Liberty. She didn't wait for replies; whenever she or Treecie got an idea for something else to send him, Maggie wrote and sent it right away.
    Treecie also took a photograph—a real one—of Maggie with the firehouse guys. Treece grumbled about the uselessness of her camera, something about the contrast in the photo not being quite right, but Maggie thought the picture was just fine and mailed it to Jim in her next letter.
    Then Treecie went to Long Island for the summer. Maggie always missed her, but this year it seemed even worse than usual. After Treecie left, Maggie couldn't seem to think of anything else to send to Jay. The gift had to be inexpensive, of course, and also small and light enough to mail easily.
    It had been almost three weeks since she had sent him anything, which felt like way too long. With no better idea, Maggie decided to send him more baseball cards, so she went down to Mr. Aldo's shop to buy a pack.
    And there, at the candy counter, she found a perfect gift.
I'm putting something for Jay in with this letter. It's a new thing Mr. Aldo just started selling at his shop. If you flip open the top, a little piece of candy comes out.
    It's called PEZ, I hope he likes it!

GAME SEVEN
    The start of the school year always made Maggie feel a little breathless. New teacher, different kids in her class, the feeling of being a year older, which was somehow a lot stronger when she went into a new grade than it was on her birthday. She had a new white blouse with a darling round collar. And after weeks of begging, she had finally persuaded Mom to cut bangs into her hair. She couldn't pass a mirror or a window without pausing to look at her reflection; the bangs really did make her look older.
    Besides that, Treecie was back from Long Island, and they had so much to talk about. They talked as fast as they could every second on the way to school and at recess and when they saw each other on the weekends, and still it seemed as if they would never get caught up.
    But Maggie had hardly anything new to tell Treecie about Jim—because she hadn't received a letter from him in ages. Mr. Armstrong didn't call out to her anymore on Saturday mornings; he just shook his head as soon as he came around the corner.
    One evening at bedtime, Maggie opened the lid of the shoebox where she kept Jim's letters. She took them out of their envelopes and put them on the bedspread.
    Six letters from Jim, with the one note from Jay-Hey.
    May 31. That was when Jim's last letter had been written. Jay's note had come in the same envelope.
    And now it was the beginning of September. More than three whole months without a letter.
    Why was it taking so long? Were his letters getting lost in the mail? Or was he just not writing to her anymore?
    Maggie refolded the letters, put