Free Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper Page B

seat and sat down next to her. Then she jumped back up and gave Jessica a hug, then gave a hug to the kids sitting closest to Jessica. One kid stiffened up when she touched him, but I was surprised that most of them let her hug them. Molly and Claire, since they were standing, had no choice.
    “Ooh, yuck!” Claire whispered.
    “Cooties!” Molly whispered back.
    Mrs. Lovelace raised an eyebrow, then cleared her throat. “It seems you two like to stand. You’ll continue to do so the rest of this week.”
    “Aw, man! This sucks!” I heard Claire say.
    Molly had sense enough to say nothing.
    Maria didn’t notice. She even kissed Claire on the cheek. That was funny.
    Willy ended up next to a large, friendly boy named Connor.
    Ashley and Carl were absent that day, so that left me sitting in the back of the classroom by myself. The room got real quiet. I suddenly felt cold, like the air-conditioning had been cranked up real high. I got goose bumps.
    The teacher looked around the room, expectation on her face, I guess hoping that somebody would volunteer to take me. At that moment I would have givenanything to be back in our bluebird room instead of sitting there with thirty kids staring at me.
    Finally, a girl got up out of her seat and walked over to my chair. She squatted down and looked me directly in the face. Then she smiled. It was the girl with the long hair who had frowned at her friends for laughing. “I’m Rose,” she said, her voice soft.
    I smiled back, and I tried really hard not to kick or grunt or make a noise that would scare her away. I held my breath and thought about calm, quiet things, like ocean waves. It worked. I inhaled deeply and slowly, then pointed on my board to Thank you . Rose seemed to understand.
    I showed her I could power my own chair, and I rolled to where she’d been sitting. We sat together for the rest of that class. And I didn’t do a single embarrassing thing! It ended way too soon.
    But ever since, every Wednesday, our little class of outcasts gets to join Mrs. Lovelace’s music class. It’s awesome!
    Jill, Ashley, and Carl eventually became a part of the group. Each one of us has been assigned a “buddy” to sit next to and interact with.
    Once they met her, all the girls rushed to be Ashley’s buddy. I think it’s like playing with a pretty little doll for them, but Ashley seems to like the attention.
    Claire and Molly eventually got their chairs returned, but they haven’t chosen to be buddies for anybody yet. That’s fine with me.
    Elizabeth and Jessica have stuck with Gloria and Maria. Jill sits contentedly next to a girl named Aster Cheng. Rodney actually comes over at recess and talks to Freddy. Sometimes he pushes Freddy really fast in his chair. Freddy loves that.
    And I get to sit with Rose every single Wednesday. On Tuesday, I can hardly sleep because I’m so excited. I make my mother pick out my nicest clothes on Wednesday morning—cool outfits like the other kids wear. I screech at her until she gets just the right combination. I make sure she brushes my teeth so my breath won’t stink.
    I think about Rose all the time. I worry that she will change her mind and not like me. But Rose talks to me like I understand, and she tries to figure out what I’m saying as well. One day I pointed to new and shoes and nice on my communication board, then down to her feet, to let her know that I had noticed she got new sneakers and that I liked them. At first she seemed surprised that I could do this. Especially since it sometimes takes me a long time to make my thoughts make sense using my board. One day I pointed to music and bad and stinky , then I started laughing. Rose didn’t get it atfirst. So I pointed to the words again, then pointed to Mrs. Lovelace, who was playing some kind of jazz music on the CD player. I’m like Mom—not a big jazz fan; it confuses me because it doesn’t have a tune.
    Rose finally figured it out and said, “Oh! You don’t like jazz?