Free Checkmate by Walter Dean Myers

umbrellas looked like a modern painting over the white tables. There were colors everywhere. Only the Pullmans were in black and white.
    “I love chess, but I hate being a star,” Bobbi said. “That’s what Sidney’s message on the chessboard read in code. Now you know why.”
     

THE CRUISER
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
OF BEING A GOOD PARENT
By Kambui Owens
    1. Thou shalt not hit thy child.
    2. Thou shalt not be ashamed of thy child.
    3. Thou shalt not wish thy child was more like another kid.
    4. Thou shalt talk to thy child, not just yell.
    5. Thou shalt not tell thy child how he should feel.
    6. Thou shalt not tell thy child how he should think.
    7. Thou shalt help thy child to feel good and think well.
    8. Thou shalt be friendly to thy child.
    9. Thou shalt not want thy child to be just like you.
    10. Thou shalt love thy child.

CHAPTER NINE
The Plot Thickens
    Z ander, are you playing that child?” LaShonda asked me at lunch. “Playing who?” I asked.
    “Everybody’s talking about you telling Caren you’re in love with her,” LaShonda said. “And I can’t believe you fell in love that fast.”
    “What are you talking about?” I asked.
    “What am I …?” LaShonda’s hand found her hip. “It’s all over the school that you and Caren are going out this weekend and she’s telling everybody about how you said you’ve been sweating her for over a year now and just got up the nerve to make your move! What you got in mind for that seventh-grader?”
    “We’re going out this weekend but … who told you I was in love with her?”
    “Marie Castro told Evelyn Nesbitt who told Zhade and you know if you tell Zhade anything you might as well put it in the newspapers,” LaShonda said.
    “My grandmother said that she’s seen guys get lynched for messing with young white girls,” Kambui added.
    “I didn’t know this train went to Stupid City,” I said. “I’m not
messing
with Caren, I’m just taking her to the movies.”
    “I don’t like that girl all that much, but don’t use her, Zander,” LaShonda said.
    I watched as LaShonda slung her book bag over one shoulder and stalked off.
    Kambui shook his head and left our table right after LaShonda.
    “Yo, Bobbi, you know anything about this?” I asked.
    “I think sometimes Caren makes up stuff,” Bobbi said. “When we were in elementary school she told everybody her house had burned down one weekend. It hadn’t.”
    “Why would she … you know, tell people I was in love with her?”
    “Okay, I didn’t want to get into it but how come you’re going out with her all of a sudden?” Bobbi asked.
    “She told me she thought her father was racist and we could find out by me calling him up and asking if … I could take her out.” I was beginning to see a whole scenario. Caren hooked onto the race thing and now everybody was thinking we were a couple. “You think I’ve been had?”
    “It happens when you’re young,” Bobbi said, opening her laptop. “You want to talk anymore about Sidney’s problem? I think I have a solution.”
    Me, tearing my head back from Caren and getting it back on Sidney. “Go on.”
    “When we play next, Sidney is supposed to play Pullman,” Bobbi said. “That’s going to be a hard match. Suppose I get the coach to put him on the fourth board. That’ll put him on a weaker player and he can relax a little. It’s a bit of a comedown for Sidney but he’s going to get his points anyway. This team is the last really hard one we’re going to face this year until we reach the play-offs.”
    “Okay, but do you think Sidney will go for it?”
    “He will if you talk him into it. You can tell him that it’s to set up the play-offs,” Bobbi said. “That’ll put me up against Pullman, who’ll probably beat me, but we might get a full three points out of the match if the two and threeboards play well. If Sidney loses to Pullman in a quick game it’ll blow morale and we might all lose. We just have to convince Sidney