Free Going Home by Nicholasa Mohr

you’re going to have a wonderful time there.”
    â€œI guess,” I said. But I was almost wishing I didn’t have to leave; things were going so good here. “I wish both you and Gigi could come with us. You two are my very best friends.”
    â€œI’m gonna miss you so much, Felita.”
    â€œYou are?” I was so pleased to hear him say that.
    â€œYes, and I hope you don’t forget me.”
    â€œForget you, Vinny? You gotta be crazy!”
    â€œThen promise that you’ll write to me.”
    â€œI promise,” I said. “Will you write back?”
    â€œI promise, if you promise me one thing. . . .”
    â€œAnything,” I told him.
    Vinny put his arm around my shoulders, then leaned toward me and kissed me right on the mouth. This time it wasn’t such a surprise, and when he finished, I kissed him right back. “Will you still be my girlfriend when you get back from Puerto Rico?” he asked.
    My heart seemed to jump right into my throat. Up until that moment Vinny had never actually said I was his girl. “Yes, you know I will,” I told him.
    Â 
    I managed to get pretty good marks on all my tests except math. That’s always been one of my worst subjects. I wish I had Consuela’s brains for math. She’s a whiz at it. At last graduation day came, and it was a great big success. Everybody kept admiring the decorations and the big album. I even got a special mention for my artwork and had to stand up and take a bow. Everyone clapped, and even though I was real nervous, I loved it. Mami, Tio Jorge, and Johnny were there, but Papi had to work and Tito had school.
    Toward the end of the ceremonies Mrs. Feller told the whole graduating class to come up on stage and sign their names with Magic Markers in the big album. I had already signed my name first. Then we all began to say good-bye. Some of the kids were crying. They were sad because not all of us were going to the same junior high. Most of the kids lived in our district, but some others who lived in other areas had to go to a different junior high. For instance, Gigi and I weren’t going to the same school. That really upset us both because we’d never been separated since we had started school together. But Consuela and most of the other girls would be going to my school and so would Vinny, so I couldn’t stay too sad. When I said good-bye to Vinny again, he squeezed my hand and whispered to me not to forget to write.
    That evening Mami cooked a delicious celebration dinner. Papi was home and all of us were real excited about our trip. Tio bought me a vanilla cake with pineapple icing that had been decorated with the words
    BUENA SUERTE
GOOD LUCK
FELITA !

Chapter 6
    Except for my parents, none of us had ever been up on an airplane before. Tio Jorge was the most nervous. “Birds are supposed to fly, not people. I don’t like it,” he grumbled the morning we were leaving.
    â€œPor Dios, Tio,” Mami said, “it’s nothing. You’re gonna feel like you are standing still. When I first came here from Puerto Rico twenty years ago, it was nothing; imagine today when things are so modern. Tell him please, Alberto.”
    â€œRosa is right, Tio Jorge, you have nothing to worry about. I guarantee it,” said Papi. “You will feel like you are sitting in the living room and not up in the sky.” Papi had been a mechanic in the air force before he married Mami, so everyone knew he was telling the truth.
    â€œIt’s not natural ... I don’t like it,” Tio kept on complaining.
    â€œI can’t wait to go, man,” said Tito. “You should’ve seen my buddies, man, green with envy.”
    Mami went around the apartment double-checking to make sure the windows were locked and all the appliances were unplugged. “We are not coming back for two weeks,” she said, “so everyone make sure they got all their things