Free Moon Runner by Carolyn Marsden

“Here.” Mina handed Ruth the Friendship Ball. “It’s your turn now.” The ball was made of bits of multicolored yarn. Each day a different friend took it home and added to it.
    “The Friendship Ball is getting too huge,” Ruth said, holding the yarn as if it were a bowling ball, pretending to stagger. Her ponytail swung back and forth.
    “That’s because we’re all such good friends,” Mina said. She stooped to pick up a bit of yarn that had come loose and floated to the sidewalk.
    They were walking in the feathery shade of the mesquite trees, toward the entry of the pink two-story building of Elizabeth Morris Elementary. A warm desert breeze stirred Mina’s bangs. The March day would be hot.
    “My soccer team took first place on Saturday.” Ruth gave a thumbs-up. “We’re the champs now.”
    “Cool,” said Mina, though it seemed silly to care so much about chasing a soccer ball around a field.
    “Today’s the big day,” Ruth said.
    “What big day?”
    “Don’t you remember? Track. Coach said that all fourth and fifth graders would be starting this afternoon.”
    Oh, no,
thought Mina. She must have forgotten on purpose. If kids goofed around whenever Coach was giving instructions, they had to run laps. So Mina always stood at attention. She hated running. It was easier to put up with basketball. She could sort of pretend to play without doing much. Last year, at her old school, she hadn’t had PE because the yard was too small.
    They slipped into the courtyard just as the Pledge of Allegiance started. Mina put her hand over her heart and carefully said the pledge. When that was over, she sang the national anthem, almost hitting the high notes.
    The other two Fellow Friends stood in front of her. Alana, who always wore black Mary Jane shoes with jeans shorts, turned around. “Here,” she whispered, sprinkling candy powder from a packet into Mina’s palm.
    Mina sucked the sweet grains from her palm, and they turned to sugary, spicy syrup in her mouth.
    Sammy, with his cowlick of blond hair, opened his cupped hands to show Mina a cricket.
    “Let it go,” she whispered.
    Sammy opened his hands wider and the cricket leaped off.
    They got into the line for Ms. Jenner’s class. As the kids moved up the steps to the second floor, Mina wondered if she should pretend to be sick so she could miss track.
    She noticed her reflection in the glass case full of school sports trophies: Mina Lee with straight black hair and narrow eyes. Mina Lee who cared nothing about sports or trophies.
    When everyone was settled in the classroom, Ms. Jenner took attendance, then read the lunch menu: steak strips, French fries, green beans, and pudding.
    Mina looked out the big window. The sky was a crisp blue, clear all the way to the horizon. The moon, almost invisible, still hung above the desert mountains. Without thinking, Mina sketched it in the margin of her notebook.
    Ms. Jenner had all her students keep moon journals. She was nuts about the moon. Instead of a globe of the earth, she had one of the moon. She had a bookcase full of moon picture books, moon poetry, books of moon facts and moon myths. She had pictures of moon goddesses and of the first men to land on the moon.
    Mina had done a report on the Chinese Moon Festival, which was held during the fall, when the moon was huge. Mom had come to school and helped everyone make round moon cakes with red bean paste inside.
    It was time for silent reading. Mina took out her mystery,
Seven Steps to Treasure,
and began. The book was too easy for her. It had drawings at the beginning of each chapter. “Can’t you read something more challenging?” Mom often said. Mom was a librarian, and reading was important to her. “You get cold feet when it comes to reading, Mina Lee.” But Mina liked her mystery series.
    The heroine had just found diamonds in the neighbor’s yard.
The trunk was too heavy for Francesca to lift. So she looked around, then hid one diamond in her