Free Moon Runner by Carolyn Marsden Page A

pocket.
    “And now, class,” said Ms. Jenner, when the twenty minutes was up, “you have an hour to work on individual projects.”
    At the computer, Ruth and Mina traded the mouse back and forth as they clicked through one screen after another, looking for the website on tree frogs.
    Once they got to the site, they oohed and aahed over the glowing creatures photographed in their jungle hideouts. They ran the mouse together, Ruth’s hand on top of Mina’s, scooting back and forth on the table.
    Mina had started fourth grade here in the fall. She hadn’t wanted to leave her tiny private school. She felt comfortable there and had had the same best friend since kindergarten. But the school only went through third grade. All summer Mina had worried about the plunge into the huge public school. Mostly she’d worried about making a new friend.
    But it turned out that friends hadn’t been a problem after all. The first day, a group of two girls and a boy had invited her to the shady picnic tables at lunchtime. Sammy wasn’t like the other boys she’d known. He was never bossy, and he liked to talk about things the way girls did. By the end of the first week, Mina had traded phone numbers with Sammy, Alana, and Ruth.
    In early October, Ruth had thrown a surprise party for Mina. The Fellow Friends had jumped out from behind the bushes wearing cone-shaped party hats. Ruth had read the official Fellow Friends certificates out loud: herself for being the athlete, Sammy for loving to collect bugs, Alana for being the best reader, and Mina for being the New Friend.
    They taught her the Fellow Friends Handshake:
Shake with the right hand, patty-cake twice, snap, snap.
    Out on the patio, under the gigantic spreading black walnut tree, they sat down around a cake with
Fellow Friends Forever
on it. Because Mina was the guest of honor, Ruth handed her the knife. Mina had paused before slicing, not wanting to cut into the words linked together in cursive lines of frosting.
    Afterward, because the weather was still hot, the Friends threw water balloons at each other and drank huge glasses of red punch.
    PE was right after lunch. Coach Lombard waited in the middle of the field in his big, silly straw hat. As soon as everyone stood in formation, he named off the events: the high jump, the long jump, the softball throw, the quick sprint of the fifty meter, the exhausting five-hundred meter, the team relays . . . Mina noticed that as he talked, Ruth stretched her legs — first one, then the other — out in back of her, as though she couldn’t wait to get started on all the events at once. But listening to Coach made Mina feel like lying down in the grass for a long nap.
    “In two weeks, those of you who make the track team will be competing against the other schools in District 3 at Duncan Berring Elementary. Anyone who places first, second, or third at that meet will go on to the citywide meet. It’s called City for short.” Coach lifted his hat and smoothed his sweaty hair down with one hand.
    Mina pushed at some pebbles with her toe.
    “By the way,” he added, “not all of you will practice all the events.”
    Well, that’s one big relief,
Mina thought.
    Coach blew his whistle and gestured toward the field. “Laps first. But take your time. I don’t want to see any showoff sprints. Pace yourselves so you can do at least three laps.”
    When Coach blew the whistle a second time, Ruth leaped forward as though no gravity held her down.
    Mina took a deep breath, started running, and felt like a desert tortoise, storteling along with clunky, heavy limbs. Ahead, Ruth seemed to fly. How did she run so fast and easily?
    Mina had gone only half a lap, and breathing hurt. Maybe thinking about tortoises was a bad idea. There had to be a better animal. She imagined a roadrunner skipping along on tall, skinny legs.
    To her surprise, she felt lighter right away. She passed under the mesquite tree, whose long branches provided five