Ice (Shooting Stars 2)

Laughter rolled like thunder down the hallway and over me. My heart pounded. Rage rose in my blood.

"You've got that wrong. Thelma." I said so calmly I could have been talking about a problem in biology. "It's your brain that has to be found with a tweezer."

I forced my way between her and Carla as the boys roared with laughter, most of them now turning to tease Thelma. She cursed them. Before I made it to the cafeteria doors. I felt her books slam against my back. She had heaved them after me. They fell to the floor. I paused, took a deep breath and then just walked on. passing Mr. Denning, the cafeteria's teacher monitor, who nodded and smiled at me. He heard the commotion continuing outside and turned his attention to it, ordering the crowd to disperse.

They did, but shortly afterward, there was a great deal more noise in the hallway and Mr. Denning had to rash out again. A group of students gathered at the doors to watch and then everyone scattered to his table when three other teachers appeared.

What was going on now?

I was shaking in the lunch line and still trembling when I finally sat down with my tray of food. Arlene Martin and Betty Lipkowski, two white girls who had always been pleasant and friendly, were already seated at the table. They were in the chorus, too.

"I guess Mr. Glenn's going to be accompanying us on the piano today," Betty said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Didn't you see what was going on out there just now?" Arlene asked me.

"I saw enough out there," I muttered.

"Balwin got into a bad fight."

"What?"

"He and Joey Adamson had to be pulled apart by Mr. Denning. He took them both to the principal and you know fighting is an automatic three-day suspension, no matter who's to blame," Betty said,

"How does it feel?" Arlene asked.

I stared at her.

"What?"

"You know, to have a boy get into a fight over you?"

I looked down at my food. I had to keep swallowing to stop what I had already eaten from coming back up.

"Sick," I finally said.

"What?" Betty asked.

"Sick. It makes me sick," I said, rose and walked out of the cafeteria.

The remainder of the day passed in a blur. My teachers' voices ran into each other in my mind. I moved like a robot, unaware of how I went from one room to another. When Miss Huba called on me in my last class of the day. Business Math. I didn't even hear her. I guess I was staring so blankly and sitting so stiffly, I frightened her.

She came to my desk and shook my shoulder.. "Ice Are you all right?"

I gazed up at her, and then looked at the rest of the class. Everyone stared, all looking like they were holding their collective breath, waiting to see if I would scream or cry or laugh madly.

"Yes," I said softly. Her previous math question entered my brain as if it had been waiting at the door. I rattled off the answer. She smiled.

"That's correct. Okay, let's turn to the next chapter, class," she said.

When I looked at the others again, their expressions varied from amazement to

disappointment. After Miss Huba made the

assignment and gave the class the last ten minutes to beg-in, a silence thickened around me. Then. Thelma Williams, who sat in the last seat in the third row, loudly muttered. "Give her a tweezer.'" The whole class roared. Miss Huba looked up confused. And I... I felt as if each syllable of laughter was like a pebble thrown at my face.

Finally. I gave them what they wanted so desperately.