Lu (Track, #4)

by Jason Reynolds

mean, she know a lot of stuff about stuff because she’s a mother and mothers gotta know stuff, but the people who went to school for that kind of thing, like weather people and meteorologists (who should be studying meteors and not weather), they don’t even be knowing (because they should be studying meteors and not weather). Talking about it’s a 50 percent chance it might rain.

And I didn’t care what I looked like. You know why? Because sometimes I gotta be who I am for you to know it’s okay for you to be who you are.”

Name ideas (for Snowflake): Snowflake Snow Flake Turkey Wing Wing Ghost

only person with a last name between those letters, Corey Moore, had bad hearing and did better sitting in the front of the class.

Bullies should be snitched on, especially if you don’t feel like you can back them down.

the other thing about being albino is that it also messes with the goodness in your eyes. It took my brown and gave me this thing called hyperopia, which ain’t got nothing to do with being hyper, even though that’s what it sounds like. It basically just means that whatever is right in front of me is blurry.

you a lightning bolt, and you got on glasses thicker than the back of Coach’s neck,

mind your business, dummy!” Patty barked. Ghost chuckled a little.

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

we were talking about how he grew up in Glass Manor and all that, he told me how his father traded his gold medal for drugs.”

Those five words made the ride home feel like my skin was a suit I was too big for. Uncomfortable. Tight. Weird.

I am the man. The guy. The kid. The one. The only. The Lu.

And sometimes the jokes cut deep. Deeper than we think. And if we don’t deal with them, if we don’t figure out how to somehow get over them, move past them, we have no idea what they can do to us.”

like to just write a squiggly line and pretend it says Lucas Richardson,

You chasing me around the house, telling me the tickle monster was coming, howling like a fool.

the simple ones in the pamphlet were: 1. Honesty 2. Hope 3. Faith 4. Courage 5. Integrity 6. Willingness 7. Humility 8. Discipline and Action 9. Forgiveness 10. Acceptance 11. Knowledge and Awareness 12. Service and Gratitude

“Well, think of integrity as the gold medal… inside you.”

“I’m, um… I’m not perfect,” he repeated, now wiping away a tear. “But none of us are. And what we learn is that if we push, if we aren’t scared to be scared, if we’re not terrified of being uncomfortable, if we can trust ourselves and be honest about where we fall short, where we miss the bar, and can accept a little help, which we all need sometimes, we can be… good.”