Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Proud Words slant rhyme (n) two words that have the same final consonant sound (such as "stopped" and "wept") or two words with the same middle vowel sound (such as "barn" and "yard"). They sound almost like rhyming words, but not quite. The plan had been to go to Ryan's house and shoot hoops, but then Evan suggested they walk uptown to get slices of pizza. So they'd all called their mothers using the school office phone, and now they were walking up the hill to Town House, which didn't have the best pizza in town, but it was the closest. Evan was dribbling the ball as they walked, and the bounce of the ball seemed to keep time

骄傲的词斜韵(n)两个单词有相同的最后辅音（如“stopped”和“cried”）或两个单词有相同的中间元音（如“barn”和“yard”）。 它们听起来几乎像押韵的词，但又不完全是。 本来计划是去瑞恩家打篮球，但后来埃文建议他们走到住宅区去买披萨。 所以他们都用学校办公室的电话给妈妈打了电话，现在他们正在上山去镇屋，那里的披萨不是镇上最好的，但却是最近的。 他们走着走着，埃文在带球，球的弹跳似乎与时间保持一致

to the words that kept drumming in his head: "nudgers and shovers in spite of ourselves." The words made a steady beat that sounded right with the pounding of the basketball on the frozen pavement. And "nudgers" and "shovers" together was an example of slant rhyme, which Evan thought was pretty neat. Just as they reached the door of the pizza shop, Ryan said, "Hey, look!" and elbowed Evan so hard that Evan half stumbled in mid-dribble. When he looked up, he saw Megan and her mom walking right toward them. The ball bounced out of his reach and went rolling into the street. There was a lot of afternoon traffic, and several cars had to jam on their brakes to avoid running over the ball. Evan waited until everyone had stopped and then sprinted across the street to grab the ball, angry at it the way a mother would be mad at a kid for running into the street without first looking both ways. Mostly, though, he was embarrassed. Embarrassed to be making

那句话一直在他脑子里打鼓：“不由自主地推搡和推搡。” 这句话形成了稳定的节奏，与篮球在结冰的人行道上的撞击声听起来很对劲。 “nudgers”和“shovers”放在一起就是一个斜韵的例子，埃文认为这很整洁。 就在他们走到披萨店门口的时候，莱恩说：“嘿，看！”然后用胳膊肘狠狠地撞了埃文一下，埃文在运球的时候踉跄了一下。 当他抬起头时，他看到梅根和她妈妈正朝他们走来。 球弹得他够不着，滚到街上去了。 下午的交通很拥挤，有几辆车不得不紧急刹车，以免碾过球。 埃文一直等到所有人都停下来，然后冲过街道去抢球，就像一个母亲对一个孩子没有先看看两边就跑到街上一样生气。 不过，大多数时候，他感到很尴尬。 尴尬的做

such a scene in the middle of town, embarrassed that he'd flubbed his dribble in front of Megan, and embarrassed that his friends had seen the whole thing. When he got back to the curb, Megan and her mom were gone, but Paul and Ryan were laughing so hard, they'd sat down on the bench outside of Town House. Adam wasn't laughing, but he hadn't offered to help Evan, either. "Oooh, Megan!" said Paul, clasping his hands and pressing them to his heart. "I love you! I love you! I love you! Ooops! I dropped my basketball. Excuse me!" "No, no, it's like this," said Ryan, who could barely get the words out of his mouth because he was laughing so much. "Oh, Megan! When you're around, my hands turn to Jell-O!" and he started jiggling his hands in the air. "Just shut up, would you?" said Evan, and he pulled back the arm that was loaded with the basketball and looked like he might fire it right

他为自己在梅根面前运球失误而感到尴尬，也为他的朋友们看到了整个过程而感到尴尬。 当他回到路边时，梅根和她妈妈已经走了，但保罗和瑞恩笑得太厉害了，他们在镇屋外面的长凳上坐了下来。 亚当没有笑，但他也没有提出要帮助埃文。 “哦，梅金！”保罗说着，双手紧握在胸前。 “我爱你！”我爱你！我爱你！糟糕!我的篮球掉了。 对不起!”“不，不，是这样的，”瑞安说，他几乎说不出话来，因为他笑得太厉害了。 “哦,梅根!你在的时候，我的手就变成了果冻！”他开始在空中抖动他的手。 “闭嘴，行吗？”埃文说，他把那只装着篮球的胳膊往后拉了拉，看起来他要投篮了

at their heads. "Come on," said Adam, pulling open the pizza shop door. "You're acting like a bunch of idiots." "What's with him?" Paul muttered to Ryan as they followed Adam inside. Evan brought up the rear, the basketball pressed against his hip, wishing he'd never suggested going uptown that afternoon. After they'd finished their pizza slices and decided it was too cold to play basketball, they all went home. Evan climbed the stairs to his bedroom, hung the Locked sign on his door, then closed it firmly and pushed the edge of his desk in front of it so there was no way anyone could "accidentally" come in. He sat down and pulled out the stack of Post-it notes from his top drawer. It was easy to come up with the first six words. He'd been thinking about them on the walk home.

在他们的头上。“来吧，”亚当说着拉开了披萨店的门。 “你们的行为就像一群白痴。” “他怎么了？”他们跟着亚当走进去时，保罗低声对瑞安说。 埃文走在后面，篮球压在他的屁股上，希望那天下午他没有建议去住宅区。 他们吃完披萨片，觉得天气太冷，不能打篮球，就都回家了。 埃文爬上楼梯回到卧室，把上锁的牌子挂在门上，然后把门牢牢地关上，把书桌的边缘推到门前，这样就不会有人“不小心”进来了。 他坐下来，从最上面的抽屉里拿出一叠便利贴。 想出前六个词很容易。 在回家的路上，他一直在想着他们。

ponytail late girl laugh kind happy But after that, he couldn't think of what to do. He heard Jessie's door open, and then came the sound he dreaded: her impatient knocking at his door. Sometimes he wondered whether there was some kind of magnetic force field around the Locked sign. Every time he hung it up, Jessie appeared immediately. "Busy. Can't talk right now," Evan called through the door. "I need you to look at something." Jessie's voice was matter-of-fact. Evan couldn't tell if she had even heard him. "I said I'm busy. Come back later." "But later is too late. I need you to look at something now." "Not now. And not later, if you keep bugging me!"

马尾辫迟到的女孩笑得很开心，但在那之后，他不知道该怎么办。 他听见杰西的门开了，然后传来了他害怕的声音：她不耐烦地敲他的门。 有时他想知道锁定标志周围是否有某种磁场。 每次他挂上电话，杰西就马上出现。 “忙。现在不能说话。”埃文隔着门喊道。 “我需要你看样东西。” 杰西的声音平淡无奇。 埃文甚至不知道她是否听到了他的话。 “我说我很忙。待会儿再来。” “但是太晚了。我现在需要你看一些东西。” “不是现在。要是你再烦我，就别等了！”

"But what are you doing?" Evan could hear her knocking her shoe against the jamb of the door. Evan buried his head in his hands. "I'm thinking." "Thinking about what?" Evan slammed a book down over the Post-it notes, pushed the desk roughly away from the door, and flung the door open. "Why are you always such a pest?" he shouted. "I'm not always a pest," she said. "Just when I really need something." She held up a single piece of paper in her hand. "Can you look at this and tell me if it's good?" "No! I really can't. That's why I said later. Because later means later, Jess. You've gotta learn that!" Evan retreated back into his room and slammed the door shut. He heard Jessie's voice from the other side. "Your sign flipped around. Do you want me to fix it for you?" "Yes!" said Evan.

“可你在干什么？”埃文能听到她用鞋子敲门框的声音。 埃文把头埋在双手里。 “我想”。“在想什么？”埃文把一本书砰地一声放在便利贴上，粗暴地把桌子从门口推开，猛地把门打开。 “你为什么总是这么讨厌？”他喊道。 “我并不总是一个讨厌的人，”她说。 “就在我真正需要的时候。” 她手里拿着一张纸。 “你能看看这个，告诉我它好不好吗？”“不!我真的不能。 这就是为什么我说晚点再说。因为迟了就是迟了，杰茜。 你得学会这个！”埃文退回到自己的房间，砰地关上了门。 他听到杰西的声音从另一边传来。 “你的标志翻转过来了。 要我帮你修吗？”“是的！”埃文说。