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

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

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

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.

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!"

"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.