Dad smiled. “Maybe she hasn’t learned enough to be scared of new things yet.”
Lexi reached the top of the stairs. Dad scooped her up before she could turn around and belly-slide down the stairs like a penguin.
“I was brave yesterday when I rode over the teeter-totter.”
“Yes you were.”
“But I’m still not doing our mountain-bike day.”
Dad put Lexi down at the bottom of the stairs, and she started right back up again. “If you can ride over a teeter-totter, I’m sure you can at least try the skills course.”
“Everybody will make fun of my training wheels.”
“How do you know you’re the only person with training wheels?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. Nobody else had said they had training wheels.
“Do you want to learn to ride without them? I can teach you today. I know you can do it.”
I shook my head.
Dad held his leg behind Lexi to stop her from sliding backward down the stairs. “Okay. Whenever you’re ready, so am I.”
“I’ll never be ready.”
“I don’t think they make adult-sized training wheels,” Dad said.
“I’ll be able to drive a car by then.”
Chapter 10
The day before mountain-bike day, Dad tried again. “Are you sure you don’t want to try riding without training wheels? It will be a lot easier to ride on the field without them.”
I pretended I couldn’t hear him while I colored my beautiful dragonfly picture.
Dad sighed and walked into the kitchen.
Why did everybody care so much about mountain biking?
I went to bed with dragonflies zipping around inside me. When I woke up they were flying even faster.
“Better eat a lot of breakfast,” Mom said. “You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”
I swirled my spoon through my Cheerios. The dragonflies were taking up too much space. I couldn’t eat anything.
“Your bike and helmet are loaded,” Dad said.
I had a plan. They might have signed the form. They might have put my bike into the car. They could make me go to school. But nobody could make me pedal. I would sit on my bike and watch my class. And they couldn’t do anything about it.
When we got to school, everyone was so excited about our biking day they were buzzing around like bees doing a dance. Dad pulled my bike out of the car and brought it to the bike racks at the front of the school. I did my best turtle walk behind him. Maybe I could walk so slowly that the bell to go home would ring before I reached the front door.
Irma’s car pulled into the parking lot and she jumped out. She ran over and hugged me. Her mom took her bike off a rack on the back of the car and put it next to mine. “Good morning!” Irma said. “I’m glad you’re here. I have butterflies in my stomach.”
“You do?” I asked. “Why?”
Irma’s forehead wrinkled. She made the “worried” face from Ms. Lagorio’s cards. “Aren’t you nervous?”
“Yes. I have dragonflies in my stomach. But I’m also not going to ride, so I’m not as nervous as I could be.”
“What do you mean, you aren’t going to ride?” Irma asked.
“I don’t want to. They can’t make me.”
Irma’s face turned into the “sad” card. “Oh. I hoped you could ride with me. Now I’ll be the only person in the lowest group.”
My insides felt like they were being stretched in two different directions. I didn’t want Irma to feel sad. But I also didn’t want to ride my bike. “I have training wheels,” I said. “I’m not brave enough to go mountain biking.”
“You were brave at my house. You rode over the teeter-totter.”
“But you and Jonas didn’t make fun of me.”
Irma spun in a circle. “Who’s making fun of you? I’ll beat them up.” She put up her hands into fists.
I shook my head. “Beating people up is bad. You are not a bad person.” I looked across the playground. “But you could stomp on Dan’s foot.”
Irma giggled.
The duty teacher walked by. “Good morning, girls.”
We pretended we were looking for bugs.
“Looking forward to biking today?”
“Yes,” Irma said.
“No,” I said.
“Oh dear,” the duty teacher said.
The bell rang.
“Time to go to class,” she said.
My plan to walk slowly hadn’t worked. We stood beside the bike racks for a moment.
Dan wheeled his bike in beside Irma’s. “Nice bike.”
“Thank you,” Irma said.
He looked at mine and laughed. “You have training wheels? How are you going to mountain bike with training wheels? You’re such a baby!”
My body went hot. I put up my fists. I was going to beat Dan up even if it was a bad thing to do.
Irma stepped in front of me. “Lauren isn’t a baby. She’s very brave. She went over a teeter-totter at my house.”
“With training wheels,” Dan said. “That’s not brave.”
I stepped around Irma. “Brave is doing something even if you’re scared. So I am too brave.” I moved closer to Dan and put up my fists.
The duty teacher moved toward us. “What’s the problem?”
“Lauren’s going to hit me!” Dan whined.
“Am not!” I shouted. I put my hands behind my back.
The duty teacher frowned. “Let’s go inside. It’s going to be an exciting day.” She grabbed my hand and Dan’s hand and marched us into the school.
Chapter 11
As we reached my class, Dan whispered, “See you on the field. Baby!”
Before I could do anything, Irma wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Come sit beside me on the carpet.”
My volcano was starting to simmer, but I took some deep breaths and followed Irma.
Ms. Allen told the class the plan for the day, and then before I could even do any square breathing, it was time to put our helmets on and go outside. I stayed at the back of the line. I walked as slowly as I could down the hallway.
“Come on, Lauren, don’t hold us all up,” Ms. Allen said.
I swung my arms quickly to make it look like
