Text copyright 2012 by R. J. Palacio
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| Halloween
At lunch the next day, Summer asked me what I was going to be for Halloween. Of course, I’d been thinking about it since last Halloween, so I knew right away. “Boba Fett.” “You know you can wear a costume to school on Halloween, right?” “No way, really?” “So long as it’s politically correct.” “What, like no guns and stuff?” “Exactly.” “What about blasters?” “I think a blaster’s like a gun, Auggie.” “Oh man …,” I said, shaking my head. Boba Fett has a blaster. “At least, we don’t have to come like a character in a book anymore. In the lower school that’s what you had to do. Last year I was the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.” “But that’s a movie, not a book.” “Hello?” Summer answered. “It was a book first! One of my favorite books in the world, actually. My dad used to read it to me every night in the first grade.” When Summer talks, especially when she’s excited about something, her eyes squint like she’s looking right at the sun. I hardly ever see Summer during the day, since the only class we have together is English. But ever since that first lunch at school, we’ve sat at the summer table together every day, just the two of us. “So, what are you going to be?” I asked her. “I don’t know yet. I know what I’d really want to go as, but I think it might be too dorky. You know, Savanna’s group isn’t even wearing costumes this year. They think we’re too old for Halloween.” “What? That’s just dumb.” “I know, right?” “I thought you didn’t care what those girls think.” She shrugged and took a long drink of her milk. “So, what dorky thing do you want to dress up as?” I asked her, smiling. “Promise not to laugh?” She raised her eyebrows and her shoulders, embarrassed. “A unicorn.” I smiled and looked down at my sandwich. “Hey, you promised not to laugh!” she laughed. “Okay, okay,” I said. “But you’re right: that is too dorky.” “I know!” she said. “But I have it all planned out: I’d make the head out of papier-mâché, and paint the horn gold and make the mane gold, too.… It would be so awesome.” “Okay.” I shrugged. “Then you should do it. Who cares what other people think, right?” “Maybe what I’ll do is just wear it for the Halloween Parade,” she said, snapping her fingers. “And I’ll just be, like, a Goth girl for school. Yeah, that’s it, that’s what I’ll do.” “Sounds like a plan.” I nodded. “Thanks, Auggie,” she giggled. “You know, that’s what I like best about you. I feel like I can tell you anything.” “Yeah?” I answered, nodding. I gave her a thumbs-up sign. “Cool beans.” |