Read Online A Sliver of Sun by Dianna Dorisi Winget - Free Book Online Page B

much about Mr. Hoffmeister, aside from the fact that his belly hung over his belt and he liked to wear bowties. But I could tell from the delighted hub-bub from the class he wasn’t somebody you’d want to spend time with.
    Angela crossed her arms. “I’ll have to think about it,” she said.
    “Yes,” Mrs. Holloway said, “that’s a good idea.” Then she continued around the room, chatting about classics and how it was good to stretch your mind with a challenging book. I took a closer look at
To Kill a Mockingbird.
It looked pretty challenging all right. It was thick and heavy, and there weren’t any pictures.
    “It’s easy,” Ramsay whispered. “I already read it.”
    I’d been trying my best to ignore him, but my ears perked up when I heard that. “You read this whole thing?”
    He nodded. “Over the summer.”
    I gave him a suspicious look. “Who’s the main character? Girl or boy?”
    “Eight year old girl named Scout.”
    “For real?”
    “Yeah. There’s a boy named Gem too. Scout’s his little sister.”
    Him saying
little sister
moved my thoughts away from the book and over to Mama and her ultrasound. I wondered what exactly an ultrasound showed. It didn’t seem like it could show a whole lot this early on. I didn’t figure the baby could be bigger than a button or something.
    And then right that very second, as I stared at my copy of
Mockingbird,
something flashed into my mind, as bright as a pie tin in the sun. Something big and unbelievable—and yet so cotton pickin’ simple I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gotten it before.
    Mama had said they liked to do an ultrasound at sixteen weeks. That was four months. But she and Ben hadn’t even been married
one
month. Mama must have gotten pregnant almost three months before she got married! The notion caught me so much by surprise I had to suck in a breath.
    I recalled the two long, scary days Mama and Ginger and I had spent during the prison riot Ben had been involved in, worrying over whether he was gonna be okay, and fearing the worst. Mama had been terrified something might happen to him. No wonder! Not only would she have been stuck with Ginger and me—she’d been expecting
a baby
on top of it.
    I propped my elbow on my desk to keep from falling out of my chair. Mama always said children were somethin’ special—a gift from God—but only for married folks. That you had no business having babies if you weren’t married. And it made me almost giddy to realize that I now had a perfectly good reason for thinking she shouldn’t be having this baby.
    I looked over at Ginger. She was thumbing through
Huckleberry Finn
and still looking scared. I wanted to rush over there, drag her outta’ the room and spill the beans. But as soon as Mrs. Holloway finished handing out books, she moved right on to explaining what made a classic a classic, and there wasn’t any chance.
    It wasn’t till we got on the bus that afternoon that Ginger and I were finally alone. She scooted in beside me, propped her knees against the green vinyl seat in front of us and hugged her backpack.
    I was all ready to bust out with my news, but the pinched, pale look on her face made me hold off. “What’s goin’ on with you?” I asked. “You look all put out about something.”
    She drew her shoulders up tight. “I don’t wanna be Angela’s partner. I don’t like her.”
    “Why not? She’s a kick in the pants.”
“Not when you’re alone with her. She’s not very nice.”
    “She say somethin’ mean?”
    Ginger nodded. “When we were in reading groups.” She dropped her voice real low so I almost couldn’t hear it over the rumble of the bus. “She said I have to write
both
our book reports, or she’ll beat me up.”
    I laughed before I could stop myself. “No way! You’re kiddin’ right?”
    But Ginger didn’t laugh. She didn’t even smile. She just gave a tight-lipped shake of her head.
    “Aw, she’s just blowin’ wind,” I said. “You