Read Online A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall - Free Book Online

as yourself?”
    She tosses me one more crumb and brushes off her hands.
    “There he is! See you next time,” she says to me.
    What a wonderful person.
    Danny (Lea’s friend)
    “Hello, Azalea Fong!”
    “Hey, Danny!” she says, popping off the bench. “You’re the only person I would let get away with calling me Azalea. Besides my mom. But she so rarely gets in touch lately that it’s probably not worth mentioning.”
    I make a frowny face.
    “Enough about suckiness. What’s up with you?” she asks.
    “First of all, were you just talking to that squirrel?”
    She turns to look over her shoulder. “He’s my friend.”
    “Okey dokey,” I say with a nod.
    “I like squirrels,” she says with a shrug.
    “Moving on, I would like to complain about the weather.”
    “Proceed,” she says, her face serious.
    “It is freaking cold outside today! Wasn’t it summer like last Tuesday?”
    “I know you’re saying that as hyperbole, but seriously, last Tuesday it was seventy-five degrees outside and today it’s barely forty. So, it’s true, last Tuesday was essentially summer compared to this.”
    “Thank you, my favorite literal person.”
    “What’s on the agenda today?”
    “Well, considering how much luck I always have seeing Gabe when I’m with you, I thought perhaps today would be a perfect time for another round of stalking him.”
    “Delightful,” she says, pausing at the fork in the path. “Though you realize I can’t actually make him appear.”
    “Yes. I need to check my school PO box. How about we start there?”
    “Sounds like a plan, man,” she says. She’s quiet for a few minutes while we walk.
    “Whatcha thinking about?” I ask.
    She sighs. “I’m just jealous that Gabe is working with this girl in creative writing. And I want to work with him.”
    “I understand. How does he act around her?”
    “Like Gabe,” she says with a shrug. “Quiet and nice and he smiles a lot at her.”
    “That does sound quite Gabe-ish,” I say, as we walk into the post office. “Holy crap. It’s like invoking his name makes him appear!”
    She smiles and watches as Gabe gets a couple of envelopes out of his mailbox. He must feel us looking at him because he glances over and waves.
    “I suppose I could try being friends with him, at least talking to him in class and stuff. He’s cute and quiet and I like how … he behaves, all polite.”
    “He’s so cute,” I mumble.
    “Totally,” she agrees. “Would it be wrong to use the word ‘dreamy’?”
    “Definitely not.”
    He heads off in a different direction, and Lea and I turn back toward the bus stop.
    “We could have stalked him longer,” she says.
    “No, it’s cool, sometimes I just need a taste.”
    I know she gets it, even if she does look really sad.
    I can admit, there’s a small chance that I’m deluding myself about his sexual preference. But really, there aren’t that many straight guys who compliment other guys’ jeans.
    Inga (creative writing professor)
    Part of me always feels bad when I make the kids read their stories or essays aloud in class. But another part of me knows that it’s a great habit to get into. Reading your work aloud makes you see all different nuances. There’s a big difference in the way we write compared to the way we speak, and the only way to learn that is to hear it. The best way to do that is to read everything you write out loud.
    I recommend they start by reading aloud to something inanimate, and then move on to their friend or their mom. And then it’s time to read in front of the class. Nearly every class period someone has shared their work, if not multiple someones. Everyone except Gabe.
    He talked to both Cole and me about how nervous he is to share anything with the class. He and I worked to get his childhood memory essay just right, and to the point where sharing it with other people doesn’t make him want to hide under his desk.
    He came to see me after Hillary critiqued it and