Read Online Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti - Free Book Online

now. But eventually, he will. And he’ll realize he’s better off without me.

nine
thursday, april 21
(41 days left)
    Ms. Scofield is extra perky today.
    “Inertia!” she cheers. “Bet you didn’t know that our optics unit relates to Newton’s Laws. But it does. Everything is connected. So. Who remembers Newton’s First Law?”
    We all avert our eyes to prevent getting called on.
    “Like I’m really going to believe you guys forgot Newton’s Laws? You’re smarter than that.”
    I hear someone flipping through their notes in the back. Jolene DelMonico raises her hand.
    “Yay!” Ms. Scofield says. “A sign of life! What can you tell us?”
    “An object in motion remains in motion and an object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.”
    “Exactly. So things keep doing what they’re doing unless something comes along to change that. That’s inertia.”
    She grabs the Gumby and Pokey figures that are always smiling at us from her desk. She’s had them since she was in high school. One time she said how she wished she had more stuff from high school to show us and how she regrets not keeping her journals. I wonder why she got rid of all those things.
    “Gumby and Pokey will now demonstrate inertia.” Ms. Scofield places them on the demo table.
    Then she just watches them. We watch her watch them.
    “What’s happening?” she asks.
    “Nothing,” Warner calls out.
    He’s sharp, that one.
    “Can you be more specific?”
    “They’re just sitting there.”
    “Why?”
    “Because nothing’s making them move.”
    “Aha!” Ms. Scofield yells. Ali’s book falls off her desk with a loud smack. “So something has to happen to change their inaction. They’ll keep being still like this until something comes along to change their static state. For Gumby and Pokey, inertia means that they’ll stay exactly like this unless an outside force makes them move in some way.”
    I know all about inertia. This town is squishing me down like a bug it really wants to kill, but is having too much fun torturing.
    “But then!” Ms. Scofield smacks Gumby. Gumby goes flying toward the door. “An outside force puts Gumby into motion.” Gumby skitters across the floor and stops. “And now he’s at rest again. What made Gumby stop moving?”
    “Friction,” a few people offer.
    “Nice. You guys sound tired. Feeling tired today?” Ms. Scofield picks up Pokey. She puts him on her head.
    “Awesome,” Simon declares. He snaps a picture of Ms. Scofield with his phone.
    “That phone’s not on, is it?” she asks him.
    “Of course not. It’s on airplane mode.”
    “Doesn’t ‘on airplane mode’ mean it’s on?”
    “It’s not
on
on,” Simon clarifies. “Just minimally on.”
    I love how Ms. Scofield is having a regular conversation like a rubber pony isn’t standing on her head. She’s never afraid to look like a nerd. On the first day, she told us that she’s the nerdiest person in the room. And that no one should even try to have a dork-off with her because they would drastically lose that battle. Her corny, zany teaching style works. I’m pretty sure we’ll always remember inertia after watching Gumby go zinging across the room.
    Inertia and I go way back. An object remains at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Story of my life.
    I wonder what my outside force will be.

    I tried calling Sherae last night right after I got off the phone with Julian, but her phone was off. She’s been turning it off a lot lately. At first I thought it was to avoid Hector’s calls, but she said he stopped calling her so I don’t know. She wasn’t online, either. I left a message saying I had something major to discuss at our daily meetup.
    Sherae is violently ripping up a piece of paper at her locker.
    “Another note?” I ask.
    “The dumbass strikes again. So what’s going on?”
    “Oh, nothing.” There’s some white Nimbus fur on the sleeve of her black cardigan. I brush it off.