Derek handed in his science final at five minutes to three. Since it was at the end of the school day and the buses were already outside, students were allowed to leave the classroom when they were done. Derek headed for his locker. Three finals down, one more to go.
Usually he enjoyed school, but right now he couldn’t even think about schoolwork. He had no idea how he’d made it this far, much less how he was going to get through the next final.
Luckily, school was almost over for the year. Unluckily, so was baseball season. This coming Saturday would be his birthday, and then . . . what?
Instead of really looking forward to summer in New Jersey the way he normally did, Derek couldn’t help feeling that he wasn’t going to have as good a time as usual.
His grandma and all his cousins had always been his playmates while he was in New Jersey. But he was about to turn eleven years old. Big kids needed their best friends around, not just their family. And as great as they were, his grandparents couldn’t be expected to keep up with him all day long anymore.
What bothered Derek most was not knowing why Dave had pulled away from their friendship. Four days had passed since the game on Saturday, and he and Derek had barely said two words to each other.
There were still a few kids left in the classroom taking the test, but the buses were already lined up in front. Derek got his book bag from his locker and left the building.
Just before he got to the curb where the buses were waiting, he heard a familiar voice calling him. “Derek.”
He turned around to see Chase standing behind him. “Oh . . . hi!”
Usually Chase waited next to the big Mercedes for Dave to come out. But Dave had finished the test ten minutes before Derek had. Why was Chase still here?
Chase cleared his throat. “Derek, Dave has something he’d like to say to you.” He turned and gestured to the car, which was parked right behind the buses. Derek walked over to the car, while Chase lagged behind, obviously wanting to give the boys some privacy.
Derek peeked in the rear window of the car, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun. Just as he did, the window glided down, revealing Dave in the backseat. “Come on in,” he said.
Derek got in next to Dave and shut the door behind him. “What’s this all about?” he asked.
“First of all, I want to say I’m really sorry about everything . . . about the way I’ve treated you,” Dave said.
Derek shrugged, pretending not to care. “Doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s not like we’re friends anymore.”
“Come on, Derek! Of course we’re still friends!”
“That’s what you think? You sure haven’t been acting like it.”
“I—I wish I could explain, but believe me—I do still want to hang out with you.”
“Oh, really? You could have fooled me.”
“It just . . . It has to be at my house, okay? We can hang there anytime. You could even come for an overnight! Just . . .”
“. . . not at my house,” Derek finished for him.
Dave bit his lip, then said, “Right.”
“I don’t know, man. To me, friends aren’t friends if they never hang out—and that means at both our houses. I’ve been to your place plenty of times. How come you have a problem with mine?
“I don’t!” Dave insisted. “I’m trying to tell you that!”
“But you won’t say why you can’t come to my house.”
Dave sighed and looked down at his hands, folded between his knees.
“Well,” said Derek, “I’ll be around till mid-July, so if you still want to be friends, you can come over to my house, anytime. But after all that’s gone down, it has to be at my house—at least the next couple of times.”
He opened the car door and got out, closed it behind him, and walked back toward the bus. Chase watched him pass, a questioning look on his face. But Derek didn’t look back at him. He was too upset to talk to anyone.
• • •
Sharlee was more excited than usual at dinner that night. “They all called Daddy ‘Professor Jeter’! It was so cool!” she bubbled. “Daddy, is ‘professor’ the same as ‘coach’?”
Mr. Jeter cocked his head in amusement. “Well, not really—but in a way, I guess. Why?”
“Because those grown-ups looked at you just like the kids on Derek’s team do.”
“They’re college students,” he corrected her. “Some are grown-ups, some not quite yet.”
“Looked at him how, exactly?” asked Mrs. Jeter.
“Like he knows everything!” Sharlee crowed. “And he does know everything! Right, Daddy?”
“Not even close, Sharlee,” said Mr. Jeter. “If you don’t believe me, ask your mom.” He gave his wife a wink.
“He’s right,” said Mrs. Jeter. “Your father knows a lot of things, but there are plenty of things your mom knows that he doesn’t.”
Everyone laughed—even Derek. Thank goodness for his family, he thought for the millionth time. He knew he could always count on them, in every way.
“So, tell Mom and Derek what happened in class, Sharlee,” Mr. Jeter said.
“Well, I know what ‘diversity’ means now,” Sharlee began, taking the floor and commanding everyone’s attention. “Daddy’s class is full of diversity! There was this lady there with gray hair, and she even has grandchildren—and she’s in college! And there’s a boy from Afghanistan and a girl from Indonesia. And they have accents. And there was a guy in a wheelchair, too. And there were black students and white ones and Asian ones and Hispanic ones. . . .”
“That certainly is diverse!” said Mrs. Jeter.
“And, oh! There was this blind girl?” Sharlee went on. “She’s one of Daddy’s students too, and she told us all about what it’s like—how you have to learn to get around without seeing anything. We even had to close our eyes for a few minutes and walk around the classroom and stuff, so we could get an idea of what it’s like for her.”
“Wonderful!” Mrs. Jeter exclaimed. “Were you surprised, Sharlee?”
“It wasn’t easy, but I did it. I only bumped into one or two things!” Sharlee said, forgetting her promise never to brag again. Then her smile faded suddenly as she remembered something else.
“But then she said it didn’t matter how much she could do. People still looked at her and saw a blind person—not a person. And she said people made fun of her when she was little, and sometimes didn’t want to be friends with her. That made me sad. And then she told Daddy how beautiful I was. I asked Daddy how she could know that without seeing me, and he said I should ask her myself. So I did!”
“And what did she tell you, Sharlee?” Mr. Jeter asked.
“She said she could tell from my voice. It was amazing! I never knew you could tell if someone was pretty by listening to their voice!”
“That is amazing, Sharlee!” said Mrs. Jeter. “And just think, if you hadn’t asked her, you would never have known!”
“Yeah,” Sharlee agreed. “I always thought blind people couldn’t do anything, but it turns out they can do amazing things, and we don’t even notice.”
“Well, Sharlee,” said Mr. Jeter, “I hope you learned that just because some people are different from us doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot to give, or aren’t worthy of friendship and respect.”
“Uh-huh,” Sharlee said, nodding sagely.
“So what are you going to tell your class for show-and-tell?” Derek asked her.
“I’m going to tell them that in Daddy’s classroom everyone is different from everyone else, but everyone’s also the same. They’re all amazing people, and if you get to know them, they’re not as different as they seem.” She looked around the room. “Is that okay?”
“Yes, honey,” said her dad, smiling. “That’s just fine.”
“And it’s not just in Daddy’s classroom” said Mrs. Jeter. “It’s everyone, everywhere.”
• • •
His dad knocked on the bathroom door as Derek was brushing his teeth. “There was something else I wanted to say down there,” he said.
“What?” Derek asked.
“Just that we were talking about diversity so that Sharlee could understand it. But at your age, as I’m sure you know, diversity is a much larger discussion, and much more complicated. There’s differences in how much money people have, there are people living with disabilities, there are different traditions and cultures that might seem strange till you get to know them better . . .” He searched Derek’s face to see if he got the point.
Derek wanted to ask him if he thought diversity was what Dave’s parents were so worked up about. But his mouth was full of toothpaste, so he just nodded that he understood. His dad nodded back, said good night, and closed the door behind him.
Derek finished washing up, but he kept thinking about what his dad had said—and about Dave’s family. The Hennums had lots of money, and probably all their friends did too. The Jeters weren’t rich. Not only that, but they were an interracial family.
Could that be it? Derek thought. He hated to think so—even though he knew that there were people in the world who still judged people as “types,” not as people. He sure hoped that wasn’t true of the Hennums.