Georgie unzipped his backpack. Then he turned around to make sure we were the only ones who could see inside. “Look what I’ve got,” he whispered.
I saw the flash of metal before I realized what it was.
Jake shrugged. “Big deal! It’s just a pair of scissors. what’d you do—raid your mother’s sewing basket?”
Pierre nudged Georgie. “You making yourself a new dress?” he asked.
“I don’t look good in dresses. But I thought of something else we could do with these scissors. Something fun.” Georgie raised his eyebrows toward the front of the bus, where Sandeep was sitting.
Why did these guys want to keep picking on Sandeep? Did they really think he was the snitch?
“So what’s your plan?” Pierre asked.
“My plan is we give the guy a haircut. Sikhs don’t believe in haircuts. It’s against their religion or something.”
Jake snickered. “I’m beginning to see your point. Raghead needs a trim.”
“Exactly.”
The four of us were huddled together, like football players reviewing their game plan. usually, I liked hanging out like this with my buddies, but now I had a sick feeling in my stomach.
“So what do we do?” Pierre asked.
“ew’re gonna have to get his turban off first.” Georgie looked up at me. “That’s where you come in, Lucas.”
“I do?”
“Uh-huh. You’re gonna distract him. Go talk to him about Rosa Parks or something.”
Hearing Rosa Parks’s name made me feel even worse. we’d picked Rosa Parks because she’d stood up against racial discrimination, And here I was going along with a plan to discriminate against Sandeep for being Sikh.
I tried to think of some way to talk them out of it. “What if he starts hyperventilating again?” I asked.
Georgie rolled his eyes. “We’ll get him a paper bag. It did the trick last time.” Then Georgie pressed his palm down on my right shoulder. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel right, either. “Go for it, man,” he said.
Then he gave me a push that sent me flying down the crowded aisle.
Kelly winked when I passed her. Was she was just being friendly or did she know about Georgie’s plan?
The driver stopped for a red light.
Jewel and one of her friends waved at a guy in the next car. “He’s really cute,” Jewel’s friend said.
“And he looks nice.”
“Who cares about nice?”
When the guy waved back, the two girls fell to the floor, laughing. I had to step over the heap they made on the floor.
I looked up ahead. Sandeep’s nose wasn’t buried in a book. He was staring out the window. But he must have felt me coming because he looked up. He lifted one hand as if he was about to wave at me, but then he seemed to change his mind.
I knew Sandeep wasn’t the snitch. And I knew he wasn’t a bad guy. And I knew it would be wrong to cut his hair. He was entitled to his beliefs—just like people, no matter what color skin they had, were entitled to any seat on a bus.
I heard loud laughter coming from behind me. I didn’t have to turn around to know it was Georgie—with his backpack and his mother’s sewing scissors.
“Hey, Lucas, get a move on!” Jake called from behind him.
“Yeah, Lucas, let’s go!” Pierre shouted.
I was only about a foot away from Sandeep. His eyebrows were raised, as if he couldn’t quite figure out why I’d come all the way to the front of the bus to talk to him—when all my friends were watching.
Sandeep moved in a little closer to the guy sitting next to him. It took me a second to realize he was making room for me to sit down.
I put out my hand to stop him. “That’s okay,” I said. “I’m not gonna sit.”
I could hear Georgie chuckling behind me.
Sandeep shook his head. I could tell he was confused. His eyes kept darting between me and Georgie. Sandeep must have sensed something was up. Something mean. He straightened his back.
That’s when I knew I couldn’t let my friends go ahead with their plan. This was one of those defining moments my mom had been talking about. I had to stand up— not just for Sandeep, but for myself too.
I thought about Rosa Parks and what must have been going on inside her head when she refused to give up her seat to a white person. She must have been scared. But I bet she was angry too. and she must have known she was doing the right thing— and that gave her courage.
I needed some of Rosa Parks’s courage.
I wasn’t standing up against something big, like segregation, the way Rosa Parks had. But I was standing up for something I believed in. I wasn’t going to get thrown into prison like Rosa Parks, but I was risking something too. By tomorrow, I might be sitting up here with the losers. Permanently.
“Hey, Sandeep.”
“Hey, Lucas.”
Georgie was pressing in behind me snapping the scissors.
That’s when I sprung around. Georgie’s eyes widened. “What ya doing, man?”
“Give me the scissors,” I said. “Now.” My voice sounded braver than I felt.
Georgie’s dark eyes grew even darker. “No way.”
I tried to grab the scissors from him. But Georgie wouldn’t let go.
“Fight! Fight!” voices called.
Kids rushed over from the back of the bus.
“One of them is armed!” Jewel Chu shouted.
I turned to Sandeep. “Open the window. Quick!”
The scissors scratched the back of my hand, but I managed to wrestle them away from Georgie. I knew I had to get rid of them, before something bad happened. “Is there anyone out there? any cars—any people?” My voice was cracking.
Sandeep turned to look out the window. “No,” he said, “no cars, no people.”
So I tossed the scissors out the window. They made a clanging noise when they hit the pavement.
Georgie was so angry he was shaking. “Why’d you do that, you jerk?” he shouted. “We were supposed to be having fun.”
Jake grabbed my shoulders. “Yeah, what’s wrong with you Lucas?”
I shook myself loose from his grip. “You guys don’t get it, do you? How come your idea of fun always means someone has to get hurt or humiliated? It’s wrong. Plain wrong. and I’ve had enough.”
Someone clapped. It was probably Jewel. My cheeks felt hot.
Georgie put his hands on his hips, looked straight at me and laughed. Jake and Pierre laughed too. Pierre raised a finger to his forehead and made the shape of an L. “You’re a loser, man,” he said.
Pierre was so close I could hear him breathing.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”