Moon Runner Read Free

was a surprise from Mom — a library book about tree frogs. Mina picked it up and flipped through it. There were a lot of words. She sat down with it, though, and looked at the photos.
    “Like it?” Mom asked, coming into the room.
    “A little,” Mina admitted. “But it’s kind of hard.” In spite of herself, she began to read the captions under the photos. Not so hard after all. She concentrated and read more.
    Her brain and eyes were working to travel across the pages, she thought, the same way her body had worked to cross the grass.

“A campout in my backyard would be so special,” Alana said over the telephone that night.
    “Maybe,” Mina said slowly. She always made up excuses not to go on overnights. At home she knew what to expect.
    Paige was watching a cartoon about three robots who kept getting into trouble. Poochie, Paige’s chocolate-colored mutt, sat on the couch too, yipping at the exciting parts.
    “Let me guess,” Alana continued. “You’re going out of town. You’re getting a cold. How can you be so nervous about a stupid overnight? You’re a track star now.”
    “A track star?” Mina asked.
    One of the robots toppled down a hill. Poochie yipped.
    “I know a secret about you. But I’ll only tell it if you spend the night.”
    Mina shifted the phone to the other ear. A secret? What could Alana know?
    “I think that’s a yes I hear coming.” Alana began to hum “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”
    Mina smiled. An overnight probably couldn’t hurt. It might even be fun. “Okay. Yes, but I have to ask my mom.”
    “Yeah!” Alana shouted so loudly that Mina had to hold the phone away from her ear.
    “I did not do my personal best,” Alana said as she and Mina set out walking to her house. “I guess I’m too much of a girlie girl for sports.”
    Mina smiled. Ms. Jenner talked about personal best, especially when someone turned in a sloppy paper.
    Alana held the Friendship Ball under one arm as she strolled.
    They walked down the street lined with ornamental orange trees. Once Mina had tried to eat one of the beautiful fruits. It tasted bitter, but the blossoms still smelled like heaven. Mina stuck her nose into the white petals and sniffed.
    “Watch out for bees,” Alana said. “My dad got stung on the cheek once doing that.”
    At Alana’s, they set up the tent in the backyard, then laid out the sleeping bags. The light coming through the yellow nylon made their faces glow.
    Alana opened a bottle of nail polish and Mina unzipped the tent flap to air out the strong smell.
    Alana handed Mina the tiny brush, then held out her hands like two soft fans, the fingernails bitten off short.
    Mina did fine until Alana’s second pinkie. The polish smeared. She tried to rub it off with a tissue, but the polish rolled up in a wrinkly mess.
    “That’s okay. I’ll fix it later,” said Alana.
    Mina spread her fingers. She was proud of her nails, grown out as long as Mom would allow. “Tell me the secret.”
    Alana coated Mina’s thumbnail with red. “Well, I peeked at Coach’s list.”
    “And?”
    “You really want to know?” Alana moved on to the pointer finger.
    Mina hesitated.
    “It’s an important secret,” Alana insisted.
    “Well, tell me, then.”
    “When Coach wrote down the times, I saw your time and Ruth’s.” Alana took a big breath. “You beat her.”
    Mina waited for Alana to break out laughing and say,
Just kidding!
    But Alana wasn’t even smiling. She dipped the brush in the bottle and lifted it out, loaded with polish.
    The inside of the tent bloomed with the smell of Fire Truck Red.
    “How could you see what Coach wrote?” Mina asked. “He wrote too small. He hid the page.”
    “Nuh-uh. I stood on the bench behind him and saw real good. Ruth’s gonna be surprised. She thinks you’re a girlie girl like me. She’s gonna have a fit.”
    Ruth have a fit? Mina didn’t want that. She enjoyed soaring along like a bird caught on a current of air — but