Oh Brother Read online

  Copyright © Sonya Spreen Bates 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Title: Oh brother / Sonya Spreen Bates.

  Names: Bates, Sonya Spreen, 1963– author.

  Series: Orca currents.

  Description: Series statement: Orca currents

  Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190168897 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190168900 | ISBN 9781459824331 (softcover) | ISBN 9781459824348 (PDF) | ISBN 9781459824355 (EPUB)

  Classification: LCC PS8603.A8486 O43 2020 | DDC jc813/.6—dc23

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2019947365

  Simultaneously published in Canada and the United States in 2020

  Summary: In this high-interest novel for middle readers, Lauren is worried about what will happen when her new friends realize her brother is disabled.

  Orca Book Publishers is committed to reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources in the making of our books. We make every effort to use materials that support a sustainable future.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Edited by Tanya Trafford

  Cover artwork by gettyimages.ca/darenwoodward

  Author photo by Megan Bates

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  orcabook.com

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  23 22 21 20 • 4 3 2 1

  For Katie and Emily

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Lauren stared out the window of her new room at the street below. It seemed a long way down. She was only one floor up, but it seemed more like three. She picked at a bit of flaking paint on the windowsill and watched as it spiraled through the air toward the ground. Out on the street the moving van was parked half in and half out of the driveway, boxes and furniture stacked floor to ceiling. Two men were trying to slide her mom’s baby grand piano out of the truck.

  Lauren sighed. She felt all funny inside. Empty and hollow, with little butterflies fluttering around. They’d only left Ash Creek the day before, but she missed her friends already. Her hand went to the locket hanging around her neck, closing it in her fist and giving it a squeeze.

  “So we can always hang out together,” Kat had said when Lauren opened it and saw the picture from their camping trip the previous summer. She’d laughed as she said it, but they’d been best friends for years, and Lauren could tell that Kat was just as sad as Lauren was.

  “Lauren?” Her mother’s faint voice drifted up through the floor.

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  “Come down here, please.”

  Her mom was in the dining room, where the piano was now. She sat on the piano stool, her back to Lauren, running her hands along the keys. Lauren was reminded of the days when her mom used to spend hours and hours practicing, the music flowing from her fingers.

  “There you are,” said her mom, standing up briskly. “The movers will be unloading for another couple of hours at least. Why don’t you take Will down to the park?”

  Lauren rolled her eyes. “Aw, Mom. I wanted to get my room set up.”

  “You can do that this afternoon.” She patted Lauren’s arm. “It’ll do you both good. He’s in his room with your dad.”

  Lauren frowned as her mother raced off after the movers again. All she’d talked about lately was the move. How Vancouver was close to everything, which meant no more long drives to appointments or hospitals. How great the new school was and the amazing programs they had for Will. No one had given a thought to what it would mean for Lauren, let alone asked her how she felt about it.

  Will’s eyes lit up when he saw his sister. Lauren couldn’t help grinning back at him.

  “Hey, Will,” she said. “Want to go to the park?”

  Will’s smile got bigger, and he waved his arms around excitedly.

  Lauren’s dad looked up from where he kneeled on the floor, screwing the railing onto Will’s bed. “That sounds like a great idea. Why don’t you take him past the school on your way? That way it won’t be so unfamiliar on Monday.”

  Lauren watched as her dad put Will’s jacket on, then lifted him off the floor and set him gently in his chair.

  “Make sure you put the brake on if you stop on a hill,” he said, tightening the straps that kept Will sitting upright.

  “Yeah yeah. I know the drill,” said Lauren.

  She grasped the handles of the wheelchair and headed out.

  “So, Will, where to first? School or park?” she asked once they got outside.

  “School!” said Will, pointing and nodding his head.

  Lauren turned left and began pushing the wheelchair up the steep slope, grunting with the effort. She didn’t stop until she reached the top.

  There it was. Birch Park Elementary. Her new school, and Will’s as well. Just thinking about it made her stomach tie itself into a knot.

  They’d had a tour before Christmas, to meet the principal, enrol in classes and discuss Will’s special needs. The place was a maze of hallways. She would have got totally lost if her dad hadn’t been there. Classrooms, gymnasium, library, multipurpose room, more classrooms.

  “You sure you want to go down there?” she asked Will.

  Will nodded.

  “Can’t it wait until Monday?”

  Will shook his head no.

  Lauren sighed. “All right.” Then she grinned. “Do you want to race?”

  Will squealed and waved his arms.

  “Ready, set, GO!”

  Lauren gave the chair a big push to get it rolling. Then she sneaked up beside it as it barrelled down the hill. She kept one hand on the push handle to keep the chair going straight. The front wheels rattled. Will laughed, his mouth wide open in delight. He pounded his hand on the armrest.

  “You won’t beat me!” Lauren shouted. She ran faster, pulling ahead.

  Will laughed even harder.

  They were almost at the bottom of the hill, the school only a few feet away, when someone stepped through the school gate.

  “Look out!” Lauren shouted.

  She grabbed Will’s chair, her sneakers skidding on the gravel beside the sidewalk. The chair tipped onto two wheels, then thumped back down as Lauren dragged it to a stop.

  She stood there, panting and gasping for air, and looked up to see the face of her new school principal.

  Chapter Two

  “Hello, Mr. Burman,” Lauren said.

  “Lauren Scanlon.” The principal’s bushy eyebrows sat like a straight line on top of his glasses. “Perhaps you can explain to me what you were doing just now?”

  “I—we—” She looked at Will. “We were just having fun. Will likes to race.”

  Mr. Burman’s face turned a shade darker. “Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have seriously injured him. He’s not like other ch
ildren, you know.”

  Something tightened around Lauren’s heart. Of course she knew that. It wasn’t Mr. Burman who had lived with Will for the last six years. Lauren was the one who helped feed him and dress him and push him around the supermarket or to the playground. She was the one who hardly ever had any time with her mom and dad because they were always busy with Will. She was the one who was now facing life in a strange school so that her brother could get the help that wasn’t available in Ash Creek.

  “I would never do anything to hurt him,” she said. “He’s my brother.”

  Mr. Burman’s brows relaxed. “No, of course you wouldn’t, not intentionally. But you need to take care with him. He’s special.”

  “Yes, Mr. Burman,” Lauren said. She waited for him to walk to his car and drive away before she pushed Will’s chair through the gate.

  The school grounds were eerily quiet. Lauren and Will went slowly around the buildings, sticking to the concrete path so Will’s chair wouldn’t get stuck in the soft, wet grass. In two days Lauren would be back here. The yard would be teeming with kids, and she would be facing a new class of sixth and seventh graders, knowing no one, starting in the middle of the year.

  Standing on tiptoe, she peeked through a window into one of the classrooms. It was dark inside, but she could make out a few large tables, chairs stacked next to them, rows of bag hooks, artwork hanging from the ceiling, posters on the wall, a couple of computers. Her stomach tightened even more.

  “Swing!” said Will.

  Lauren looked a minute longer, then grabbed the handles of his chair. “Not here,” she said. “Let’s go to the park.”

  The park was almost as quiet as the school had been. The only people around were a few kids playing soccer and a gray-haired woman in a tracksuit throwing a ball for her dog.

  Lauren strapped Will into the toddler swing and gave him a push, then hopped on the other swing.

  “More,” Will said.

  “I’m not pushing you any higher,” said Lauren. “You’ve got me in enough trouble already.”

  “More!”

  “No.”

  Lauren turned away from her brother and stared across the field. A black cloud was fogging up her brain. Why couldn’t they have stayed in Ash Creek? Her friends were there, and her gran and Aunt Sofie. Everyone had said she was the best dancer in her dance class, and her piano teacher, Mrs. Walsh, had let her play jazz and funk even though her mother really wanted her to play classical. And no one had taken any special notice of her and Will. No one had bossed her around or told her to be careful, not to push him too high on the swing or go too fast with the chair.

  The sound of shouting drifted her way, and Lauren turned her attention to the soccer game. There were six kids, playing three-on-three. Five boys of various sizes and a girl with a cap on backward. Did they go to her school?

  She watched as the girl chased after the ball, her legs flying. A small boy with blond hair reached it first and kicked it toward the goal. The girl dived for it, and the ball shot away.

  “Saved!” she cried. She jumped up, her cap now on the ground, mud on her shirt, and her long hair falling in her face.

  The ball came to rest a few feet from Lauren. She stared at it for a moment and then went to pick it up.

  “Thanks,” said one of the boys, running toward her. He held up his hands for her to throw it to him, and his eyes drifted over her shoulder to Will. His smile faded.

  Lauren threw the ball hard, and it thumped into his hands. Then she sighed as he ran back to his friends without another word.

  “Let’s go home,” she said.

  Chapter Three

  Monday morning dawned bright and sunny, but Lauren still felt as if a thundercloud was hanging over her head. Dragging her feet, she trudged downstairs to the kitchen.

  Will was obviously excited. Lauren sat next to him, but the thought of eating anything made her feel sick. She took a sip of orange juice and made a face.

  “Stop wriggling before you knock something over,” she snapped as Will flailed his arm wildly over his breakfast.

  His smile drooped, and she immediately felt guilty for yelling at him. Frowning, she shoved her chair back from the table.

  “Lauren, you haven’t eaten anything,” called her mom.

  “I’m not hungry,” she said and went to brush her teeth.

  In the bathroom she stared at herself. “Stop being such a wuss,” she said to her reflection. “It’s just school. They’re just kids. Get over it.”

  Their mom drove them to school. It was still early, so there were only a few kids in the yard. They got Will’s wheelchair out of the car and made their way to the office. Mr. Burman was working at his desk, but he rose and held out his hand to Lauren’s mom when he saw them.

  “Mrs. Scanlon,” he said. “So good to see you again.” He smiled at Lauren. “Hello, Lauren. Ready for your first day?”

  Lauren nodded.

  “Lo!” said Will.

  Mr. Burman glanced at Will but didn’t reply. He turned his attention back to Lauren’s mom.

  “We’ve got everything ready for Will,” he said. “I asked Ms. Westhaven to come in a bit early so we could get him settled. I’ll show you the way.”

  Lauren looked down at Will. His grin had disappeared. She gave his hand a squeeze. “Don’t mind him,” she whispered as she wheeled him out the door. “He’s just an old grouch. I’m sure your teacher is really nice.”

  They followed Mr. Burman through the hallways. Kids were starting to arrive, and curious eyes followed them as they passed. It made Lauren’s stomach churn even more than it already was. She was glad she hadn’t eaten any breakfast.

  Finally they arrived at Will’s classroom. They were greeted by a young woman who smiled at them all and then crouched down in front of Will’s chair.

  “You must be Will,” she said, taking his hand. “I’m Ms. Westhaven, your new teacher. I’m very happy to have you in my class.”

  Will grinned his biggest grin of the day. “Lo!” he said.

  “As we discussed, Will’s educational assistant, Miss Chatwal, will be here at nine thirty,” Mr. Burman said to Lauren’s mom. “I’m sure Ms. Westhaven can manage until then.”

  With a brisk nod of his head, he left. Lauren’s mom showed Will’s teacher his communication board and began explaining his feeding routine. Lauren looked out into the hall. It was filled with kids now, talking and laughing. A few little kids came into the class and started putting away their jackets and schoolbags. They all stared at Will.

  “Mom,” Lauren said. She tapped her mother on the arm. “I have to get to class. I think the bell’s about to ring.”

  “Oh yes, of course, Lauren, you go on. I’ll be a few more minutes here.” Her mom gave her a quick hug. “Have a good day.”

  “But—I don’t know where my class is,” said Lauren. She could feel tears pricking at the back of her eyes and quickly blinked them away.

  “Whose class are you in?” asked Ms. Westhaven.

  “Mr. Pittman’s.”

  “Just go up the stairs at the end of this hall to the second floor. He’s in room 215, on the left, a few doors down.” She smiled and turned her attention back to Will.

  “Room 215. Second floor,” she said to herself as she stepped out into the hall.

  She looked to the left and saw an EXIT sign at the end of the hall and a bunch of kids disappearing around the corner. She took a deep breath and plunged into the crowd.

  She followed the flow of kids to the stairs. When she got to the top, she tried to get a glimpse of the room numbers as she was swept along…201…205… By the time the crowd had thinned enough to spot a number again, she was at room 225. She’d missed it.

  She heard the final bell ring, and her heart gave a thump of panic. It was her first day, she was late already, and she still didn’t know where she was going. This was her worst nightmare coming true.

  Suddenly a girl came racing out of the stairwell
at the other end of the hallway. She was going so fast she almost ran into Lauren.

  “Whoa! Sorry,” she cried.

  Lauren blinked at her. It was the girl from the park.

  “Hey, you okay?” the girl said.

  “Yeah—I mean, not really. It’s my first day and I’m—I’m kind of lost.” Lauren’s lip trembled, and she bit down on it.

  The girl tilted her head. “Don’t worry about it. Whose class are you in?”

  “Mr. Pittman’s. Room 215.”

  “That’s my class. Cool. C’mon.” She started walking down the hall. Lauren followed. “I’m Callie, by the way.”

  “Lauren.”

  “You just move here?”

  Lauren nodded. She opened her mouth to say more, but Callie put a finger to her lips as they reached room 215.

  “This is our classroom,” she whispered. “Mr. Pittman hates it when kids are late. Says it shows disrespect. Of course, it’s only your first day, so he probably won’t go too hard on you, but me…” She rolled her eyes.

  The whole class looked up as they walked in.

  “Callie Walker, you’re late.”

  Mr. Pittman looked a bit scary.

  “I hope you have a valid excuse,” he said to Callie. His frown disappeared when he saw Lauren.

  “You must be Lauren.” He looked at a paper on his desk. “Lauren Scanlon?”

  “Yes,” said Lauren. “I’m sorry we’re late. I got kind of lost, and Callie helped me find the classroom.”

  Mr. Pittman smiled at her. “Well, thank you, Callie,” he said. “And welcome, Lauren. Now go find a seat.”

  Callie had already plunked herself down at a table at the back with three other girls. She grinned at Lauren and mouthed thanks.

  Lauren found a spot near the front, across from a boy with a long ponytail. He stared at her for a minute but didn’t say anything. Lauren took a deep breath. She’d be okay. It was only the first day. Things would get better.

  Chapter Four

  Math, spelling, French. The school day already seemed like it had lasted for days instead of hours. The boy with the ponytail, whose name was Byron McAfee, continued to stare at her, but, despite her attempts to be friendly, didn’t utter a word. The other two kids at her group of desks were twins, a girl and a boy, who introduced themselves as Alicia and Alex. They worked quietly with their heads bent and their matching curly dark hair falling into their faces.