The Amazing Life of Birds (8 page)
Read The Amazing Life of Birds Online
Authors: Gary Paulsen
I took a step.
I went down, and managed to get most of the sloppy joe on a boy named Carlisle standing next to me.
Sloppy Carlisle will probably be his nickname from now on, I thought on the way down.
And I thought of the bird, falling off the window-sill and then flying.
And I thought of what Willy had said about how everybody knew who I was and if I did something good …
The microphone!
I lay there for half a second and out of my mouth came: “All right, that's
enough!”
I slithered to my feet and stomped out of the line and up onto the stage and took the microphone.
I turned it on. A great hissing sound came out, then a whistle, and then I could hear my own breathing over all the loudspeakers.
Not a clue what I was going to say. Just that
I was done with it all.
Then I remembered the dream about the Puberty Anonymous meeting.
“Hello. If there's anybody who doesn't know me yet, my name is Duane. Duane Homer Leech. Everybody calls me Doo-Doo. But I'd rather be called Duey.
“I do not have ringworm.
“I do not have any other disease.
“I do not do drugs.
“I am just having a little trouble with this whole, what, change of life thing. If you'll just bear with me I'm sure it will pass.
“Thank you.”
Every kid in the cafeteria stood stock-still, staring at me, but for some reason I didn't feel the least bit embarrassed. Stupid and ugly, sure, but not embarrassed.
I turned the microphone off and put it back in the little stand, took one step onto my shoelace, went down like a gut-shot moose—or how I suspect a gut-shot moose would go down—rolled to the front of the stage and onto a table, then onto the floor.
Somebody started it in the back, a slow, even clapping, and then the whole cafeteria was doing it, laughing but not in a bad way, yelling:
“Doo-Doo! Doo-Doo rules!”
But in there I heard a few voices shouting,
“Duey rules!”
I was flat on my back and I blinked a couple of times before I saw Rachel standing over me.
“You all right?” she asked. “Duey?”
“I think so.”
“Can I help?”
In my head: Yesssssssssss.
“Umm, sure.”
“Here, take my hand.” She pulled me up.
“Thanks.” In my head: Don't let go!
Ever!
“Come on and we'll find a hose to clean you off.
” And she walked off while I tied my shoelace and then followed her.
The Spring Fling was a week away.
I could ask Rachel. To go to the dance. With me.
It could happen.
All I had to do was quit falling down, learn to dance, get rid of every zit and grow perfect hair to cover the cowlick.
Piece of cake.
Or, as Willy would say: Cool.
Gary Paulsen is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, including three Newbery Honor books:
The Winter Room, Hatchet
, and
Dogsong.
His novel
The Haymeadow
received the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award. Among his Random House books are
The Time Hackers; Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day; The Quilt
(a companion to
Alida's Song
and
The Cookcamp
);
The Glass Café; How Angel Peterson Got His Name; Caught by the Sea: My Life on Boats; Guts: The True Stories Behind
Hatchet
and the Brian Books; The Beet Fields; Soldier's Heart; Brian's Return, Brian's Winter
, and
Brian's Hunt
(companions to
Hatchet
);
Father Water, Mother Woods;
and five books about Francis Tucket's adventures in the Old West. Gary Paulsen has also published fiction and nonfiction for adults, as well as picture books illustrated by his wife, the painter Ruth Wright Paulsen. Their most recent book is
Canoe Days.
The Paulsens live in New Mexico, in Alaska, and on the Pacific Ocean.
Published by Wendy Lamb Books
an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales
is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2006 by Gary Paulsen
Chapter opening illustrations © 2006 by Souther Salazar
All rights reserved.
Wendy Lamb Books and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paulsen, Gary.
The Amazing Life of Birds: (the twenty-day puberty journal of
Duane Homer Leech) / as discovered by Gary Paulsen.
p. cm.
Summary: As twelve-year-old Duane endures the confusing and
humiliating aspects of puberty, he watches a newborn bird in a nest
on his windowsill begin to grow and become more independent,
all of which he records in his journal.
eISBN: 978-0-307-51251-2
[1. Puberty—Fiction. 2. Self-perception—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.
4. Birds—Development—Fiction. 5. Diaries—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7. P2843Ama 2006
[Fic]—dc22
2006004544
v3.0