Read Black Boy White School for Free Online Page B

of camping. They brought equipment and canoes to a town called Rangeley, where there was a huge lake with islands. Anthony stood at the shore and watched the wide water, the sharp rocks beneath the surface, and the dented boats knocking together. He had never been camping or canoeing before and was starting to have second thoughts. He looked at Brody, who stood next to him, along with a short kid named Nate. “I don’t know about this, man,” Anthony said as the first few kids paddled off.
    â€œRelax,” Brody whispered. “These things are like impossible to sink.”
    â€œUnless you do it on purpose,” Nate added, and laughed. He had already put shaving cream on everyone’s doorknobs that morning, and the night before, he had run up and down the hallway, flapping his arms and squawking.
    Anthony tapped the shorter boy’s shoulder and whispered, “Do some dumb shit, if you want to. Hear?”
    Nate stiffened and then turned around. “I was just joking.”
    In front of them, Brody took off his shoes and walked the canoe into the water. “Both you dudes need to chillax,” he said. “The day is young, the sun is bright, and so are we. . . . Now get in the boat.”
    By the time they were a hundred feet from the shore, Anthony loosened his grip on the sides. He was in the middle seat, surrounded by gear and doing nothing, while the other two boys rowed easily. There was laughter and shouting from the rest of the boats. Some of the girls had stripped down to bikini tops, and a few of the boys were shirtless. Most of the canoes moved along in straight lines, but some of them hopelessly zigzagged. Anthony glanced at the third oar lying flat at his feet, picked it up, and dipped it into the lake.
    â€œWay to go, dude!” Brody shouted. “Now let’s blow the rest of these boats away!”
    â€œThat’s what’s up.”
    They dug in and Anthony rowed hard, leaving deep swirls in the water. They reached the first island before everyone else, and Brody pulled something from his pocket. “A little herbal blessing before lunch?”
    Anthony looked at the pipe in his roommate’s hand, at the blobs on the lake that were his teachers and classmates, approaching but still far off. He could get high and no one else would know it. Then again, he could get paranoid, fall out of the boat, and drown. There was no telling what kind of weed Brody was smoking. “Go on,” Anthony said, still watching the other canoes. “I’ll keep a lookout.”
    â€œSweet!” Brody and Nate crashed off into the woods, while Anthony skipped flat rocks on the water.
    After lunch, they rowed closer to the group, partly because they didn’t know where they were going next but mostly because a teacher had yelled at them. There was talking and teasing between the boats, and a few kids used their paddles to slap water at one another. Anthony didn’t take part in any of the horseplay, though. And he wouldn’t let Nate and Brody do it, either. His clothes were new and he didn’t want to get them wet.
    They reached the final island, and Mr. Hawley and the other teachers got the kids to work. Soon the entire camp was set up and Anthony relaxed in the mouth of his tent, watching everything. Nate squirted girls with a water bottle, Brody and a hippie girl named Venus slipped into the woods, and the Brooklyn boys traded big-city stories in front of a wide-eyed audience.
    â€œTired?”
    Anthony looked up to see Ms. Atwood smiling down at him. She was young and pretty but way too nosy. It was the third or fourth time that day that she’d ambushed him with a question. “I’m straight,” he said.
    â€œExcuse me?”
    â€œI mean, I’m okay. I’m not tired.”
    â€œOh.” Still grinning, she sat down close to him. “Well, that makes one of us. I’ll sleep like a log tonight.” She laughed and