Read Push for Free Online Page B

Rain say.
    "Shit I know how to read and write, I want to get my G.E.D.,"JoAnnsay.
    Miz Rain look tired, "Well then this class isn't for you. And I'd appreciate it if you watch your language, this is a school."
    "Ain' shit to me—"
    "Well then go, Jo Ann, why don't you just tip," Miz Rain seem like, you know, well leave bitch.
    Spanish girl, Rita, say, "Well this here is for me. I can't read or write."
    Rhonda come in, "I can a little, but I need help."
    Jermaine look unsure.
    Miz Rain, "If you think you want to be in the G.E.D. class all you have to do is come back to this room at one p.m. for placement testing."

    Jermaine don't move. Consuelo look to Jermaine but don't say nuffin'. Jo Ann say she be back at one, fuck this shit! She ain' illiterit. Miz Rain look at me. I'm the only one haven't spoken. I wanna say something but don't know how. I'm not use to talkin', how can I say it? I look Miz Rain. She say,
    "Well Precious, how about you, do you feel you're in the right place?"
    I want to tell her what I always wanted to tell someone, that the pages, 'cept for the ones with pictures, look all the same to me; the back row I'm not in today; how I sit in a chair seven years old all day wifout moving. But I'm not seven years old. But I am crying. I look Miz Rain in the face, tears is coming down my eyes, but I'm not sad or embarrass.
    "Is I Miz Rain," I axes, "is I in the right place?"
    She hand me a tissue, say, "Yes, Precious, yes."
    Miz Rain say class need a break. "BE BACK IN
    15 MINUTES," she say real loud like a machine talk. I get up with the rest, goes out in the lobby.
    It's empty 'ceptin' us. The other classes don't be here till 12, Miz Rain say. Rhonda say she goin'
    to the store, anybody want some-thin'? I want somethin' but I ain' got no money. Rita give her 50 cents say get chips, salt 'n vinegar, no salt 'n vinegar get plain. Rhonda look me, say, I got you. I look up in her eye. She smile. I feel like I'm gonna cry again. Everybody gonna think I'm a punk, crying, crying. I'm not used to this. But this what I always want, some friendly niceness. I say I pay you back. She say I know you will, what you want. I say barbecue potato chips. She gone! Rhonda move fast for a big girl.
    Consuelo, the beautiful Spanish girl, sigh. "Ain'
    no guys in our class." This like you know she los'
    her welfare check after it jus' been cash or somethin'.
    Jermaine say, "Good."
    Uh oh! Freaky deaky here. I move a little way from her. I don't want no one getting the wrong idea about me.
    Back in class Miz Rain is telling us what we gonna do everyday. So she do know what's what.
    I was scared for a minute it be like before. Like before I got A in English and never say nuffin', do nuffin'. I sit in seat. I sit in seat everyday for 55
    minutes, chair so far back it touch wall. After first day I don't see hear. I play TV in my mind—
    switch back 'n forth from TV to music videos where I'm dancing in little clothes, shit, Fm little.
    "Every day," Miz Rain say, "we gonna read and write in our notebooks."
    How we gonna write if we can't read? Shit, how we gonna write if we can't write! I don't remember never doing no writing before. My head spinning I'm scared maybe we, maybe this ain' class for me.
    Miz Rain talkin'. She say, Chinese saying, I knew she was crazy—we ain' CHINESE! She real serious now, say, "The longest journey begin with a single step." What the fuck that spozed to mean. This school not Star Trek. Rita, Spanish girl, looking at Miz Rain like she done see god.
    Rhonda sitting straight up in her seat. Jermaine looking out the side of her eyes at Consuelo.
    Consuelo looking at her nails.
    Miz Rain hold up notebook, say, "You going to need one notebook like this"—like what I awready got— "and another notebook—loose-leaf or spiral, to keep your notes and class work in." Complicated complicated, Chinese journeys, 2 books, write 'n you don't know how—
    Jermaine say, "Where we gonna begin?" Miz Rain say, "At the