Read You Can't Catch Me for Free Online Page A

history when he sat behind me and made quiet fart noises every time the teacher said “Isn’t that fascinating?” It happened at least twice a day.
    I hop over a desk and land in the spot next to him. Jamal takes the seat in front of me.
    “Silvermaaaaan!” Rodney shouts like a wrestling announcer. He swings his large hand out and gives mine a loud smack. “How’s that silver medal?”
    He’s making fun of me, even though silver is nothing to be ashamed of. All the football players heard how much I bragged about coming home with gold.
    “It’s hanging out with your participation trophy.”
    He starts smacking his shirt as if he’s on fire. “Oh, how it burns!”
    I snort, and Jamal laughs, but he’s not laughing as hard as he usually does. In fact, he’s giving Rodney a look that should actually set him on fire.
    My mouth opens, but the sound of the one minute bell cuts me off. The teacher at the back of the classroom grabs a clear Rubbermaid bin, and everyone who has made it into the room lets out a collective groan. I push up my overlarge tee and squeeze my phone from my pocket, making sure it’s notification free before I plop it into the bin. Welcome back to school.
     
    ***
     
    Summer vacation has made my brain very rusty, because I completely forgot that gym requires you to undress in front of every same sex classmate who shares that period with you. Also, the locker room doesn’t just have the gym students, but the dance students and the volleyball students. After we’re assigned our lockers for the year, Coach Dicks (very unfortunate last name) makes us all test the combinations. Since it’s the first day, she doesn’t make us change. Today’s physical activity is all theoretical.
    I spin the lock, eyeing my locker neighbors and trying not to be obvious about checking out their Sharpies. Daisy Silcox on my right probably has a decent B cup… the cup I wish I could fit into without exploding. And Janice Skinner on my left has a solid B too. I gaze down at my honkers and hope to high heavens I don’t end up taking someone’s eye out.
    “Here,” Daisy says, waving a stack of yellow half sheets at me. “Take one, pass it on.”
    Gym uniform order forms. I grab one, hand them off to Janice, then grab a click-pen from my pocket. I’ve had to fill out crap all day, and I’ve just been signing and signing without really caring, but this is the first form I have to think about.
    Please circle your size:
    XS
    S
    M
    L
    XL
    Other
    My teeth slide over the click part of my pen. Normally, I’m a small. Last year I circled that with no thought behind it. But the print at the top of the paper says that the shirts may shrink. I do remember my track shirt getting tighter, though that could’ve just been a gradual body change that’s led me here. I roll the pen between my two front teeth, flicking my tongue against the clip. A few spots down I see Kassie Powers doing the same thing, her eyes darting at her locker mates. The corners of her lips are turned down, and her expression looks absolutely… well, she looks like she’s about to burst into a river of tears. After a long look at the girl next to her, she lets out a shaky sigh and circles “other,” then writes down three Xs before an L. She folds the form quickly, hiding her size, and I shoot my gaze back to my own form before she notices I was staring.
    I drop the pen down over the M, but I only get it halfway circled before I scribble it out. Shirts may shrink . Just imagining the material stretched over these things during physical activities makes me ill to my stomach. So I move the pen downward three spaces and circle other. I go for a double XL, knowing it’ll drown me. But I’d rather drown than suffocate.
    Coach Dicks takes us out into the gym to meet up with the boys for the rest of the period. Drake sits next to me on the bleachers, his own half sheet still clutched in his hand. Gym goes by so slowly since we’re not doing anything, and