The Legend of Nobody
The list is taped inside my notebook, right under the cover, where nobody but me will ever see it. I wrote it last night in my best handwriting, the kind I save for birthday cards and ransom notes.
Ways to Become a Legend This Year, it says at the top, underlined twice.
1. Do something impressive in front of everybody.
2. Stop tripping in hallways.
3. Get a nickname that isn't "the kid who cried during the fire drill."
4. Talk to Zanele Okafor without forgetting how words work.
5. Figure out what "legend" actually means, probably.
I stare at it for a long moment before I close the notebook, feeling something close to hope. Hope is a dangerous thing to feel at six-fifteen in the morning, but there it is anyway, sitting in my chest like a small, stubborn bird.
Today is the first day of sixth grade. Today, I decide, is the day Travis Ngwenya stops being a rumor and starts being a person.
That plan lasts exactly eleven minutes.
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I know something has gone wrong the second I walk into the kitchen and my little sister Nomvula looks up at me with the particular smile she wears only when she has done something unforgivable. It's a smile that shows all her baby teeth and…
