After Peaches by Michelle Mulder

CHAPTER 1
The Plan
    â€œHey, stupid!” The voice came from behind me.
    I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Robbie Zec, standing at the edge of the schoolyard with his buddies. They always yelled at me at the end of the day, when teachers couldn’t hear and probably didn’t care.
    I didn’t yell back anymore, just pulled myself taller and smiled at Julie as we crossed the street toward her place.
    â€œJulie’s mum’s hired you to clean their house, eh?” Robbie called. “It’s about time you got a job. You can’t mooch off the government forever.”
    I flinched, and Julie linked her arm with mine before I could bolt back to the school and knock him over. The astonished look on his face would have been worth getting in trouble for, I thought. He would never expect a girl to attack him. And I think Julie would have been secretly proud of me. She had been Robbie’s victim before I arrived, because she was way smarter than anyone else in grade four. Now he picked on me because he thought I was way dumber.
    â€œIgnore them,” Julie whispered, locking her elbow tighter with mine.
    â€œI’m trying,” I hissed back.
    Julie was the only kid I ever spoke English to. With all the other kids, I was silent, and everyone thought it was because I still spoke English like a two-year-old. That’s what Robbie said when I first came to school in January, and I yelled at him in Spanish then. I used every bad word I knew, and when I ran out, I shouted the Spanish names of vegetables because he wouldn’t know the difference anyway. I liked the scared look on his face, and the next day half of Georgison Elementary was whispering that I’d put a Mexican curse on Robbie’s family. They never found out the truth, and only Julie knew what I’d really said. After that day in February, I decided not to talk at school anymore.
    On my first day of silence, our teacher, Ms. Bower, made me stay after class to tell her why I’d stopped talking. I broke my vow just that once and told her the truth—that I didn’t want the other kids to make fun of my English. She said I shouldn’t let it bother me and that practicing was the only way to improve, but she wasn’t going to push me. I knew she was one of those teachers who wanted everyone to like her, and I think she was a little afraid of Robbie and his buddies too.
    The next day she told the class what a brave person I was to come to Canada and learn a new language, and that everyone should help me with my English. Robbie and his friends laughed at that idea, but she ignored them and went on with our math lesson. From then on, she only ever asked me questions I could answer with “yes” or “no.”
    Now it was early May, and only Julie knew that my English was getting better each day. By September, I was going to speak completely fluent Canadian English. Everyone would be amazed, and Robbie would be the one who was speechless.
    â€œShe’s so dumb, she probably can’t understand what we’re saying,” Robbie shouted, practically in my ear. They were following close enough to step on our heels.
    Julie and I kept walking arm in arm, and she talked as though nothing unusual was happening. That was the very best thing about Julie: no matter how crazy she thought I was for not speaking English at school, she always stuck by me…even when people were yelling insults in our ears.
    â€œWait till I tell you about my plan for this summer,” Julie said. I looked at her, surprised. Neither of us liked talking about the summer. Julie was going to be with her father in a big-city skyscraper for two months, and I’d be here, working at the farm with my parents. Neither of us would have any friends close by, and once Julie left for Vancouver, I probably wouldn’t speak to her until September. Even if we could have afforded the long-distance calls, I hated