After stepping off the bus, Miata Ramirez turned around and
gasped, "Ay!" The school bus lurched, coughed a puff of
stinky exhaust, and made a wide turn at the corner. The
driver strained as he worked the steering wheel like the
horns of a bull.
Miata yelled for the driver to stop. She started running after the bus. Her hair whipped against her shoulders. A large book bag tugged at her arm with each running step, and bead earrings jingled as they banged against her neck.
"My skirt!" she cried loudly. "Stop!"
She had forgotten her folklórico skirt. It was still on the bus.
"Please stop!" Miata yelled as she ran after the bus. Her legs kicked high and her lungs burned from exhaustion.
She needed that skirt. On Sunday after church she was going to dance folklórico. Her troupe had practiced for three months. If she was the only girl without a costume, her parents would wear sunglasses out of embarrassment. Miata didn't want that.
The skirt had belonged to her mother when she was a child in Hermosillo, Mexico. What is Mom going to think? Miata asked herself. Her mother was always scolding Miata for losing things. She lost combs, sweaters, books, lunch money, and homework. One time she even lost her shoes at school. She had left them on the baseball field where she had raced against two boys. When she returned to get them, the shoes were gone.
Worse, she had taken her skirt to school to show off. She wanted her friends to see it. The skirt was old, but a rainbow of shiny ribbons still made it pretty. She put it on during lunchtime and danced for some of her friends. Even a teacher stopped to watch.
What am I going to do now? Miata asked herself. She slowed to a walk. Her hair had come undone. She felt hot and sticky.
She could hear the bus stopping around the corner. Miata thought of running through a neighbor's yard. But that would only get her in trouble.
"Oh, man," Miata said under her breath. She felt like throwing herself on the ground and crying. But she knew that would only make things worse. Her mother would ask, "Why do you get so dirty all the time?"
What am I going to do now? she asked herself. She prayed that Ana [her friend] would find the skirt on the bus. She's got to see it, Miata thought. It's right there. Just look, Ana.
As Miata rounded the corner onto her block she saw her brother, Little Joe, and his friend Alex. They were walking with cans smashed onto the heels of their shoes, laughing and pushing each other. Their mouths were fat with gum.
Little Joe waved a dirty hand at Miata. Miata waved back and tried to smile.
If Ana doesn't pick up the skirt, she thought, I'll have to dance in a regular skirt. It was Friday, late afternoon. It looked like a long weekend of worry.
From THE SKIRT by Gary Soto. Illustrated by Eric Velasquez, copyright © 1992 by Gary Soto. Illustrations © 1992 by Eric Velasquez. Used by permission of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
A. a synonym.
B. a simile.
C. dialect.
D. slang.
A. classical music.
B. New England dialect.
C. a language other than English.
D. standard American English.
A. She was proud of it.
B. She was in a class play.
C. It was her day for "Show and Tell."
D. Ana wanted to borrow it.
A. tall.
B. forgetful.
C. smart.
D. funny.