Tuesday
Linzy was wearing unicorn pajamas. “Do you want to frolic?” she asked.
“Frolic?” asked Marvin. He didn’t know what the word meant. He wasn’t sure it was a real word.
“That’s what unicorns do,” Linzy explained. “We frolic.”
She showed Marvin how to frolic. She skipped down the hall and sang, “We’re happy, happy unicorns. Oh, happy unicorns frolicking.”
Marvin didn’t feel like frolicking. He wasn’t a happy unicorn.
It was Tuesday night. Saturday was only four days away.
He could see the light on in his brother’s room. Jacob was doing homework. Jacob had ridden down Suicide Hill before.
Marvin knocked on his brother’s door.
“What?”
Jacob sounded annoyed. They gave a lot of homework in middle school.
“I just wanted to ask you something,” Marvin said timidly.
“What?” asked Jacob.
Marvin wasn’t sure what to ask. “I don’t remember,” he said.
Jacob glared at him.
Marvin could tell Jacob thought he was just a dumb little kid. Marvin felt like a dumb little kid.
He headed back to his room.
The whole school was expecting him to ride down Suicide Hill on Saturday. He couldn’t figure out how it happened. He never wanted to ride down Suicide Hill in the first place. It was Stuart and Nick’s idea, but their parents wouldn’t let them.
That gave him an idea. It was so obvious, he wondered why he hadn’t thought of it sooner. He walked quickly to his mother’s office.
His mother was working on the computer. She turned and smiled at Marvin as he entered.
“Sorry to bother you,” Marvin said.
“Oh, that’s okay.” She took a sip of coffee.
“In four days I get to ride my bike,” Marvin said.
“That’s right,” said his mother. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”
Marvin nodded. “You know the first place I’m going to ride it?” he asked, trying to sound excited.
His mother smiled and asked, “Where?”
“Suicide Hill!”
“Sounds exciting,” said his mother. She entered some numbers into the computer.
Marvin thought maybe she hadn’t heard him. Or maybe she thought it was no big deal, since Jacob had ridden down it lots of times. Didn’t she realize Jacob was a lot older?
“Suicide Hill,” he repeated. “I’m going to ride my brand-new expensive