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Informationen zum Autor Matthew Landis Klappentext "As the new year approaches, best friends Ronny, whose family is in financial trouble, and Josefina, who has a big audition at a prestigious music academy, must learn how to depend on one another and their community when things get tough"-- Leseprobe 1 The Invitation Jo Papi lays the envelope next to my dinner plate. I put my fork down and stare at it. I’ve been waiting three months for it . We mailed the application back in August, just before I started seventh grade. “It won’t open itself,” Mami says. Papi smiles. His large black eyes sparkle. “Go on, mijita.” I turn the envelope over and slowly pry it open. I’m worried about tearing it—like any mistake now could change what’s inside. Mami scoots her chair next to mine at our small kitchen table. She smells like bleach and lavender from a day spent cleaning houses with Señora Reyes. “You can always apply next year,” she says. “Si sabes, verdad?” “I know.” But I don’t want to apply next year—I want to be there next year. I break the seal and pull out the letter. Mami whispers a prayer to La Virgencita. Papi leans forward, his elbows on the table. There is no sound in the apartment except for my pounding heart. I unfold the piece of paper and read the typed note. Dear Ms. Josefina Ramos, We are pleased to invite you for an audition . . . I don’t read the rest. Instead, I laugh—and get smothered in a family hug. Maple Hill Conservatory, here I come. 2 Cheese Is in My Future Ronny I’m dreaming about cheese when Bianca wakes me up with her weird sleep talking. “Dragonfly,” she says. I’m real confused because where am I? I sit up and bang my head on the ceiling because these rooms are super small and I been sharing a bunkbed with my fifth-grade sister for two years now. “ Dragonfly,” she says again. “No dragonflies in here.” The little clock on our desk says 5:38 so I get off the top bunk to get dressed for school and check on Bianca. Her hair is all over her whole face like a brown blanket. “Are you okay?” She says something but she’s sleeping again in a couple seconds. I pull the covers up and she has like a hundred animal books in all these stacks on the floor so it’s hard to not knock them all over and wake her up. I’m getting my socks on and see a bedroom light in one of the townhome windows right across the street. It’s way up high because the garages there are on the bottom and I remember always going up a ton of steps to get to my room which is funny because now our apartment has zero steps and is really tiny. Probably the kid who lives in my old room doesn’t have to share a bunkbed with his little sister and deal with her weird dreams. I go to the kitchen and there’s my mom in her blue nurse clothes for work. She’s eating breakfast and doing her favorite thing which is reading one of the papers from the giant blue folder of bills. “Hey bud,” she says. “How’d you sleep?” “Good.” “Any dreams?” “Cheese.” “Again?” “Yeah, I know.” “Not turkey?” “Ha come on,” I say because last week she got this big Thanksgiving food box thing at the grocery store with the good stuff. She made this giant turkey and I ate so much but there was more turkey left so we had to keep eating it for dinner. “No, it was cheese.” “Hmm,” she says. She always sits up real straight when she does her bills, like she’s in the army or something. Her hair used to be long like Bianca’s until she cut it shorter than mine last year. “You do like cheese.” “Probably it’s a sign. Like cheese is in my future.” “Or maybe it was my amazing dinner last night, which included cheese.” “Yeah, probably it was both.” I eat cereal and she’s staring at this bill that says FINAL NOTICE in big red letters. I see her do bill...
