Spin
Page 31
With their cash dwindling, Goose, Mahoney, and the others bundled up the chips they managed to keep, calling it a night. Gavin helped a nervous Molly cash them out. For grown men who’d just gotten schooled by a “kindergartner,” they seemed upbeat.
Mahoney took his haul—a tenth of what he showed up with—grinning. To one of his fellow losers he said, “Now I get what it was like seeing LeBron play as a kid.”
A proud heat pricked my cheeks and forehead until an eclipse blocked the ceiling light. I was in Goose’s dark-side-of-the-moon shadow, his imposing gut so close, I felt wedged between it and the wall.
“Can I help you?” I made sure I sounded tougher than I felt.
He leaned over me. “Your old man teach you to play like that?”
“Mostly.” I was Dad’s star pupil, his only pupil, from the time I learned to read and count. After he went in, I found other ways. Books by the game’s legends. Online play where the currency wasn’t real, but the lessons were. I even had an app on my phone so I could squeeze in games. Poker’s a game of skill, not luck, despite popular belief. My skills had to be sharp if I was gonna reach my ultimate goal. Escape velocity.
“You ever get it in your head to do some hustling before your name really gets around,” Goose said, “you let me know. I want in on that action.”
“You’re not worried anymore about contributing to the delinquency of a minor?”
“Not when said minor represents a promising return on my investment. You’ve got a bright career ahead of you. So think about it.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, not meaning it. Inviting a Pack member to a single card game was way different from some sort of standing partnership. Even I knew better than that.
Goose was the last to cash out. When he was all set, I escorted him to the alley with Gavin and Molly at my back. There were some, not many, hours left before daybreak.
The xenon headlight on Goose’s bike flared blue, and he said, “Remember my offer.”
I only nodded as his bike growled and departed, leaving me alone with my friends. A moment I’d been kind of dreading.
“What was that?” Gavin said.
Molly tag-teamed in. “You know someone from the freaking Pack?” She got in my face like we were in a soccer huddle. “The kind of money on the table tonight can get people killed, Nikki. Have you lost your—”
“Enough!” I said. “Molly, we didn’t die. Gavin, I’ll keep your cut if you don’t want it. We’re fine, guys.”
“Really,” said my dad, stepping from the shadows with one of his John Player Special cigarettes dangling off his lips, eliciting an oaky sweet smell I recalled from childhood. “I’m not sure about that, babygirl. At all.”
To quote the late, great Notorious B.I.G., “And another one …”
As always there are so many people to thank. Adrienne, Mom, and the family: love you all, thanks for every bookmark you’ve handed out, every impromptu book talk you’ve given in grocery lines, and every other low-key marketing thing you do weekly to make sure others know there’s an author in the clan.
Jamie Weiss Chilton and Eric Reid: Thank you for being such strong advocates of my work. Big things ahead.
Jody Corbett: You are so good at your job, you’re getting shouted out twice. So well deserved.
The Scholastic team: Phil Falco, Josh Berlowitz, Elisabeth Ferrari, Tracy van Straaten, Lizette Serrano, Emily Heddleson, Danielle Yadao, Jasmine Miranda, Rachel Feld, Julia Eisler, Alan Smagler, Elizabeth Whiting, Alexis Lunsford, Sue Flynn, Jacquelyn Rubin, Jody Stigliano, Charlie Young, Terribeth Smith, Nikki Mutch, Roz Hilden, Tracy Bozentka, Dan Moser, Meaghan Hilton, Randy Kessler, Besty Polti, Chris Satterlund, Barb Synder, Jana Haussman, Ann Marie Wong, and Preeti Chhibber … thank you all for all you do!
The subject matter experts and the beta readers (DISCLAIMER: if it’s right, it’s them; if it’s wrong, it’s me): Ruta Sepetys, Jed Deaver, Andrew Shvarts, Dahlia Adler Fisch, Tiffany Jackson, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, S. Craig Jackson, and Melando Brown Jr. (aka Junior Beatz).
Finally, the remaining crew: Meg Medina, Ellen Oh, Dhonielle Clayton, Sona Charaipotra, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds, Jeff Zentner, Tracey Baptiste, Kwame Alexander, Aisha Saeed, I. W. Gregorio, Marieke Nijkamp, Miranda Paul, Sara Farizan, Lilliam Rivera, Dapo Adeola, Daria Peoples-Riley, Gretchen McNeil, Jennifer Wolfe, Mitali Perkins, Leah Henderson, Shadra Strickland, and all the rest.
Rock on!
Copyright © 2019 by Lamar Giles
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Giles, L. R. (Lamar R.), author.
Title: Spin / Lamar Giles.
Description: First edition. | New York: Scholastic Press, 2019. | Summary:
When DJ ParSec (Paris Secord), rising star of the local music scene, is found dead over her turntables, the two girls who found her, Kya (her pre-fame best friend) and Fuse (her current chief groupie) are torn between grief for Paris and hatred for each other—but when the lack of obvious suspects stalls the investigation, and the police seem to lose interest, despite pressure from social media and ParSec’s loyal fans, the two girls unite, determined to find out who murdered their friend.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018044097 | ISBN 9781338219210
Subjects: LCSH: African American teenagers—Juvenile fiction. | Disc
jockeys—Juvenile fiction. | Celebrities—Death—Juvenile fiction. | Murder—Investigation—Juvenile fiction. | Fans (Persons) —Juvenile fiction. | Grief—Juvenile fiction. | Friendship—Juvenile fiction. | Detective and mystery stories. | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | African Americans—Fiction. | Disc jockeys—Fiction. | Celebrities—Fiction. | Murder—Fiction. | Fans (Persons)—Fiction. | Grief—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction. | LCGFT: Detective and mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.G39235 Sp 2019 | DDC 813.6 [Fic]—dc23 LC
First edition, February 2019
Cover art & design by Phil Falco
e-ISBN 978-1-338-21923-4
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