Cheating for the Chicken Man

by Priscilla Cummings

  The principal disappeared into her office, but her door was still open.

  J.T. held his hands palm up, like what’s going on?

  Still Kate hesitated. How would she ever finish that confession? Because bottom line, no matter how many times she went over it in her mind, she could be certain of only two things:

  She loved her family.

  And she was not sorry she had cheated.

  Given the same situation, she would do it again.

  “Kate, are you coming?” J.T. called to her, his voice echoing against the locker-lined walls.

  She swallowed hard. Should she ask him to wait a minute?

  Impatient, her brother started to set his crutches against the wall so he could bend down and pick up the box himself.

  Two days of school remained. There would be another chance.

  “J.T., wait! I’m coming!” Kate called, turning, walking, and then almost running to help her brother.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  For information on the poultry business, I wish to thank Carole Morison, a former chicken farm owner and now agricultural consultant; researchers, especially Dr. Keeve Nachman, at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore; and Maryland delegate Tom Hucker who, with his staff, worked tirelessly to get Maryland to be the first state in the country to ban arsenic-containing antibiotics from chicken feed in 2012.

  I am also grateful to teachers and students at Chesapeake High School in Pasadena, Maryland, for letting me hang out with them; to Melissa Porter, a probation officer in the Kent County, Maryland, department of juvenile services; and to our family friend, Dee Davis, farmer extraordinaire, who showed me how to operate a tractor and a Bush Hog. As always, I am grateful to my husband and first reader, John; my son, Will, for his technical advice; and my daughter, Hannah, for her help and inspiration.

  ALSO BY

  PRISCILLA CUMMINGS:

  PRISCILLA CUMMINGS

  is the author of eight middle grade and young adult novels, including A Face First, an ALA Notable; Red Kayak, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and winner of the Oklahoma Sequoyah and Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Awards; The Journey Back; and Blindsided, which was named to the Children’s Choices list. A former journalist, Ms. Cummings lives in Annapolis, Maryland.

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