Crushing It – Erin Becker

is that okay? NotEmilyD: (oops. that was also a question) BTtoYouPlease: i like your questions! BTtoYouPlease: go for it. NotEmilyD: cool. thanks NotEmilyD: so, I’m really scared about something I have to do for one of my classes soon. NotEmilyD: any advice? BTtoYouPlease: when’s the big day? NotEmilyD: tomorrow. BTtoYouPlease: ok. I’ll send you a pep talk tomorrow morning. NotEmilyD: I’d love that BTtoYouPlease: good because it’s happening. NotEmilyD: I walk down the hall to the staircase, still looking at BT’s messages.

The Chihuahuas are gone, at least for now. BT almost always has a Chihuahua- calming effect. I’m still staring down at my phone when I round the corner and almost run into Emily. My sister has her bag of Swedish Fish in one hand and her notebook in the other. She swerves to the wall to avoid crashing into me, and a few gummy fish tumble out of the bag and scatter across the top few steps.

“Watch where you’re going, Magic Mel!” I shove my phone into the side pocket of my joggers and bend down to pick up the stray Swedish Fish. I hold them out to Emily. They’re flecked with fuzz from the carpet on the stairs. “Thanks,” she says, wrinkling her nose at the fuzz. “But I’ll pass.” I shrug and shove the fish into my pocket next to my phone. Emily narrows her eyes. “Who are you chatting with this early?” I look down. My phone’s half sticking out of my pocket, unlocked and open to my messages with BT.

I jam it deeper. It’s definitely going to have Swedish Fish goo on it, but I’ll worry about that later. “No one,” I say. Emily frowns. “What’s going on with you? Why are you acting all mysterious lately?” “I…” I think about several ways I could answer her question.

There are the messages on my phone and how BT makes me smile. There are the poems in my notebook, which might not be real poems at all. There’s the still-mostly-empty page where my Pluto speech should be, and the introduction speech I haven’t started, either. And there’s the team I’m captain of, and how badly I want us to win the championship this year, to prove I can be the captain type after all.

The Chihuahuas are officially sprinting back. Emily studies me for a second. “Come to my room, Mel.” Wait. Can my sister see the Chihuahuas? I follow her down the hall to her room, where she settles into her desk chair. I let myself fall backward onto the bed, sprawling out so my head hangs off the other side. Emily’s wall is full of Post-it notes with what must be lines from her favorite poems.

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York First published in the United States of America by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, 2024 Text copyright © 2024 by Erin Becker Illustrations copyright © 2024 by Penguin Random House LLC Illustrations by Ricardo Bessa Photo credits: used throughout: (circle shapes) Ledelena/iStock/Getty Images Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission.

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Ebook ISBN 9780593754030 Design by Jay Emmanuel, adapted for ebook by Michelle Quintero This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

pid_prh_7.0_147795489_c0_r0 OceanofPDF.com Contents Dedication Monday, October 2 (Twenty-One Days Before the Championship) Tuesday, October 3 (Twenty Days Before the Championship) Wednesday, October 4 (Nineteen Days Before the Championship) Thursday, October 5 (Eighteen Days Before the Championship) Sunday, October 8 (Fifteen Days Before the Championship) Monday, October 9 (Fourteen Days Before the Championship) Tuesday, October 10 (Thirteen Days Before the Championship) Wednesday, October 11 (Twelve Days Before the Championship) Thursday, October 12 (Eleven Days Before the Championship) Friday, October 13 (Ten Days Before the Championship) Monday, October 16 (Seven Days Before the Championship) Tuesday, October 17 (Six Days Before the Championship) Wednesday, October 18 (Five Days Before the Championship) Saturday, October 21 (Two Days Before the Championship) Sunday, October 22 (One Day Before the Championship) Monday, October 23 (Day of the Championship) Acknowledgments About the Author OceanofPDF.com To my parents, who have always made me feel like I could do anything, and to Maddy, who always asks the right questions—EB OceanofPDF.com T Monday, October 2 (Twenty-One Days Before the Championship) Mel he ref calls me to the halfway line.

It’s the last regular game of our eighth-grade soccer season, and we’re undefeated and unscored on. A win today will make us the top seed in next week’s quarterfinals. Regular season. Quarterfinals. Semifinals. Eighth-Grade Girls’ City Championship. It’s the countdown I’ve been doing since the kickoff of our very first game this season. A win today means we’re one step closer to the big game, exactly three weeks from now.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 58c64ae4e64a9919
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 5,344,338 bytes (5.097 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780593754030
• Pages: 200
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 256.96 minutes
• Total Words: 51,393
• Total Characters: 276,530
• Average Words per Page: 256.96
• Average Characters per Page: 1382.65

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