Look Both Ways Summary

In “Water Booger Bears,” TJ and Jasmine are getting ready to walk home after school. They’ve been best friends and have been walking home together for the last six years, but Jasmine has been in the hospital for the last month due to a sickle cell anemia flare-up. In the present, though, things seem back to normal, except for the fact that TJ carries Jasmine’s heavy backpack full of textbooks and homework she missed while she was out. On the walk home, Jasmine teases TJ for the boogers in his nose while TJ insists that people are just big boogers, since God made people out of dust and, according to their science teacher, people are mostly water. Jasmine insists she’s not a booger. She’d rather be a water bear, a microscopic creature that can withstand extreme heat and cold. Neither of them see the school bus fall from the sky.

In “The Low Cuts Strike Again,” the after-school bell rings and the Low Cuts, a group comprising Bit, Trista, Francy, and John John, meet outside. The Low Cuts grew out of a support group that the school counselor started for them—the kids each have a parent who has cancer. The Low Cuts are known for stealing loose change to supplement their free school lunches. Today, though, they have a different mission. They take their stolen 90 cents to the neighborhood candy lady, Ms. CeeCee, where they purchase retro candies. They resell the candies to old men at a local pool hall. With the nine dollars this yields, the kids buy ice cream and take it to Bit’s mom, Ms. Burns. She just started chemo again because her cancer came back.

“Skitter Hitter” would’ve been a very different story had Pia known that Stevie would be out front with her broken skateboard, Skitter, waiting to apologize. Stevie attends a private boys’ school, where a classmate named Marcus routinely bullies him. Yesterday, Marcus invited Stevie to help him pick on someone else after school: Pia. So as Pia skated home, Marcus, his cronies, and Stevie stopped her, pushed her, and sent her skateboard flying into the street, where a car smashed it. This was horrifying for Pia, as her sister, Santi, died two years ago when a jealous skater boy pushed her into traffic. Ashamed of his actions, Stevie told his mom about what happened and about Marcus’s bullying, so today she’s brought him to Latimer to apologize. But since Pia doesn’t know Stevie is here, she leaves school the back way with Fawn, another female skater.

In “How to Look Both (Both) Ways,” Fatima is new to walking home on her own this year. Her first two walks home were disastrous: Fatima tripped, kids on a bus laughed at her, she got caught in the rain, and a dancing and singing woman named Benni scared Fatima a bit. But Fatima wanted nothing more than to be able to walk home and enjoy some alone time, so she downplayed these experiences to her parents. Now, she keeps a notebook with a running list of all the things that change or stay the same as she walks home, which helps her feel more in control. On the day the story takes place, things change because Fatima tells Benni about Ms. Broome’s writing assignment: to imagine herself as an object. In response, Benni demands to know how Fatima is going to change the world. Fatima considers being cement to repair the sidewalk cracks or an umbrella, but instead she asks Benni to borrow one of her imaginary instruments to play.

In “Call of Duty,” yesterday, a boy named Slim accidentally kissed popular gamer Ty Carson when they were fighting over the water fountain. By lunchtime, Slim was telling people Ty kissed him. Bryson Wills, a fellow gamer who’s friends with Ty, defended Ty at lunch. To prove that a kiss doesn’t mean anything, Bryson kissed Ty on the cheek. So after school, Slim and his cronies chased Bryson and beat him up. Bryson’s mom let him stay home today to recover. Ty has seen the videos on social media and knows what happened, so after school gets out, he races toward Bryson’s house and stops to grab a fistful of roses on his way. He arrives when Bryson is taking a break from playing Call of Duty. Bryson accepts the roses and invites Ty inside.

“Five Things Easier to Do than Simeon and Kenzi’s Secret Handshake” details those five things that are easier to do. First, it’s easier to get through the hallway after the final bell rings. This is because Simeon is a big kid—and he carries Kenzi on his back, since Kenzi is the smallest kid in class. Second, it’s easier to convince Ms. Wockley to not get the boys in trouble for the piggyback ride. She lets Simeon tell her why he should be allowed to carry Kenzi and sends the boys on their way. Third, it’s easier to get to the neighborhood, which is a part of town that makes most people nervous. But to Simeon and Kenzi, it’s where they can be themselves. The fourth thing easier than the handshake is choosing a snack from Fredo’s corner store—though Fredo insults Simeon’s size, and Kenzi steals Fredo’s newspaper and lighter in retaliation. The fifth easier thing is making wishes. Simeon fashions a piece of newspaper into a candle, sticks it in his MoonPie, and offers it to Kenzi to blow out like a birthday cake. Kenzi wishes his brother, who’s in prison, was here. Simeon and Kenzi perform their handshake.

Satchmo finally comes up with a lifesaving plan in “Satchmo’s Master Plan.” Years ago, a rottweiler named Brutus bit Satchmo when Satchmo fetched a ball out of Brutus’s yard, and Satchmo’s friend Clancy did nothing to help. Satchmo has been terrified of dogs since then—but unfortunately, his neighbor, Mr. Jerry, just got a new dog. Satchmo is certain the dog will chase and try to kill him, so his plan to evade the beast includes swimming through a neighbor’s pool, breaking into another neighbor’s car, and if necessary, praying a school bus will fall from the sky and distract the dog. But as Satchmo reaches Mr. Jerry’s house and prepares to execute his plan, Mr. Jerry calls for Satchmo to come meet his dog—and the dog seems nice.

In “Ookabooka Land,” Cynthia “Say-So” Sower has been a comedian her whole life. Her grandfather and fellow comedian, Cinder, taught her how to perform and make jokes, and Cynthia wants nothing more than to make Cynthia’s mom, who has little time for Cynthia due to working and attending night school, laugh. So Cynthia passes out flyers after school inviting her classmates to her comedy show at 3:33, hoping her mom might skip school and come too. Nobody comes to the show, as usual. So Cynthia writes a joke on a piece of paper, stuffs it in an envelope with a stamp, and writes her own address on it. When she gets to the apartment she shares with her mom and Cinder, she offers Cinder the letter. Cinder’s memory has been slipping since his girlfriend, Miss Fran, died—so later, after he reads the letter, he’ll believe that he wrote the joke in it and will suggest Cynthia perform the joke at school.

In “How a Boy Can Become a Grease Fire,” today is a special day for Gregory Pitts: he’s going to ask his crush, Sandra, for her phone number. But Gregory’s friends Joey, Candace, and Remy have to get him ready first. Gregory is known for smelling bad, so Remy douses Gregory in body spray that only helps a little. Candace rubs lotion into Gregory’s hands, arms, and face, and Joey instructs Gregory to put VapoRub on his lips (he couldn’t find Vaseline). Greasy, smelly, and his eyes watering from the menthol in the VapoRub, Gregory walks to Sandra’s house. His friends watch as he reads Sandra a note of compliments and asks for her number.

In “The Broom Dog,” Canton used to agree that a school bus can be anything—but a year ago, when his mom, Ms. Post, was hit by a bus and injured while saving a kid who walked into the street, buses began to terrify him. To help him cope, the custodian, Mr. Munch, made Canton a pretend emotional support dog out of a broom head. Shockingly, stroking the broom dog helped Canton. That was a year ago. Today, Canton sits outside and works on his homework while Ms. Post guides kids across Portal Avenue. When she’s done and he stands up, he forgets the broom dog is even on his lap. Ms. Post observes that the well-worn dog looks a bit like a school bus, and Canton tosses the broom head into the air—it’s a school bus falling from the sky.