they’re going to just eat you up alive. From now on when anybody says any mess like that, you just ignore them and don’t let them know it bothers you.  You hear?”  
        The next day at recess, several classmates approached Dina and asked about Jimmy O’Hare and if it was true that he came to her house. Dina told them that yes, he came to her house because he knows her father. Then as she watched the other girls jump-roping, Marilyn Haynes, a pretty blonde girl, appeared and said, “What was it like talking to Jimmy O’Hare?”
        Dina was surprised Marilyn was even giving her the time of day. “He’s nice. He told me about the Rabbit Show. He said it’s really fun working there and he really likes all the other people there like Big Roy Williams and Peter the Puppet Master.
        Marilyn said, “You’re so lucky. I wish I could meet Jimmy O’Hare.”
        Dina wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t sure why Marilyn was even talking to her. Then Marilyn said, “Mrs. Henderson shouldn’t have said nigger toes yesterday. My parents won’t let my brother and I say that word at all.”
        Dina looked at Marilyn. “Nigger toes?”
        Marilyn looked aside. “Just the first part.”
        “Nigger?”
        She nodded.
        “Why not?”
        “Because it’s a bad word.”
        That day, Marilyn sat with Dina on the lunch bench. They ate quietly, only talking from time to time. And from then on, they ate lunch together almost every day, swapping sandwiches and sharing a million private secrets.

#

        Dina’s social standing was rising, first because Jimmy O’Hare had been to her house and secondly because one of the most popular girls in class, Marilyn Haynes, had taken her under her wing. But when report cards were sent home in late January, Dina was surprised to receive mostly Cs and a few Bs. When her mother Helen saw the grades, she looked at her daughter with a frown. “What’s this? You usually get such good grades. Haven’t you been studying?”
        Dina shrugged. “Yes.”
        Helen signed the report card but made an appointment to meet with Mrs. Henderson. At the meeting, the two women sat across from one another in the teacher’s lounge. Mrs. Henderson was nervous and fidgety, Helen calm. Mrs. Henderson, speaking quickly and in a reedy voice, said Dina was an excellent student but maybe facing much stronger competition now that she was in an all-white