If You Come Softly

Ellie still hasn’t seen Jeremiah since the day they met in the hallway, and one day, she is about to give up hope when Jeremiah transfers into her history class. Jeremiah spots her, chooses to sit next to her, and looks in her textbook with her. When she asks why he transferred, he explains that he “knew it already;” the school had placed him in a remedial history class without asking (75). He shares that it feels like “more than a coincidence” when stuff like this happens: It feels like it must be his hair and “the melanin thing” (75, 76). When Ellie understands what he means, she hopes the world isn’t like this, but she wonders if it actually is. Jeremiah finally asks for her name, and she writes it down for him as they get in trouble with their teacher for talking.

Jeremiah meets up with his neighborhood friend Carlton on the way home, and they chat about basketball, Brooklyn Tech, and Percy Academy. Jeremiah realizes he can ask Carlton about interracial relationships because Carlton’s mom is white, and his father is Black. Carlton talks about the looks he and his parents get on the street when they walk together and shares that his sister probably went to college in England to escape it all.