Keep Your Head Up
by Aliya King Neil
illustrated by Charly Palmer
illustrated by Charly Palmer
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Keep your head up.
00:07Words by Aaliyah King-Neal.
00:09Pictures by Charlie Palmer.
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03:11best kicker in my class. I try not to scrunch up my eyebrows tight. Or stick out my lips.
03:19Or cross my arms over my chest. But my bad day face slips out. Maybe today I will be
03:27the recycler. That's a class job where you get to go for a long walk. I like long walks,
03:34I can take my time and stop and say, hi. To Miss King. She always checks to see if my
03:42head's up. There is no long walk for me today. MIA gets to go. I just know she's stopped
03:50at the cafeteria. I tell the teacher MIA should be back. But the teacher just says, stay on
03:58task D. In writing class, I get the last laptop. The one with the sticky spacebar. MIA put
04:07a little dot with a marker on the bottom so she knows not to pick it. But I always forget
04:14to check. In math, I say the answer before the teacher calls on me. The teacher says
04:21my answer is right, but I am not right. Because I didn't raise my hand. Raising your hand
04:29is not math, now I'm scratchy again. Miss King would say, D, keep your head up. So I
04:36do. It's no a day for show and tell. He has a rocket made out of a water jug. I try to
04:45help him bring it to the front. But then the whole thing gets smudged. I get paint
04:51on my uniform and the teacher's desk. Now I feel like the thing that comes after scrunchie.
04:59Because Noah is mad for me. My uniform is ruined. And the teacher is upset about the
05:06mess. My mom and dad always talk about meltdowns. A meltdown is when you want to keep your head
05:13up but it won't stay. A meltdown is when your face is wet and your body is hot and
05:19your throat is scratchy and you can't see well. I have a meltdown. The teacher sends
05:25me to the principal's office. I see the 8th graders. But they don't even wave at me and
05:32ask how my brothers are. I walk through the cafeteria, but it's empty. I stop at the nurse
05:40and she won't even take my temperature. So, I walk to the office with my head down. Miss
05:47King doesn't say anything about the meltdown. I always think she will look scrunchie when
05:53the teacher sends me to her office. But she looks like her everyday self. She has books
06:00and things to look at, so I just do that. She has smooth round records and real turntables
06:08too. Miss King always says records are just like me. They seem complicated. But they're
06:16not really. You just have to be gentle with them. You have to hold them the right way.
06:23If you don't, they get scratched. And the scratches are hard to fix. My mom and dad
06:30come to pick me up. They look at Miss King and they all have the same expression. Can
06:37I go outside when I get home? I say. My mom says no. We have to go to my brother's soccer
06:46game. Can I use my tablet when we get home? I say. My dad says no. It will be time for
06:55bed. So, this day won't get any better. I say. It might. But if it doesn't get better.
07:05What can you do? Mom says. I still feel scrunchie. But not too much. Keep my head up. I say it,
07:16but I tell my mom and my dad and Miss King that I don't really want to. Miss King says
07:22that's okay. I just have to want to try. The end.