Level V 4

The Outburst A Reading A–Z Level V Benchmark Book Word Count: 1,018 BENCH MAR K • V The Outburst Written by Alyse Sweeney Illustrated by Linda Pierce Visit www.readinga-z.com for thousands of books and materials. www.readinga-z.com The Outburst Written by Alyse Sweeney Illustrated by Linda Pierce The Outburst Level V Benchmark Book © Learning A–Z, Inc. Written by Alyse Sweeney Illustrated by Linda Pierce All rights reserved. www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com Correlation LEVEL V Fountas & Pinnell Reading Recovery DRA R 25 40 It was moving day and Mom, Dad, and Grandma eagerly directed movers inside our antebellum North Carolina home. But my stomach was a knot and I needed air. Grandma and I are similar in so many ways it’s no wonder we are so close, like two peas in a pod. We are crazy about karaoke, concerned about the environment, serious chess players, and passionate writers. Grandma writes a famous mystery series starring her five grandchildren— I’m the lead detective—while I prefer to write poetry. Like all passionate writers, we share a love of words that led us to the habit of taping words to our bathroom mirrors—famous quotes for Grandma and favorite words for me. That’s why I never felt as horrid as the day I thought I ruined everything, like a wave crashing a breathtaking sandcastle. 3 Boing . . . boing . . . boing . . . . It felt good to whack the basketball against the garage door—at least that hadn’t changed from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. I tried to whack away the cloud of anxiety that had been hovering over me since I learned of the move last month—on the last day of school, actually. That’s when Dad giddily broke the news about his fabulous new job about a million miles from friends and relatives. Life as I knew it was over, wrecked, finished, ruined. “Please stop, niña,” Mom called from the kitchen window. “You’ll leave marks on the garage.” Boing . . . boing . . . boing . . . . I knew Dad despised his old job, but was it really that terrible and was it necessary to leave the state to find a better one?! Did he even try to look for new employment in Pennsylvania? “Hey, Sammy, your mother asked you to stop the banging, por favor,” Dad called, trying his best to mimic Mom’s Spanish accent. 4 Grandma must have sensed my irritation, so she invited me to explore the trail behind our house, rescuing me from angry glares. “So how’s it going, Sam?” “It’s going horribly, hideously, and horrifyingly awful! Look at my hair—I’m a complete frizz ball—and this place is like a giant steam room!” “We’ll get used to it,” said Grandma. “I do love how green and lush it is, though. Aristotle hit the nail on the head when he said, ‘In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.’” “Well, there’s nothing marvelous about moving here. Do you realize I should be swimming with Kate and Jordan right now! I wonder how long it will take before they forget all about me.” “I know it’s difficult, Sammy, but you’ll make new friends.” Boing . . . boing . . . boing . . . . But throughout the past month, I had never seen Dad so deliriously happy—humming, talking a mile a minute, and tickling Mom. His bliss means my misery and that is so unfair I could scream! Boing . . . boing . . . ”Hey, watch it!” bellowed a mover, rubbing his head where the ball struck. 5 “How?” I screamed as my blood boiled. “Everyone here already has their friends. They don’t need an outsider nosing in and screwing up their relationships.” Angry tears blurred my vision and my heart pounded like hail on a roof. “Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.’” 6 That’s when I exploded like a firecracker. T