The Black Kids(97)

LaShawn and I wring water from our hair and bathing suits into the sand, which we scoop into several dense mounds piled toward the sky that almost immediately start to crumble and slide. Then Heather and Lana run down to the water and come back giggling with handfuls that they pour over what we’ve started, while Courtney tries to keep Pepper from smashing it all. All of us work together, adding more water, more earth, digging our fingers in, building and rebuilding, until slowly it starts to look like something real.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


David Doerrer, my incredible agent, thank you for your tireless and painstaking work at getting this to be what it could be, and for seeing the potential in it and me. You are my favorite person that I never actually get to see in person. And thank you, Abrams Artists Agency, for having the good sense to employ him.

Zareen Jaffery, my story doula, I knew minutes into our first call that you got me and you got this. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and for pushing every single page of this to be better.

Kendra Levin, thank you for holding my hand and helping me push through the last of it. You are the loveliest.

Adriana Bellet, thank you for the absolutely perfect piece of cover art. I shed the happiest of happy tears the first time I saw it.

To Justin Chanda, and everyone at Simon & Schuster, thank you for championing this story, I’m truly so lucky to have you. Dainese, Audrey, Shivani, Lisa, I appreciate you. Jane Griffiths at Simon & Schuster UK, thank you from the bottom of my heart for immediately recognizing the universality in Ashley’s story. Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein, thank you for getting my words across the pond.

Lucy Ruth Cummins, many thanks for this bomb-ass super-dope totally tubular cover.

To my copyeditor, Benjamin Holmes, thank you for helping me not look like an idiot. For real.

To the late Adina Talve-Goodman, Patrick Ryan, and the team at One Teen Story—thank you for seeing the beauty in this story and being the first to put it out in the world. I’m so eternally grateful to you for starting me on this journey.

To the Santa Monica Review—thank you for being the first to give me a chance.

I would like to give a shout-out to all my English teachers, for the refuge and joy my awkward ass found in their classrooms—especially Mr. Einstein, Ms. Tracy, the late and lovely Mrs. Madrid, Ms. Cheney, Mr. Sawaya, and Mr. Platt (even if you weren’t technically my English teacher).

Aimee Bender, thank you for your encouragement, for your recommendations, for being both an amazing writer and teacher, and for telling me not to go to law school if I was only going to do it because it was practical.

Mrs. View—to this day you are my favorite librarian.

Cal State Long Beach’s Young Writers’ Camp—you were my first little taste of heaven on earth.

Elizabeth, thank you for allowing me to foist my stories on you before I’d even figured out what to say or how, for being one of my first and most encouraging readers, and for being one of the bestest bffls a girl could ask for.

Hyemee, my cheerleader before you’d ever even read a word I’d written, my other bffl, I’m so grateful to you for your friendship. Should I ever have a guesthouse, it’s yours. Don’t tell Bizzle.

Justyn, my twinface, I’m so glad the universe threw the two of us kindred blerds in that dumb box together. This 100 percent wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you to Mama Rose and Uncle E. and your mama for welcoming me into your home and your lives.

Liz, my oldest friend, I’m so grateful we’re still in each other’s lives.

Carmen Samayoa—for being an inspiration.

Jimmy Cabrera—for your stories, and your friendship, for sharing the beauty of your homeland with me.

Derek, thank you for being you, for never letting me quit on myself, for holding me through my blue and basking with me in my yellow. There’s no way I could even remotely communicate what you mean to me.

To the Smiths and the Kings, thank you for your kindness and encouragement and for bringing him into being.

To my fellow Angelenos, I love you even when you suck.

To my fellow black kids, fragile and strong, nerdy and cool, weird and well-adjusted, ugly and beautiful, rich and poor, and everything in between—“we gon’ be alright.”

Daddy, Mommy, Alicia, and Reza—I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Everything I do is to make you proud. I hope you are.