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The Count That Stays at Nineteen

Chapter 1The notebook column

On Monday, Leora writes a number at the bottom of a column in her notebook.

Nineteen.

It is her best jump-rope count without stopping: nineteen turns of the rope before it catches her ankle. She is learning a speed pattern for the gym class showcase, and she has recorded her count every afternoon for two weeks.

The column reads: 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19.

Then, on Tuesday: 19. On Wednesday: 18. On Thursday: 19.

Chapter 2The flat part

Leora draws a small line under the last number.

It does not look like progress. It looks like a staircase that has hit a wall.

She tells herself a story. I have reached my limit. My arms are not built for this. Everyone else will be fine at the showcase, and I will be the one who stops at nineteen.

In the next row of the gym, Ahuva, who is two weeks behind her, jumps twenty-six.

Leora closes the notebook.

Chapter 3Coach Sheindy

On Friday, Coach Sheindy watches her try again.

Leora jumps. The rope slaps the floor. Nineteen. Then it catches.

"Okay," says Coach Sheindy. She wears a long gym skirt and a loose, long-sleeved shirt, and her hair is tucked in a tidy cap. "That is a lot of nineteens."

"I'm stuck."

"Maybe. Or maybe you are in the flat part."

"What's the flat part?"

"Almost everyone has one. You jump the same number for days. Sometimes your body figures out something new, and the number moves. Sometimes we test a change."

Leora crosses her arms. "What if it does not move?"

"Then we change something. But we do not decide in the flat part that you are finished."

Chapter 4What stays the same

Coach Sheindy pulls a stool beside the mat.

"Show me one jump slowly."

Leora jumps slowly.

"Do your elbows move?"

"Not really. They are close to my sides."

"Do your wrists move?"

"A lot."

"Where does the rope usually catch?"

Leora thinks. "Around number nineteen. My arms get tired."

"Then the number may not be about being good enough. It may be about what your arms do at nineteen. We can test one thing at a time."

Chapter 5One change

They try one small change.

On Saturday night, Leora watches her wrists in the mirror. She makes the circles a little smaller.

The rope catches at fourteen.

"That is worse," she mutters.

"That is a test," says Coach Sheindy, who has been watching from the door. "You changed something. The number changed. Now you know what to try again."

Leora writes 14 in the notebook, and next to it, smaller wrists.

Chapter 6The next days

On Sunday she keeps the smaller wrists and adds one more change: she breathes out as she jumps. The count is 16. On Monday: 15. On Tuesday: 20.

She stares at the twenty.

It is not a miracle. It is one number. On Wednesday she writes 17, and on Thursday 21.

Leora notices that her notebook is not a story about what she is. It is a list of what she tried.

Chapter 7Before the showcase

On the day of the showcase, Leora does not know what number she will reach.

She stands on the gym floor with her rope, hears the teacher say "Ready," and breathes out at the start.

The rope turns. She keeps her elbows close. She smooths her wrists.

She counts. Twenty-three, twenty-four, and then the rope catches.

Leora laughs, which surprises her. She does not expect it.

Afterward, in the hallway, Ahuva says, "You went higher than me."

"I went higher than me," says Leora. She opens her notebook and writes the number.

Then she writes tomorrow's plan.