Not an Easy Win

On Friday night, Lawrence is happy to eat dinner with Granny and Nikko as Granny’s house starts to feel more like home for him. He listens to Nikko talk about school and her friends, and she tells him that she is doing a history project on Booker T. Washington. Lawrence tells her that there is a “good” school named after him, but Granny asks him what he knows about the school. He says that everyone from the rec center goes there, but Granny insists that that’s just because they can’t go to Andrew Jackson. She tells him that they “fought for Black kids to go to school with white kids,” so they shouldn’t “give that up” (142). Lawrence thinks about how much better it would be to learn from Black teachers with other Black students, but he decides not to argue with Granny.

Monday comes, and Lawrence is overwhelmed by fear and anxiety before the chess tournament starts at the rec center. He plays Lin first and tries to force himself to calm down. He imagines that Pop’s music is playing and that the choir is singing for him; he thinks of how chess is like music.