50 pages • 1 hour read
Lu
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Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “A New Name for Sprinting: Surviving Stinky Dudes Who Got Nothing Better to Do Than Talk Trash Because They Haters”
The next morning, Lu is still thinking about his father’s past and the responsibility of choosing his sister’s name. Lu creates a list of names for the baby, including “Snowflake” (58). His mother, Christina, asks Lu if he wants to talk about what he has learned about his father and Lu declines. Christina nods and then tells him to get ready so that he can help her with work for her business Picasso of Produce for which she creates and delivers sculptures made of fruit.
Christina looks at her list of deliveries for that day and reads that the first one is for a Mr. Charles Ringwald, from “Terri and Castle” (60). Lu realizes that this is Ghost, whose real name is Castle. Christina and Lu begin constructing a cowboy hat to deliver to Mr. Ringwald. Lu and his mother arrive in front of the delivery address to find a corner store. Christina sends Lu to deliver the sculpture, reminding him to deliver it quickly and professionally. Lu enters the store, ready to deliver the sculpture, but stops when he sees Ghost standing with someone he “wished was a ghost”: Kelvin Jefferson, a bully from school who used to taunt Lu about his albinism (70).
Kelvin’s taunts play through Lu’s head as he looks at him, such as “uncracked egg. And not the brown kind. The white kind” (72). Lu recalls a pivotal moment in which he almost got into a fight with Kelvin, but instead ran away. Noticing that Lu ran all the way home, his mother asked him if everything was alright, but Lu did not want to tell her about Kelvin and make things worse. Instead, he told her that he was “practicing for sports” (76), which prompted his mother to sign him up for track. Lu explains that this is the first year he does not have class with Kelvin, and that Kelvin does not even go to his school anymore because he had “stuff going on at home” (77) and is living with his grandfather.
Kelvin notices Lu and asks him, “What you doing here, cream filling?” (78). Ghost asks Lu if he and Kelvin know each other, to which Lu responds, “Yeah… unfortunately” (78). Mr. Charles, who is hard of hearing, asks Lu to repeat why he is there, and Lu says he is there with a delivery for him. Mr. Charles says he has not ordered anything other than toilet paper. Outside, Lu’s mother honks the horn. Lu leaves the fruit sculpture and rushes out of the store.
Lu’s mother asks if he is okay when he returns to the car and asks him why he took so long. Lu glances back at the store and sees Mr. Charles hugging Ghost, who told him the fruit sculpture was from him and his mom. Lu does not answer his mother and instead turns on the radio.
Chapter 6 Summary: “A New Name for Hurdle: Blur (or Blurdle or Aaron)”
Upset after seeing Kelvin, Lu repeats his mantra to calm himself: “I am The man. The guy. The kid. The one. The Lu. Lucky Lu. Lookie Lu. Lu the Lightning Bolt” (83). Lu explains that his mother taught him to recite mantras when he was a little kid dealing with insecurity over his albinism.
Lu finishes his pre-practice routine, which includes applying copious amounts of sunscreen due to his lack of melanin. Instead of taking out and cleaning his contacts, like he normally does, Lu puts a few eyedrops into each eye. He explains that he needs contact lenses because he has hyperopia, a side effect of albinism. This means anything right in front of Lu is blurry and that he can only see things far away. Lu admits that he used to wear glasses, but that he found a way to hide his need for sight aides as he grew older and more concerned with being cool.
At practice, Ghost shows his friends a letter from his father, who is incarcerated after trying to kill Ghost and his mother four years ago. Ghost explains that this is the first time he has heard from his father since that day. He and his mother ordered the fruit sculpture for Mr. Charles to thank him for hiding them in his storage room. Ghost says the note contains an apology from his father and assures his friends that he is okay as Coach calls them to start practice.
During warm-up laps, co-captain Aaron teases Lu, telling him he smells like burnt plastic from all the sunscreen. Still stinging from his encounter with Kelvin, Lu responds by running ahead of Aaron. Aaron speeds up to try and keep pace with Lu, and steps on the back of Lu’s heel. Lu falls to the ground. Lu pushes Aaron, who pushes Lu right back. Coach intervenes and tells them they are not acting like co-captains. He tells Mikey and Patty that they are to be the captains for the rest of practice and tells Lu and Aaron to run another two laps at full speed.
After his punishment laps, Coach and Lu practice hurdles again. Coach reminds Lu to lead with his knee, and as Lu runs towards the first hurdle a gust of wind blows dust into Lu’s eyes. This forces Lu to take out his contacts and tell Coach that he cannot see without them. Coach leads Lu to the starting line and asks him what he can see, pointing to the finish line.
Coach instructs Lu to sprint down the lane, counting his steps while he goes, and to stop when Coach blows his whistle. Lu counts twelve steps to the first hurdle, and then Coach tells him that the time between the rest of the hurdles will be “the waltz” (100): Lu will count “one-two-three. And then… hurdle” (101). This method works the first time and Lu easily clears the first hurdle. He feels so amazing that he messes up the counting on the next hurdle, which sends him to the ground again. Lu practices again and again for the rest of practice, with some degree of success.
Ghost and Lu sit on the bench together after practice. Lu asks Ghost how he knows Kelvin, and Ghost explains that they only met today while they were both working in Mr. Charles’s shop. He also tells Lu that Kelvin has just moved to Glass Manor. Ghost asks Lu if he and Kelvin “had static” (106) and Lu, knowing that Ghost does not tolerate bullies and might try to fight Kelvin if Lu tells him the truth, assures Ghost that they are fine.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
Names continue to be an important symbol in these chapters, especially as Lu reveals the origins of his mantra and his contentious relationship with former classmate, Kelvin Jefferson. When Lu runs into Kelvin while delivering a fruit sculpture to Mr. Ringwald’s store, his reaction echoes Goose’s memories of name calling in childhood. All the names Kelvin used to call him come flooding back: “Yo, you look like a cotton ball dipped in white paint. Like milk [...] Like the moon if the moon had arms and legs. And ashy elbows [...] Yo, you look like something wrong with you” (71-72). The sheer number of insults that Lu recalls from his interactions with Kelvin shows how much Kelvin’s taunts shaped Lu’s sense of self.
The effect of seeing Kelvin lingers in Lu’s mind and rattles his confidence. He repeats his mantra. Earlier, Lu’s mantra is a way for him to bolster his confidence, an indication that he believes in himself and his abilities. After running into Kelvin, Lu’s mantra is a way to process and cope with negative feelings: a way to “calm myself down” (83). The interaction with Kelvin brings out Lu’s insecurities and makes him recall the ways he has changed himself to seem cooler, such as ditching his “magnifying glasses” (85) glasses in favor of contacts and wearing a series of gold chains around his neck from his father.
Lu’s confidence wavers when at practice he and his co-captain, Aaron, get into an argument about who should be setting the pace during warm up laps. Aaron, already unhappy to have anyone as his co-captain, points out Lu’s differences from others due to his need to wear sunscreen because “the sun would literally cook” (89) his skin. Aaron goes a step further and strikes a blow to Lu’s carefully crafted persona, referring to his gold chains: “I earned my spot as captain of this team. I worked for that position. I ain’t have to play dress up to get it.” (91). This pushes Lu over the edge and the ensuing scuffle lands them both in trouble with Coach. This scene shows that Lu’s confidence is only skin-deep, and that he adorns himself with gold chains and contact lenses to appear confident and cool, but he does not feel that way on the inside.
This section shows how a challenge can be turned into an advantage. When Lu gets dust in his eyes and needs to take out his contacts, Coach encourages him to try a new approach to the hurdles: “You don’t have to see the hurdle to know it’s there. You’ll feel it in your way. And sometimes timing is all you need to get over it” (101). The hurdles are a symbol of the larger challenges Lu faces related to his confidence and personal interactions, which are getting increasingly difficult to ignore.
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