Extra Credit

When Abby gets home from school, she gets her outdoor bag and heads into the woods on her family’s 67-acre farm. Since her older brother spends more time in the barn with the livestock, Abby has claimed the woods and knows them very well. She has recently begun working on a rough treehouse on top of an oak which had fallen over. Abby has a passion for survivalism and loves to practice archery; she keeps her bow and arrow close to her treehouse. By the time she arrives at her treehouse her dad calls her on her phone, and scolds her for being outside instead of doing her homework. Her dad insists that she gets to work, and reveals that her pen pal’s reply had arrived that morning. Abby hurries inside to open her letter.

Abby carefully opens her letter and reads Sadeed’s edited version of Amira’s reply to her. In it, Sadeed—who is pretending to be Amira—describes his mountainous village. He explains that he is “strong” and a “fine student” and loves to fly kites (75). He asks Amira why she climbs rock walls and if she owns many books. He reveals that his village used to be more dangerous, but that there had not been much violence over the last year.