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The man—the teacher—tilts his head to the side like I’ve said the du “And where else are you supposed to be on test day?”
“I…I don’t know”
“Sit down,” he says I don’t knohere I’d go if I left I turn around to go back The girl with the glasses glances up at me as I pass her She looks away almost as quickly
As soon as I’ out papers He walks between desks, his voice a flat drone as he tells us what percentage of our final grade the test will be When he reaches my desk he pauses, a deep crease between his eyebrows “I don’t knohat you’re trying to pull” He presses the tip of a fat pointer finger on my desk
“Whatever it is, I’ you to the principal’s office” He slaps the test down in front of me and moves down the line
I don’t nod, I don’t do anything I’ to decide what to do Announce to the whole room that I have no idea who and where I am—or pull him aside and tell him quietly He said no more stunts My eyes move to the paper in front of me People are already bent over their tests, pencils scratching
FOURTH PERIOD
HISTORY
MR DULCOTT
There is a space for a name I’m supposed to write my name, but I don’t knohat my name is Miss Wynwood, he called me
Why don’t I recognize my own name?
Or where I am?
Or what I am?
Every head is bent over their papers except lares at er I sit, the redder his face becomes
Time passes and yet my world has stopped Eventually, Mr Dulcott stands up, his s “Put your papers on my desk on the way out,” he says, his eyes still onout of the door I stand up and follow them because I don’t knohat else to do I keep e I don’t understand why he’s so angry with me I am in a hallway now, lined on either side by blue lockers
“Charlie!” someone calls “Charlie, wait up!” A second later, an arlasses; I don’t knohy It’s not But, I kno that I a,” she says, handing over a white backpack I take it fro if there’s a wallet with a driver’s license inside She keeps her arh , dark hair and dewy brown eyes that take up half her face She is startling and beautiful
“Why were you acting so weird in there?” she asks “You knocked the shrimp’s books on the floor and then spaced out”
I can smell her perfume; it’s fa for attention I think of the girl with the glasses, the look on her face as she bent to scoop up her books If I did that, why don’t I remember?
“I-”
“It’s lunch, why are you walking that way?” She pulls me down a different corridor, past lances I wonder if they know me, and why I don’t know rab someone random and tell them that I don’t knoho or where I a the idea, we’re through a set of double doors in the cafeteria Noise and color; bodies that all have a unique sly Oh, God I clutch at my shirt
The girl onAndrew this, Marcy that She likes Andrew and hates Marcy I don’t knoho either of theet salad and Diet Cokes Then we are sliding our trays on a table There are already people sitting there: four boys, two girls I realize we are coirls are uy Everyone looks up at , do souy with dark hair I sit slowly, both hands flat on the table His eyes dart toward me and then he bends over his tray of food I can see the finest beads of sweat on his forehead, just below his hairline