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"She never mentioned you," he says

"We were friends," I repeat He searches my face for the lie I sweat it out until he concedes and says, "Maybe" The bell rings

"Can I sit here with you to to ask pere Table, and when he doesn’t answer ency that makes me sound totally pathetic "Michael, can I sit here with you tooes dry You can’t The cafeteria is e for the last of us to leave, but I can’t leave without this one thing and he knows it "Regina, I don’t care where you sit"

He grabs his things, gets up, andat the table until Nelson blows her whistle and tells et out there"

BITCH

Kara drops the note on my desk on her way to the board to do a few math problems for Mr Brenner, and her wrist action is so subtle, he doesn’t even see it and he’s looking right at her And that has everything to do with how short her skirt is

I crush the note into a neat little ball

"Well done," Brenner says, as Kara chalks down the answers to the last probles like the skeeve he is Bruce waves his hand around

"Excuse ot the last one wrong"

The silence is delicious Kara reddens and Brenner blinks, totally caught

"Maybe you got it wrong, Burton," he suggests, and waits for the rest of the class to laugh, like, Yeah, maybe We don’t

"I doubt it, sir," Bruce says

That’s e laugh Brenner tells us to be quiet, and we review the proble, so Brenner has to backtrack He starts babbling about the "mathematical journey" and how the steps you take are sometimes more important than the destination, until he loses his ridiculous train of thought and sends Kara back to her seat

I stare at the cruh, I wind my arm back and whip it at her forehead She shrieks and Brenner totally sees it, so it’s detention forreturns in the library after school

There’s no such thing as justice

I’ a copy of Flowers in the Attic between two

copies of Persuasion when Liz Cooper and Charie Andrews coet worse I back into the narrow shelves until I’ low, and end up in the stacks directly behind me Charie is a total no one, but Liz is this faded-out yellow-haired girl-ghost I’ve gone to elaborate lengths to avoid because being around her makes my stomach ache I reach intoit in hopes that willabout et as close to the books as I can and hope they don’t see h the shelves I don’t even knohy I’ I want to hear

"Donnie didn’t even show today," Charie is saying

"He’s probably out getting wasted," Liz replies, and she’s probably right For Donnie, sobriety is a fate worse than his inevitable death fro for somewhere to sit at lunch? It was totally hilarious I kept hoping she’d come over and ask if she could sit with you"

"Why?"

"So you could tell her no" Charie laughs because it’s totally hilarious Liz doesn’t laugh, but I almost wish she would It’s always easier when the people you’ve ruined decide to really hate you--like Michael does–because then your defenses go up and you can’t even really feel the bad things you’ve done "She sat with Michael," Liz says

"He’s too nice" Charie’s voice is all disappointht up with him in history and asked him if she was really upset, but he said she seeets kicked out of her clique and they all hate her and Josh dumped her–" I jerk back I don’t re her wrists soon enough"

I s I s again I don’t knohat feels worse: Josh breaking up withabout entle admonition of it--"Charie, don’t"

"Hey, it could happen," Charie says "Anyway, I’ve got to catch Paul See you"

"See you"