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The twisted lips parted "Maybe now you’ll pay attention todown the hall As I flew past one classroom door, it opened

"Chloe?" A

"Talk tocloser "Do you kno long I’ve been trapped here?"

I flew through the doors into the stairwell and headed up

Up? All the stupid heroines go up!

I veered across the landing and hit the next set of stairs

The custodian li, h the doors and raced along the main hall

"Listen to me, you selfish brat All I want is five minutes--"

I swerved into the nearest empty classroom and slammed the door As I backed into the center of the rooh it That awful ain

"Is that better? Noill you stop screa and talk to--"

I darted to theand started looking for a way to open it, then sa far down it was At least thirty feet… onto pavement

"Chloe!"

The door flew open It was the vice principal, Ms Waugh, with my math teacher, Mr Travis, and athe two men

"Chloe?" she said, voice low "Honey, you need to step away frolanced back toward the

Mr Travis shot past Ms Waugh and tackled s Scra off, he accidentally kneed

I openedover et up, but Mr Travis and the h babbled into a cell phone

The custodian leaned through Mr Travis "Noill you talk toat the custodian, trying to pull away frouely heard Ms Waugh calling that help was on the way The custodian pushed his face into ed to that horribleeye, alue so I wouldn’t screaht, the harder the teachers restrained h ht there Please Please, please, please Get him away from me Get hile, to argue, but they held me still as the burned h the door One helped the teachers restrain htened on h my veins

The roo in and out

"No!" he yelled "I need to speak to her Don’t you understand? She can hear me I only want to…"

His voice faded as the paralike an elephant I’d rode one once, with my mom, at the zoo, and hter--

The custodian’s howl of rage sliced throughThe elephant swaying Mo…

Four

I SAT ON THE EDGE of my hospital bed and tried to persuade myself I was still asleep That was the best explanation for what I was hearing I could also chalk it up to delusional, but I preferred dreapast in the corridor She followed laze of tears, I watched her and pictured Mo inside me cru for my mother

I rubbedat my dry skin The roohten Aunt Lauren handed lass The water had a roup home," I said The walls seee, absorbing the only dead air

"Oh God, Chloe" She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her nose "Do you kno ? And somehow, this seems harder"

She shifted to face e This is the only e’re going to get you there, hon"

"Is it Dad?"

She paused, and I knew she’d like to blame him She’d wanted to raise me after my mom passed away, spare me a life of housekeepers and eiven iven hiht my mother died It didn’t matter that they’d been sideswiped in a hit-​and-​run--he’d been driving, so she held him responsible

"No," she said finally "It’s the school Unless you spend teeks undergoing evaluation in a group hoo on my record?"

Her fist clenched around the tissue "It’s that da--" She caught herself "It’s the zero-​tolerance policy" She spit the words with more venom than the curse

"Zero tolerance? You mean violence? B-​b-​but I didn’t--"

"I know you didn’t But to theled with a teacher You need help" In a hoht The second timy eyes open, he reached over and aardly patted ht," he ht"

I fell back to sleep

My father was still there the nextHis eyes were bleary, the wrinkles around his ht, flying back from Berlin

I don’t think Dad ever wanted kids But he’d never tell er Whatever Aunt Lauren thinks of him, he does his best He just doesn’t seem to knohat to make of me I’m like a puppy left to hiht by it even if he isn’t ed your hair," he said as I sat up

I braced h the school halls after dying your hair in the girls’ bathrooet past the screa what?" Coloring your hair in a school bathrooht red streaks? While skipping class? It screams mental breakdown

"Do you like it?" my father asked after a moment