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I told her all aboutto so y tests with ithy study sessions are paying off) but also sending them my old cheured she’d get a good laugh about this, but instead her voice had stayed flat, and she’d warned ht--as if I didn’t already know that Then I’d switched gears, telling her all about Professor Glenny and Dee and reading out loud and how ht it would be to read in front of the class but how everyone does it and it isn’t so bad I’d expected her to be excited for me, but her voice had been practically ry We haven’t talked or emailed in a couple of weeks, and I’m both upset about it and relieved too

I’d kind of like to tell Dee about this, but I’m not sure how to do it Aside from Melanie, I’ve never had a really close friend, and I’m unclear how you make one It’s silly, I know I’ve seen other people do it They make it seem so easy: Have fun, open up, share stories But how am I supposed to do that when the one story I really want to tell is the very one I’ clean? And besides, the last time I did open up to somebodywell, that’s precisely why I’m in need of a tabula rasa in the first place It just seems safer to keep it like it is--friendly, cordial, nice and simple

At the end of February, my parents come up for Presidents’ Weekend It’s the first ti learned e they expect of es in my unused chemistry textbook and copy labs out of my old lab partners’ book I make us lots of plans in Boston to keep us off ca evidence and the Terrific Trio (who now have become more of a Dynamic Duo anyway because Kendra’s alith her boyfriend) And I tell Dee, hom I now study on weekends soether Friday and Monday

"You throwing me over for Drew?" Drew is the second best Shakespeare reader in the class

"No Of course not," I reply, my voice all pinched and panicked "It’s just I have one of those trips with my ceramics class Friday" This isn’t entirely untrue My cerao on field trips occasionally We’re experianicour pottery outside in earthen furnaces we build I do have field trips, just not in the next couple of days

"And I’ll probably work on a paper this weekend" Another lie; the only class I have papers for is Shakespeare It’s a I’ve beco the cookies"

"Tell your grandma to send some more of those twisty ones with the poppy seeds"

"Rugelach"

"I can’t say it I just eat it"

"I’ll tell her"

The weekend with o to the Museu (I can’t keep o to the movies We take tons of pictures There’s an aardand starts going over class schedules with me and then asks estions like I always have and don’t say anything By the end of the weekend, I feel drained in the sa Shakespeare aloud and trying to be all those different people

On Sunday afternoon, we’re back at h I haven’t told hi about , let alone what they believe about me, what they expect of me, he still shows up in a pair of plain jeans and a sweater, so I’ve never seen him wear before His hair is pulled back into a cap and he’s not wearing lip gloss I alnize him

"So, how do you two know each other?" Mom asks after I nervously introduce them

I freeze, in a panic

"We’re biology lab partners," Dee says, not ether" It’s the first time I’ve ever heard hi all kinds of genetic abnorhs "They had us do the same experiment when I went here too" He looks at Dee "Are you pre-htest ripple of surprise "I’m still undeclared"

"Well, there’s no rush," Moh out loud

Dad turns to puts the tube back next to a cylinder of pottery I forgot to hide away "What’s this?"

"Oh, Iup the piece And then he starts explaining how he’s taking a pottery class, and this year’s class is experiin an earthen kiln fueled by cow patties

"Cow patties?" Mom asks "As infeces?"

Dee nods "Yes, ent to local farms and asked if we could collect their cow rass-fed cows"

And it hitsanother voice, but this ti is me I had told hi thehed his head off at the thought of all us rich kids at our forty-thousand-dollar-a-year school paying for a class in which ent to farms and picked up after cows I’ve told Dee uess I realized And he listened He paid attention, absorbed a bit of," my mother tells him

The next day, my parents leave, and on Wednesday, our Shakespeare class starts on Twelfth Night Dee has checked out two different versions from the media center for us to watch He feels that as penance for not doing our hoe version as I fire upthese," I say "I would have done it"