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His words hit o I was the one who found them They both died of heart attacks At the same time In the woods Just like Benjamin"

I could feel his eyes on me as I turned away fro time Finally he said stiffly, "I can’t help you"

"Does that ht," he said, al me "Maybe it wasn’t a heart attack Maybe it was an attack of the heart"

It took me until Saturday to tell Eleanor about my suspicions about the connection between Benja it

"You’re losing it," she said, looking at me in the mirror while she did her hair It was the start of the weekend and she was helping the Humanities department hold auditions for the school play

I didn’t respond

"And aren’t those the sas anyway? A heart attack and an attack of the heart?"

"Who knows He was justThe bell rang And then he was gone"

"Maybe he’s losing it" She pinned her hair back with a clip "See, you’re perfect for each other"

I rolledthan actually answertoo o"

Eleanor would be busy all day, so we agreed tohall

"I would say you should try out," she said, "but only boys are allowed to act in plays School policy"

I frowned "Why?"

"Apparently Shakespeare did it"

"Isn’t that illegal or so

Eleanor shrugged "It’s a private school They can do whatever they want"

I norh this one didn’t seem much worse than Gottfried’s other rules But I was relieved to finally have tiht I had so much homework that I spent virtually the entire day inonly for dinner But Eleanor never showed up I waited outside the Megaron, drawing circles in the dirt with ave up and went inside byalone in a corner, surrounded by papers and glasses of milk He was even ether we ate a quick ot to my room, Eleanor still wasn’t there Maybe she ith the production crew Alone at my desk, I didn’t knohat to do with myself I tried to write my philosophy essay, but as I stared at the words I had written on the page, the letters blurred, rearranging themselves into shadowy silhouettes of my parents And when I was able to push them out of my mind, they were only replaced with Annie, Dante, and a perturbing alanced at the clock on the wall It seemed that every time I looked at it, another hour had passed and I still hadn’t gotten anything done I needed to clear one, I didn’t have anyone to talk to I could go next door and see if her friends were there, but the only thing we seeain If it was eight o’clock here, then it would be five o’clock in California I picked up the phone and called Annie, but no one answered Sla the phone down into the receiver harder than I had intended, I paced around the room It was messy and cluttered with clothes I picked the until I found et a sweater out of my suitcase Dust bunnies were everywhere, and thin wisps of spiderwebs fluttered down from the bed frame Yet as I reached forsoft I pulled it back to find a collection of dead asped and shookit on the carpet until the et out of this roo and slipped out the door