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"Have you ever been felt up by a pelican?" Sawyer growled in al in Florida"
"Hain Technically this was grounds for suspension School hours weren’t officially over yet, and ere on ca and parked behind the gym, at the very end of the floats and bands and horses and antique cars lined up for the parade We were the pièce de résistance Nobody atching us steal thissenior maid, climbed up onto her own throne and called, "Principal Chen! Sawyer and Kaye are having sex on the hoet any privacy in this parking lot?" Sawyer co aroundbird foot up on the opposite knee like he was sitting around a bonfire at the beach with his girl
Just after school let out, the parade began to crawl through town--out of the school parking lot, down the avenue shaded with live oaks--to ree turn-on-a-dime into the historic don The entire route was lined four people deep I gave them a Queen Elizabeth wave Some of them pointed at my hair Everyone smiled
Everyone, that is, except my mother I still hadn’t told her orqueen It was too much to ask that she wouldn’t find out She stood on a corner in front of headquarters for her bank, surrounded by her best eined her calculating howif tito re queen, for God’s sake People ht have voted for et revenge on me because they didn’t likewith al-up job on student council Ho queen was an accomplishment few people could ever claim Each time I came to this realization, I seized the moment like one of Harper’s snapshots Not lih the trees and six feet off the road, or look up and be able to touch the traffic lights framed with palh town gaveWe definitely weren’t talking He frequently juh-five little kids, then pretended he was scraerated run But there were also long interludes when he sat next tomy personal space, his arm around me
Even after I locatedSawyer I could say later that it was all part of his act In truth, he gave otten when he treated irlfriend while he was in costuue or break up or even co us apart, but the pelican would always love me
When the parade was over, I drove ho it up, then flopped onto h I needed to get up and start the long process of reconstructing my hair
But as soon as I lay down, my mind raced The student council’s responsibilities in the parade had gone off without a hitch Boxes checked: tick, tick, tick Everything was set up for the dance tonight to go saated all the last-minute preparations to parents and teachers Tick, tick, tick I was about to suffer the indignity of being kept away from my boyfriend at the dance I’d personally constructed, but at least I would get to see hi, deep breaths throughdown I was a I didn’t
I was really looking forward to consulting with Ms Malone on Monday
My mother breezed into my room I didn’t need to open my eyes to knoas there She was the parent who didn’t knock She paused at the foot oflike nothing rong "You’re not going to wear your hair like that to the game and the dance, are you? You’ve already squashed it Let ly I slipped on my top and skirt I sat down in my bathroom while she worked my hair into twists, then pulled the how my hair had looked before The feel of her hands in my hair was familiar, the motion of her arms in the mirror identical to a thousand repeats from my childhood The difference e didn’t speak
A knock sounded on my bedroom door "Come in,"in the fa hair, and our uneasy silence Without a word, he left again
Our football tea with their guaranteed wins, except that ays seeet in trouble and coed to get hurt This ti teaot sacked so hard that he flew several feet through the air before landing on his back with a two-hundred-pounder on top of him