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“So aht of it My insides feel like they’re filled with broken glass

“I mean it” She folds the letter and hands it back to les “Here I a rejected by The New School That’s got to suck”

“Sort of”

“Looks like we’re both going to be hanging around here for a while,” she says, putting her aro to Brown, it’s only forty-five minutes away We’ll still see each other all the time”

She pulls open the door to the pool, enveloping us in a che her not to tell anyone about the rejection But that will onlydeal, Lali will forget about it

Sure enough, she flings her towel into the bleachers and runs across the tiles “Last one in is a rotten egg,” she shouts, doing a cannonball into the water

CHAPTER FOUR

The Big Love

I return home to bedlam

A puny kid with a punk haircut is running across the yard, followed by my father, who is followed by my sister Dorrit, who is followed by my other sister Missy “Don’t ever let ain!” es to jump on his bike and pedal away

“What the hell?” I ask Missy

“Poor Dad”

“Poor Dorrit,” I say, shifting my books As if in mockery of my situation, the letter froh I pick it up, e, and throw it away

I immediately feel lost without it and fish it out of the trash

“Did you see that?”off the property” He points to Dorrit “You—get back in the house And don’t even think about calling him”