you,” she whispered.
“I know what I did was wrong, but you sank right to my level.”
“Actually, no, I didn’t,” she retorted, her mouth stiffening.
I furrowed my brow. “But you said…in your e-mail…you threatened me.”
“It was figurative , Eric,” she huffed. “I would never actually want anything bad to happen to you. I just wanted to kill you. You like, dumped me. After two years. With no warning. Over the phone . But I can’t believe you would think I’d frame you. Eric, I love you. That’s why I’m so angry about what you did to me. That you’d leave me for your crazy student council adviser.”
“Why do you keep calling her crazy?”
“Miss Rogers? Um, because she is? She’s basically the most unstable person at the school. I mean, she has amazing hair and an amazing yoga body, sure, but she also has amazing mood swings. While I haven’t had the pleasure of her company recently, I did have her last year, when she cried in the middle of class because someone gave away the ending to Toy Story 2 . Also, last December, she dressed like an elf every single day . Oh, and how could I forget the time she asked everyone what their spirit animal was—and then imitated the sound that animal makes! No wonder she can’t find someone her own age, so she dates a teenager instead. I’m sorry. You’re great, but…” She drifted off and laughed softly to herself, wiping her eyes. “And incidentally, I’ve been in Jamaica with my sister since last Wednesday. I just got back.” She held out her unusually tan arm, which was covered in peeling, flaky skin. “See?”
“Antonia, I’m sorry that I ever suspected you. And for whatever I said or didn’t say. I know I can, um, yell sometimes when I get excited.”
Antonia smiled. “Eric, you’ve never yelled in your entire life. You’re very loving.”
“Well then, for all the rest of it. For ending things. I don’t know why I…”
But Antonia had already started to cry again. “It doesn’t matter.”
It doesn’t matter ,whispered a woman’s voice in my head.
Well, it matters to me! I don’t trust cheese that comes from a box , called another voice. A familiar voice that I somehow identified as my own, even though I technically had no idea what my real voice sounded like.
I flashed on a woman with dark hair to her shoulders, bangs, and freckles, with a beautiful face—not young anymore, but not old. A mother, aging gracefully.
You’re a food snot! she said, laughing. She was waving a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese in my face, trying to shove the box in my mouth. Eat it! she laughed. The big, bad cheese packet is going to get you!
I could hear myself collapsing into laughter, waving my hands maniacally in front of my face, trying to shoo her away.
Mom! I was screaming.
Then the memory dissolved into nothing.
I heard Antonia calling Eric’s name, followed by a pounding at the door. People were trying to get in and Antonia was telling them to go away. But I couldn’t think of anything else except what Will had said. I would be awarded memories when I had accomplished something. But I hadn’t accomplished anything since I’d arrived. I’d chased after phantoms and run down dead ends. I’d even ended up locked in the girls’ bathroom.
I brushed past Antonia, threw open the lock and rushed down the hallway, wracking my brain for a solution. If it wasn’t Richard, and it wasn’t Antonia, who was it? I knew it had to be a member of the faculty, and the only other member of the faculty I knew about was…Miss Rogers.
Had Miss Rogers taken Eric’s keyboard and switched it with the one in the principal’s office? Was this her way of being romantic, of making Eric have to leave the school so the two of them could be together out in the open?
Didn’t she know that Eric would be headed to jail instead? That wasn’t very romantic at all. Unless Miss Rogers was like one of those lonely women from the Midwest who marries
“I know what I did was wrong, but you sank right to my level.”
“Actually, no, I didn’t,” she retorted, her mouth stiffening.
I furrowed my brow. “But you said…in your e-mail…you threatened me.”
“It was figurative , Eric,” she huffed. “I would never actually want anything bad to happen to you. I just wanted to kill you. You like, dumped me. After two years. With no warning. Over the phone . But I can’t believe you would think I’d frame you. Eric, I love you. That’s why I’m so angry about what you did to me. That you’d leave me for your crazy student council adviser.”
“Why do you keep calling her crazy?”
“Miss Rogers? Um, because she is? She’s basically the most unstable person at the school. I mean, she has amazing hair and an amazing yoga body, sure, but she also has amazing mood swings. While I haven’t had the pleasure of her company recently, I did have her last year, when she cried in the middle of class because someone gave away the ending to Toy Story 2 . Also, last December, she dressed like an elf every single day . Oh, and how could I forget the time she asked everyone what their spirit animal was—and then imitated the sound that animal makes! No wonder she can’t find someone her own age, so she dates a teenager instead. I’m sorry. You’re great, but…” She drifted off and laughed softly to herself, wiping her eyes. “And incidentally, I’ve been in Jamaica with my sister since last Wednesday. I just got back.” She held out her unusually tan arm, which was covered in peeling, flaky skin. “See?”
“Antonia, I’m sorry that I ever suspected you. And for whatever I said or didn’t say. I know I can, um, yell sometimes when I get excited.”
Antonia smiled. “Eric, you’ve never yelled in your entire life. You’re very loving.”
“Well then, for all the rest of it. For ending things. I don’t know why I…”
But Antonia had already started to cry again. “It doesn’t matter.”
It doesn’t matter ,whispered a woman’s voice in my head.
Well, it matters to me! I don’t trust cheese that comes from a box , called another voice. A familiar voice that I somehow identified as my own, even though I technically had no idea what my real voice sounded like.
I flashed on a woman with dark hair to her shoulders, bangs, and freckles, with a beautiful face—not young anymore, but not old. A mother, aging gracefully.
You’re a food snot! she said, laughing. She was waving a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese in my face, trying to shove the box in my mouth. Eat it! she laughed. The big, bad cheese packet is going to get you!
I could hear myself collapsing into laughter, waving my hands maniacally in front of my face, trying to shoo her away.
Mom! I was screaming.
Then the memory dissolved into nothing.
I heard Antonia calling Eric’s name, followed by a pounding at the door. People were trying to get in and Antonia was telling them to go away. But I couldn’t think of anything else except what Will had said. I would be awarded memories when I had accomplished something. But I hadn’t accomplished anything since I’d arrived. I’d chased after phantoms and run down dead ends. I’d even ended up locked in the girls’ bathroom.
I brushed past Antonia, threw open the lock and rushed down the hallway, wracking my brain for a solution. If it wasn’t Richard, and it wasn’t Antonia, who was it? I knew it had to be a member of the faculty, and the only other member of the faculty I knew about was…Miss Rogers.
Had Miss Rogers taken Eric’s keyboard and switched it with the one in the principal’s office? Was this her way of being romantic, of making Eric have to leave the school so the two of them could be together out in the open?
Didn’t she know that Eric would be headed to jail instead? That wasn’t very romantic at all. Unless Miss Rogers was like one of those lonely women from the Midwest who marries
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