the way of Lainey and lipgloss, let alone Lainey and a boy.
"Hi, Ariel," Mr. Warwick, the teacher, said brightly. He'd been Hugh's friend for years, and had been over to our house for dinner countless times. He made a mean corn relish at our barbeques. "So you finally made it to my side of the hallway?"
"Looks that way," I said.
"Seating chart is on the blackboard. I believe you're right in the front."
I took a peek, and saw that he was correct. I pulled out my thick History textbook and opened it up again. My heart thudded a little as I noticed it was the same page I'd been eyeballing when Henry spoke to me earlier.
"Welcome to Honors American History," Mr. Warwick said once the bell rang. He stood up from his roost on the desk and shut the door. "We're going to learn things about the civil war you never thought possible. We may even get past it by the end of the year!"
I had heard lots of positive things about his goofy teaching style and laid back attitude. From everything I knew about Mr. Warwick, it rang true. Most students called him Wick. It felt too weird to me, so I always just called him the Mr. Warwick. Probably odd considering my use of my parents' first names. But everybody has quirks.
"For instance, the battle of Bunker Hill? Not fought at Bunker Hill. It was actually fought on Breed's Hill. Now when you go home and your parents ask you what you learned, tell them that. I'm sure they'll be impressed, and you don't have to pay attention for the rest of the day."
He winked while the class snickered. I had a feeling this would be one of my favorite subjects now. There was hominess about the room everywhere else in school lacked. Warwick felt like a family member, but not one of the ever-watchful ones I had at home.
Henry ended up being in my English class, too, though I tried not to register it. Because both classes were Honors classes, a lot of the same students were in both. English remained my most anticipated subject, since it had always been my favorite. Two bookcases crammed full of every book I had ever owned filled the corner on my room at home.
But I was soon disappointed.
The silver-haired teacher, Ms. Fellows, parked herself next to the antique overhead projector in the front of the room. A student shut off the lights. The blinds were already pulled down, and shadow descended over our desks. Ms. Fellows looked incredibly bored, like she was ready to go to sleep. She droned on about grammar, scribbling her speech down with dry erase markers and smearing it with the side of her hand.
I couldn't stay present in the dark. My mind drifted, and my thoughts came to rest where they often did, on the last night I saw Jenna. I'd turned over every word I remembered in my head a thousand times like an old coin, but I still felt like I was missing something. The exact phrase or moment that Jenna decided to leave for good, if that was truly the case, always escaped me. It didn't help that for starters she was furious that night, a ball of sizzling anger.
"What do you mean, you're going out?" I'd asked, sitting on my checkered bedspread.
The day had been warm, holding steady in the low eighties. But after the sun went to sleep, the temperature quickly started to drop. Still wearing shorts, her tanned legs were bare. Not clothes that she typically wore out after dark.
"The words have one meaning, Ariel. Not difficult to understand," she said impatiently, spitting out her words like they had thorns.
"It's after ten," I protested, my voice sounding pitifully like a whine. I never would have worried about looking immature in front of her before. But now it was all I could think about.
She wouldn't look at me. She stared at her own eyes in her reflection; putting her curly hair up in a ponytail and taking it back down. She had on her dress-to-impress makeup, a double layer of mascara and champagne-colored eyeshadow. I wondered if she was meeting up with a boy.
"What is happening to you?" I asked finally. I couldn't stop myself. "I feel like I don't even know you anymore."
She glared at me, and her blue eyes were icy. I had never seen her look at me with so much contempt. I wondered what horrible thing I'd