Radiant - By Christina Daley Page 0,7

could hire one of those home care people so that she wouldn't have to be at the retirement home all the time."

"Perhaps," Mom said. "But you're forgetting about something important in all of that."

"What?" Mary asked.

"Your future," Mom said. "Your school is one of a handful in the whole state where a hundred percent of the graduates go to college."

"I know," Mary said. "But lots of people who go to public school go to college, too."

Mom chuckled. "Yes, but most of them don't get into the colleges that you will be able to. Remember, Ba went to Agape because she wanted to. She has friends there and she sees us regularly. And she knows that by doing things this way, you'll have a better shot at being successful."

Mary poked at her cereal. "You're successful."

Mom smirked. "Only after I did things the hard way. I'm sorry, Sweetie. I wish you could do your art project."

Mary shook her head. "It's all right. I understand." She got up from the kitchen table and hung her bag on her opposite shoulder. Her bruised side was still not ready to bear the burden of her schoolwork. "I need to go to the library after school. But I'll see you tonight."

"Don't be late. It's bánh cuốn with Ba tonight," Mom said.

She kissed her mother. "I'll be there. Love-you-buh-bye."

"Love-you-buh-bye," Mom said.

Mary headed out. On the first floor, Bruce was fixing a cracked tile.

"Hi Bruce," she said.

"Hm," he mumbled.

And that was the extent of their conversations, except when he yelled at her for running down the stairs. Sometimes Mary thought about talking back to him, but Mom told her not to. Otherwise, their maintenance requests would definitely be ignored.

Mary paid unusual attention to the things around her today. The convenience store on the corner. The newsstand near the bus stop. The fire hydrant with chipped paint, showing the years of dog piss it had endured. The bus noises were sharp again. At school, people in the halls said hi and asked how she was. She answered truthfully, "Fine," but never went into details. Mary didn't normally talk much to anyone at school.

She stopped by the girls' restroom before heading to Pre-Calculus. After finishing at the toilet, she set her books by the sinks and began washing her hands. She glanced up at the mirror.

A boy was standing behind her. It was Carter.

Mary gasped and spun around. Her heart raced as she scanned the room quickly, but she only saw the plain tiled walls and the puke-green stall doors. For a school that cost an arm and a spleen to go to, you'd think it could afford to change those doors out.

Mary went to each stall, pushing the doors open. But no one was there. She returned to her bag and pulled out the bottle of painkillers. Dizziness and anxiousness numbered among the side effects, but not hallucinations. Had she just imagined seeing him?

The water in the sink was still running. Mary shut it off and looked in the mirror again. Only her reflection stared back at her.

Suddenly, she remembered the movie on TV a couple days ago, where the dead kid's ghost tracked down and killed the ones who tried to cover up his death. "He died," she said to herself. "He died, and now he's haunting me."

Brrriiiiinnnnggggg!

Mary jumped at the sound of the bell. She looked at the painkillers in her hand. The word "anxiousness" stood out on the label.

"That's stupid. I'm just imagining things." She shoved the pills back into her bag and headed to class.

When she got there, she sat next to Sienna. Sienna was one of only two people Mary spoke to beyond the obligatory niceties. Part of it was because Sienna was also mixed—her dad was Brazilian and her mom's family was Persian. In a prep school where non-Caucasian kids made up less than a quarter of the student body, mixed kids were an anomaly. But it was also because Mary took Art with Sienna and her boyfriend, David, and they had always sat together.

"You're here!" Sienna said cheerfully. "How are you doing?"

"Ok, thanks," Mary said.

"I was sick the day of the accident," Sienna said. "I heard about it from David. It must've been crazy."

Mary took her books out of her bag. "Yeah, it was." She didn't elaborate.

Sienna watched Mary quietly for a moment as she finished getting her stuff settled. "So, have you seen Carter?"

"Once in the hospital," Mary said.

"How about today?" Sienna asked.

Mary shook her head. "I haven't been back to