Miss Brigham didn't know that Mr. O'Brien was in love with Kitty Johnson and that he told her of his love every time they met in advisory. He got mad at Kitty, too; they had fights. Kitty didn't always show up for their meetings. "Imagine," Kitty had told Edie, "imagine the intensest sex without sex, and that is my relationship with Mr. O'Brien." Wednesday advisory they sat together at a lunch table pressed against the wall and talked. Sometimes they talked for hours after school. Mr. O'Brien sometimes cried. He had a young wife and a baby in New Jersey.
"He is exhausting," Kitty said. "After all my applications are in, I'm going to put my life in order."
Miss Brigham did not know about Kitty Johnson and Mr. O'Brien. She was not a woman for romance; she liked emotional business kept at home. What would she have said to Mr. Rhinelander's Keep the change, Greta?
"Keep the copy of The Scarlet Letter" Miss Hodd said as much to any girl who seemed halfway interested in any book in her homeroom bookcase. "The school has more than enough copies, and you should read it." School was ongoing Christmas: something always to take home. Lost-and-found freebies could be had at the end of every term, and early birds to the table of clothes could sometimes find expensive labels. One year Marlene Kovack went home with a black Nicole Miller blouse — surely someone's mother's. There were fleeces and scarves and gloves and sweats, umbrellas and flip-flops and pencil cases, all unclaimed and free to student and teacher shoppers on the last day of school before the holidays. The rule was that if a student later recognized an item as being hers, she would have to think of it as still lost or else negotiate for its return.
Part of the experience of school was the daily reward: rewards of flattery and affection, signals of success, prizes, gold stars and smiley faces, exuberant marginalia on essays and tests—very smart, insightful, terrific, exactly, yes, yippee!!!!
Siddons
Alex had her camcorder on yearbook's lit editors and "guest editors" gassing in the lounge. Wallowing in their wit was how Suki put it. Why was Suki there? She stuck her face up close to the camera and said, "I am contributing."
One of the two Elizabeths, Elizabeth G., was telling her own significant teacher story. Fifth grade and for some reason she couldn't do her history homework. "So Miss Bell stapled my hair." That was good. Everyone agreed they should use that on the "Indelible Memories" page. Definitely. Worst academic experience? "Too many," Alex said, "they blur." Edie said, "The most grief I ever got out of an assignment in high school was definitely tenth grade's research paper. Having the most obscure topic imaginable, mathematical achievements in non-Western cultures during the Renaissance, made it worse."
"I didn't really like my topic either," Alex said, "but I got stuck with it. Calvin's Geneva. I couldn't figure out what my thesis should be."
"That's a problem," Kitty said.
A Daughter
Re: Dance Concert seniors
To: Katherine Johnson
cc: Ufia Abiola, Edwina Cohen, Alex Decrow,
Krystle Cruz, Suki Morton
Astra Dell isn't up to choreographing a dance.
Not really. We should be prepared to finish it
for her.
Any thoughts? Be realistic.
Lisa
Re: Dance Concert seniors
To: Katherine Johnson
I'm really, really sad that we didn't get around to
making a dance with Astra. She's too sick to ask
now. I feel awful, then I wonder what must Astra
feel?
Edie
P.S. Lisa dropped the ball.
Re: Dance Concert seniors
To: Lisa Van de Ven
cc: Ufia Abiola, Edwina Cohen, Alex Decrow,
Katherine Johnson, Suki Morton
Astra Dell is probably writing an amazing book
about life in the hospital bed with an IV and
pale clothes with tiny flowers on them.
xoxoxoxoxo
Krystle
Re: Dance Concert seniors
To: Lisa Van de Ven
cc: Edwina Cohen, Alex Decrow, Krystle Cruz,
Katherine Johnson, Suki Morton
Ladies,
I wish you would all stop being so ghoulish. Astra
is in a treatment that razes the disease, so of
course she looks like hell, but she is strong. She
has a strong heart and a will to live, and we should
celebrate that drive with a dance in her honor, one
of the dances in the program, the most joyous and
energetic dance. My dance might be appropriate.
Ufia
Lisa turned away from the computer and looked up at Miss Wilkes. They were in school, so it was Miss Wilkes.
"Ufia is so conceited, isn't she?" Lisa asked.
"Are you surprised I found you?"
"No." Lisa turned back to the computer screen.
"Why didn't you show up yesterday?"
"I told you." Lisa logged out and went on talking to the dark screen. "I forgot." She turned to Miss Wilkes. "Don't act like my mother."
"What I don't understand is, how could you forget when you made the date yourself?"
"How? I'm applying to college, that's how. I've got February deadlines. What's the big deal, anyway? I forget all the time. I know who you want me to be, but I'm a little screwed up."
"You're more than a little because it's not just yesterday, and you are the one who insists we meet. Wasn't that you last night in tears?"
And when the girl didn't respond, Miss Wilkes spoke again, in a gentler voice. "I know it's hard to be kind," she said, "but it wasn't hard to begin with." Miss Wilkes was speaking as Janet, as a woman in love, un-titled, unembellished, a woman with wide hips in peg-legged pants and some kind of scuffed-up loafers. This woman said, "I don't know. You tell me. We don't have to meet. "
"No," Lisa said, "I know. I'm sorry."
Miss Wilkes felt as if she were passing through curtains of feeling. "I'm in a bit of a swoon here, but if you don't want to see me anymore, and you're not in any of my classes next semester—" Miss Wilkes began, but Lisa interrupted.
"I don't."
Miss Wilkes stepped back just as Alex and Suki tussled through the door into the computer room. The girls stopped shouldering each other when they saw Miss Wilkes and Lisa alone at the other end of the room.
"Look," Lisa spoke impatiently, "could we not do this here?"
"Here's as good a place as any." Miss Wilkes stood between Lisa and the two girls, but her voice was growing louder. "We can talk here."
Lisa appraised her. Lisa stood up and hitched her book bag over her shoulder and said, "You just said we didn't…," but even before Lisa had finished, Miss Wilkes had begun to move away. Suki and Alex watched Miss Wilkes and Lisa, and when Miss Wilkes, in the doorway, dared to look back at them, Suki and Alex were still watching. They were smiling.
Suki and Alex
"Where's my camcorder when I need it?" Alex said. "Let's go after."
"I told you ages ago," Suki said. "I told you I saw them on York. They had to be coming from the hospital."