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Show Inside Out, 66 And here is the only thing I found out after my day of spying: Terra Gates didn't talk. Most of her miserable friends talked and goofed off-but not Terra. She was always there, and seemed to be part of the group, but she was never talking. I could be wrong. She could have just been constantly doing that sort of sub-vocal sneering that I had experienced in English class. It would probably be hard to see her lips move if she was doing that. But it really looked like she wasn't talking much. It was hard to know whether I had just caught her on a day when she didn't have much to say, or whether that's how things always were with her group. But I kinda hoped that what I had seen was how things really were-that she was silent in that crowd because she somehow didn't fit in with them. Maybe she didn't like being like that. Or maybe they weren't accepting her very well. Either way, it made things seem easier for me. Like if she was a loner, she might be more interested in having a new friend. What was I thinking? Was I actually considering helping Joseph? Even though I knew it was utterly crazy? I couldn't go to the library after school. Leslie needed me to babysit Paul while she went to the dentist. "I guess," I said. I didn't say, "Well, why didn't you go to the dentist while Paul was at school?" But I slammed my backpack on the couch and I think she got the gist. "I'm sorry, Andli," she said. "I really tried to get in earlier, but they couldn't see me until now. And I've got to get this crown fixed." She pulled her teeth back into a grimace and I saw a hole with a little stump where she used to have a tooth. She looked like a hillbilly, which made me want to laugh. But I didn't. |
