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Show 114 TWENTY By Friday morning Dyna felt somewhat easier about facing Parker. Jouncing along on the city bus, she decided she had to let him know how sorry she was for breaking into his house and how miserable she'd felt ever since. She had to thank him, too, which was a tough assignment in itself. To make things worse, she suspected Parker dreaded seeing her as much as she dreaded confronting him. For awhile Thursday morning, Dyna had considered cutting first period herself. How could she look Parker in the eye after what she'd done? How could she go to class and sit there, right in front of him, acting as if nothing had happened? It took a first-class shouting match with her conscience to propel her toward 112 when the bell rang. Immediately, then, she'd busied herself in Lisa's corner of the room, sorting through the art work and the poems they were coordinating for the literary magazine. To her immense relief, Parker never did show up. She spent the rest of the day wondering why. At 7:35 Friday morning, however, Dyna bore down on school grim-set to do what was necessary, but she wasn't prepared to see Parker as soon as she walked in the main entrance. "Horsefeathers!" she said under her breath. There he was, leaning against the trophy case, waiting for her. Dyna stopped, but he'd already seen her. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets, looked around as though there might be a way out of this yet, then walked slowly to where she stood. "How you doing?" he asked softly. "Okay." Her voice was minuscule. There was a long moment in which they simply stood and looked at one another, oblivious to the students moving around them. Shifting his weight uneasily, Parker started the conversation. "Is your grandmother home yet?" "She's coming tonight. Oscar's bringing her in a cab. The mums are coming over and we're all going to celebrate." Parker nodded, looking past her to the mountain range framed by the double doors. They began walking along the hall, neither of them saying anything. |