"So? She ain't here. She's never here, and you said she was in a hospital anyway,"
"Great-aunt Frances doesn't want anyone to use it."
"That's stupid. I already did anyway," she said and marched into the bedroom to finish dressing, "We just won't tell her. Don't worry. I'll keep it clean." she said as she dressed. "Here, put this on," she told me and tossed me her hat.
"But this is yours."
"Just take it. Don't worry about it. I think you'll look cute in it," she said.
I put it on slowly and looked at myself in the mirror. "See?" she said. "I was right."
I did like how it looked on me.
"I'm not wearing it in school." I warned.
She laughed. "That's okay. Just don't lose it, C'mon. Let's get some breakfast. I'm hung this morning."
Afterward, when we stepped onto the bus, we found Stuart sitting in front next to another boy. He glanced quickly at us and looked away.
"Hi, Stuart," Alanis said anyway. "Did you get excited this morning? Rile up your tadpoles?"
He wouldn't answer or look at us. Alanis laughed, and the bus driver told us to get seated. As we continued. Stuart stole a glance at me. and I felt sorry for him. When we arrived at school, he got off the bus quickly and disappeared in the crowd of other students getting off other buses.
"Chances are Stuart will not join us for lunch today," Alanis said.
I took off her hat as we entered the building. She didn't want it back. She told me to hold on to it until lunch.
"They don't mind you wearing a hat in the cafeteria,," she said. "I'd like other boys to think about you, and you look cute in it, cuter than I do," she said.
Mrs. Morgan collected our homework this time as soon as we started the school day. We were given another assignment to read in history and made to write out answers to questions while she reviewed our work. When she passed our papers back. I saw she had given me a very low mark.
"Did someone help you with your homework the first night?" she asked, "Is that why it was so much better than this?"
"No, Mrs. Morgan. I did it all myself both times,"
"Humph," she said and moved on. I could see from the smiles on the faces of some of the other girls in the class that they were happy I hadn't done well. None of them had said anything nice to me yet even after they had read my autobiography. Meanness seemed to be in the air we all breathed.
Alanis was right about Stuart. He sat with some of his friends across the cafeteria. When Nikki and Raspberry asked about him. Alanis told them he had snuck aver to my great-aunt's house for dinner. She then told them she had moved in to live with me. They didn't believe her until I told them it was true,
"I was wondering why you gave her your hat," Nikki said. "I thought you were born with it on and it was attached to your
"I didn't have to pay her to move in." Alanis snapped at her. "I don't have to buy friends. She asked me to, and so did her great-aunt, but she looks pretty good in it, doesn't she?"
Nikki nodded reluctantly.
"So why isn't Stuart sitting with us?" Raspberry pursued.
Alanis looked at me, smiled, then told them abo
ut my book and what she had tried to do. They sat glued to her every word, only she made it sound as if Stuart wanted to be with her and not with me.
"As you know, I wouldn't waste my time with a boy that inexperienced." she told them.
"I'd like to see that book." Raspberry said. "Soon."
"Why don't we all meet in the basement tonight?"
"We can't. We can't ever go back to the basement," Alanis told them.