Chapter Twenty-Two
Felicity
Wednesday, October 18
As soon as the bell rang, Felicity, Rogan, and Cole exited the cafeteria, walked to the library, stopped, turned around, and headed for the classroom. When they got there, Mrs. Herrera was pacing at the front of the room, arms crossed, looking anxious. For the first time ever, she didn’t seem like she was in charge of the class, which made Felicity feel nervous. Mrs. Herrera might be nice and she might be reasonable and understanding, but she was always in charge.
Garrison and Ben, who were both tall, were sitting at the desks in front of Sam, who was sitting in the middle of the back row. Ellie sat to Sam’s left, Ethan to his right.
“You guys start filling in the desks around Sam,” Garrison instructed as Felicity’s group walked through the door. “Don’t worry about whose seat you’re sitting in.”
“We’re doing this back to front,” Ben added. “Let’s focus on blocking Sam from view.”
Felicity sat down in the desk next to Ellie. “Has Mrs. Herrera said anything yet?” she whispered.
“She just asked us why we wanted to come in during recess,” Ellie whispered back. “We told her we were having a class meeting and would explain after everyone got here.”
More of the class filed in, Ethan followed by Stefan followed by Bart followed by Elizabeth followed by Adriana followed by Henry. Felicity felt a shiver of excitement as she watched people silently take their seats. Something was happening here. Something important. Until this week, she wouldn’t have been here to be a part of it. She would have been on the playground with Madeline and Anna.
So maybe it was for the best that they were no longer friends.
Felicity had hated sixth grade from the minute she’d gotten her homeroom assignment. Everyone in Mrs. Herrera’s class was either a total dweeb or a total jerk, and the idea of having to travel from class to class with Henry Lloyd? Unbearable. Putting up with Becca Hobbes’s goody-goody routine for yet another year? Too irritating for words. Garrison was a snob, Matt was a bully, and Bart Weems was a geek and had zits. He’d had zits in fifth grade! Gross.
Worst of all, Madeline and Anna weren’t there. No, worst of all, Madeline and Anna were together in Mr. Lee’s homeroom. Felicity wasn’t fooling herself: this was bad news. This was a big win for Anna. For the last two years, Anna and Felicity had been battling each other for the position of Madeline’s best friend, and this was the break Anna had been waiting for. Between school and travel soccer, Anna now had total Madeline domination.
The problem was the inside joke, which was Anna’s specialty. They all might be eating lunch together in the cafeteria and talking about something they’d seen on TV the night before, when Anna would lean toward Madeline and say, “That reminds me—Josh McNabb candy!” Madeline would burst out laughing, and Anna would laugh like crazy, and Felicity would laugh like she was asking a question. So why is that funny exactly?
“Inside joke!” Anna would say in between giggles. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Felicity had hung in there for the first two months of sixth grade. She had one advantage over Anna, and that was car pool. She and Madeline and the horrible Henry Lloyd carpooled to and from school every day, a blissful Anna-free fifteen minutes each way. They had to put up with Henry, but Henry was better in small groups, so he wasn’t always a pain, and in the mornings he was actually pretty quiet. Madeline was her old self in car pool, and she and Felicity talked about the things they always talked about—what they’d watched on TV the night before, what they’d seen on Pinterest or Instagram, who liked who, who was being a jerk, how much they hated PE.
And then one day, just like that, Madeline had dropped out of car pool and Felicity finally gave up.
Taking the bus in the morning, Madeline had texted the night before. My mom decided it’s time. Anna takes the bus, so I think it’s going to be okay.
Felicity and Madeline had sworn they’d never take the bus to middle school. They’d heard the rumors about what happened on the bus, and so had their moms. It wasn’t just bra snapping or bad language, either. Madeline’s mom had heard that two kids had been caught—well, she wouldn’t give the details on what they’d been doing, but it hadn’t been good.
Wow, Felicity had texted back. Just wow.
I’m excited! Jason Weatherford rides the bus too!
Okay, now it made sense. Madeline and Anna were both madly in love with Jason Weatherford, captain of the seventh-grade soccer team. As long as he was on the bus, Madeline would never carpool again.
The next morning when they picked up Henry, Felicity had expected him to make a big deal about Madeline not being there—not because he cared, but because Henry was always looking for an excuse to make a big deal over something. To her surprise, he was quiet when he got into the car and didn’t say a word for the first ten minutes.
As they got close to school, Henry had leaned forward and tapped Felicity on the shoulder. “Could you do me a favor?” he asked. “A very not-hard-to-do favor?”
“What?” Felicity asked, wondering what Henry could possible want her help with.
He passed a notebook to her. “Give this to Ellie. I accidentally picked it up yesterday, but if I give it back to her, she’ll think I stole it on purpose.”
“It’s just a notebook,” Felicity pointed out. “Why would she think you would bother stealing a notebook?”
“People are very suspicious of me no matter what I do or how much I proclaim my innocence,” Henry replied.
Felicity had shoved the notebook in her backpack and promptly forgotten all about it. It wasn’t until that night when she was getting out her math book that she remembered. She didn’t know what made her open Ellie’s notebook and look inside, but once she did, she couldn’t stop reading.
On the first page, all it said was The Class. On the second page, the notes began:
It’s not just that Stefan is smart, it’s that he seems interested in everything. Unlike Ben, who’s also really smart but acts like he’d rather be somewhere else.
I don’t think Petra and Rosie actually like each other. They’re like two powerful countries, and the only reason they’re friends is because they’re more powerful together.
People say Garrison is stuck-up, and I can totally see that. But the other day I was talking to my mom, and when I said, “There’s this boy in our class who’s a really good football player and he’s cute and he acts stuck-up,” she said, “Maybe he’s shy.” And now when I look at Garrison, he really does seem shy.
Today in math, I heard Ariana tell Elizabeth that Aadita’s mom is some kind of genius scientist. I wonder if Aadita is a genius too. Maybe that’s why she never talks—she’s got too many genius thoughts going on in her mind.
In a way, I don’t think Carson makes a very good popular person. He’s not mean or mysterious. He’s really cute, and I guess he uses his looks to get stuff (he came over to me at lunch the other day and asked if he could have my cupcake, which is probably the first time he’s said anything to me all year!), but he acts pretty nice in general. I think if you’re a boy, being cute and a good athlete is enough to make you popular. If you’re a girl, you have to be able to make other people scared of you.
Sometimes I wonder if boys are better at being friends than girls. Rogan and Ethan and Cole don’t seem like they’d ever fight or give each other the silent treatment.
I wonder if Henry Lloyd is lonely.
Who is Felicity Wallack? She hardly talks in class, although she’s got the answer whenever a teacher calls on her. But when I see her in the cafeteria with Madeline and Anna, she talks a lot. Sometimes she looks sort of desperate, though. Like if she stopped talking, she’d drown.
When she read that, Felicity had to put the notebook down. Was that really how she looked around Madeline and Anna? Desperate? She had to admit it: that was how she felt. Like if she stopped talking, she’d disappear into thin air and Madeline and Anna wouldn’t even notice.
After dinner, Felicity picked up the notebook again and read through the whole thing. She was hoping Ellie would say something about more about her, but her name didn’t come up again. Ellie spent a lot of time wondering about Becca and about Petra Wilde (who Ellie thought had cut her hair so she could stop being Petra Wilde, which Felicity had to admit made sense—Petra always seemed dissatisfied to her, like she was the girl who had everything, but she didn’t want everything, she wanted something else), and she was mildly fascinated by Bart Weems, of all people (Ellie wondered why no one ever seemed to notice that Bart actually had a very pleasant personality and a good sense of humor).
Ellie’s notes struck Felicity as being true without being mean. It was true that Ariana’s niceness seemed like a costume she put on every morning (Felicity thought this was a perfect way to put it), and it was true that if Stefan’s outside matched his insides, he’d be the best-looking boy in their class, but life was totally unfair that way and so he looked like someone you’d only want to be friends with.
Felicity wished she and Ellie were friends. Because here it was, nearly two months into the sixth grade, and Felicity Wallack could use a friend.
It took her almost a week to return the notebook. She hadn’t planned on asking Ellie to eat lunch with her when she did, but as soon as she did, she felt a sense of relief washing over her. If they ate lunch together, Ellie would have something to write about her, and then Felicity wouldn’t be invisible anymore.
By the time everyone had gotten back to the classroom and taken a seat, it really was like there was a shield around Sam Hawkins. Felicity imagined Mrs. Whalen poking her head in the door to ask why the class was spending recess inside. She’d never notice Sam in a million years. For now at least, Sam was safe, and so was Mrs. Herrera.
Now people were starting to look around at each other, like they were asking, What next? Finally Ellie cleared her throat and raised her hand. “Mrs. Herrera?”
“Yes, Ellie?” said Mrs. Herrera, still pacing.
“We’d like to ask some questions, if that’s okay,” Ellie said.
Mrs. Herrera finally stopped moving. She nodded at Ellie.
“Well, is it okay if we ask what Sam’s doing here? Because he moved, right?”
It took Mrs. Herrera a moment to say anything. Finally she said, “Do you want to answer that, Sam?”
Everyone turned around to look at Sam, who was looking down at his hands. He shook his head.
“Is it okay if I answer it?”
Sam nodded without looking up.
Mrs. Herrera walked over to her desk and leaned against it. “Yes, Sam did move, but only a mile away—into another school district, but not another town. He’s been coming back to visit me while he’s making the transition to his new school.”
Ellie raised her hand. “I saw him here during lunch period last week. Is Sam hiding out here?”
“No, he is not hiding out here,” Mrs. Herrera said. She seemed to be relaxing a little. “This is only the second time he’s come to the classroom.”
“Isn’t that against the rules?” Becca asked.
(Typical Becca question, Felicity thought.)
“Yes, Sam and I have discussed that,” Mrs. Herrera said. “It’s one thing for him to come see me before or after school. It’s another thing for him to be in this classroom when he should be elsewhere. It won’t happen again.”
Garrison raised his hand. “Is it true that Sam’s homeless?”
Mrs. Herrera paused and took a deep breath. Everyone turned again to look at Sam. Sam looked back at everyone, and Felicity noticed his ears had turned so red they were almost purple. He nodded.
“You might be surprised to know how easy it is to fall through the cracks,” Mrs. Herrera said. “Sam’s mom lost her job in June and couldn’t pay rent. She found a new job in September, but it can take a while to earn enough to pay a first and last month’s deposit on an apartment. For now, she and Sam have to live in a shelter.”
“Why doesn’t Sam hang out at his own school?” Bart asked. “I mean, I don’t mind him being here, but why not go where you’re supposed to go?”
“It sucks,” Sam said, and everyone turned to stare at him. “Especially LA. All we do is grammar. You have no idea how lucky you are to be in this class.”
Mrs. Herrera took a few steps so she was standing in front of the class, and Felicity wondered if she was trying to get everyone’s attention off Sam. “Sam comes here sometimes in the afternoon and writes and does homework while I do my prep for the next day.”
“I saw him in the bathroom on Friday morning,” Henry said. “Which, strictly speaking, isn’t Friday afternoon.”
“I don’t like the bathroom at the shelter,” Sam said. “And there’s a lady in the cafeteria here who gives me breakfast.”
“That’s a long way to come for breakfast, bro,” Matt pointed out.
“Sometimes she brings cinnamon rolls from home.”
Felicity turned to look at Sam. “I saw you this morning behind the building. Are you coming here and staying all day?”
“Not in this classroom, no,” Sam answered. “But sometimes I hang around. There’s eight hundred students at this school. No one really notices.”
Felicity shook her head. It was bad enough going unnoticed by your two so-called best friends. Imagine going unnoticed by eight hundred people. Whoa.
“We can’t stop you from coming here,” Ben said, turning around so he was facing Sam directly. “But you could get Mrs. Herrera in a lot of trouble.”
“Maybe you should stop hanging out in the classroom during lunch,” Garrison added. “Maybe you could hang out with us on the playground instead?”
“Just put up the hood of your hoodie,” Stefan said. “No one will ever realize who you are.”
“If they even remember in the first place,” Sam said, scowling.
“I remember you,” said Ariana in a quiet voice. “I thought it was sad when you left.”
Felicity leaned back in her seat. So Ariana had feelings that weren’t a hundred percent chirpy and positive. So maybe she was human after all. Interesting.
Ethan raised his hand. “Mrs. Herrera, are you going to get in trouble for not telling someone Sam is here?”
“I’m working on a plan to help Sam,” Mrs. Herrera said, but her expression was a little less than confident. “But yes, I could get in a lot of trouble.”
Ethan turned to Sam. “Come on, dude, let’s go outside.”
Garrison and Ben stood and walked to the door. “Okay, guys,” Garrison said. “It’s time.”
Felicity watched as everyone crowded around the door. Ellie led Sam up the aisle and gently pushed him into the middle of the group. “Hoodie up, Sam,” she instructed, and Sam pulled his hood up over his head. Felicity stood up then and walked around the island of desks to the front of the classroom. She passed Mrs. Herrera, whose face was a mix of wonder and worry and—well, maybe pride, Felicity thought. It looked complicated, whatever she was feeling.
“This is a good class,” Felicity said as she followed the group out of the room, turning to smile at Mrs. Herrera before she walked out the door.
“It’s a very good class,” Mrs. Herrera agreed, sounding like she’d never doubted it for a minute. “I’m glad you’re back.”