Dear Kurl,
I owed Abigail Cuttler a letter today, so I don’t have much time left in class for this one. I’m still writing to her as well as to you. I asked Ms. Khang before class this morning if I could possibly go back to writing only to you, but she said she’s confident I can handle two correspondents. I only need to meet the minimum of one letter to each per week, she reminded me.
Once class had started and we were all supposed to be writing our letters, Ms. Khang came over to my desk, crouched beside it so that I had to lean over to her, and whispered, “Please don’t think I want you to write fewer letters than you have been, though. I didn’t mean that. What’s happening between you and Adam is wonderful.”
“What’s happening between you and Adam.” For a heart-stopping moment I was absolutely certain Ms. Khang had been reading our letters all along. I blushed so deeply that my scalp prickled, and the surprise sent tears filling my eyes so that I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t look at her.
I overreacted, I realized, a few moments later. Ms. Khang was merely referring to the frequency of our letters, not their contents. In my defense, it’s always unsettling to have a teacher crouch by your desk and whisper to you, isn’t it, no matter what she might say? You assume you’ve done something wrong. Then you worry you might have morning breath, or something stuck between your teeth. The whole time you can feel your classmates straining to hear what’s being said.
The bell has rung, and I’m still sitting in Ms. Khang’s classroom trying to finish this. What I wanted to say before I see you tonight—before we’re with the girls and I don’t have a chance to say anything privately—is that you needing to take the SAT is not bad news at all, Kurl. What you don’t realize is how much I’ve been hanging around Bron while she studies, and how much that has taught me about SAT strategy.
Kurl, I can tell you with absolute confidence that you will get a perfectly adequate score on the test if you approach it strategically, and you will have no trouble approaching it strategically if you let me show you how. So long as you can stomach the idea of a sophomore SAT coach, the girls will never need to know.
Whoa! You just walked into the classroom. You’re talking to Ms. Khang at the front of the room, and you’re both glancing over at me and smiling.
“Hurry up, I have to work,” you just called over to me. Now my face is overheated again and my heart is pounding and I’m scribbling like a moron, trying to finish. Bron told me you’re coming with us to the Decent Fellows’ gig at Rosa’s Room, so I’ll see you tonight.
Yours,
Jo