Then the other shoe drops. When I got home, an email from Mrs. Townsend dinged on my phone:
Sammie,
I was sorry to hear about your debate loss. Don’t sweat it, kid! Hope you are healthy and rested. I also wanted you to know: Though they are not aware of specifics, I have informed your teachers of extenuating circumstances, and I have asked them to come directly to me with any issues or concerns.
I know you’ve got a heavy load these days, so I wanted to make you aware of the following assignments you may have missed over Nationals week:
AP Chem
• Chapter 14–15 Review
• Chapter 16 Review
• Chapter 14–16 PreTest
• bowl with glaze
As we approach the end of the year, especially finals, please let me know how I can help. TAKE YOUR TIME.
And come visit me. I miss you.
—Mrs. T
How did I miss those due dates? They were written down on my calendar, on this very computer, on the same desktop as this very document. Green for biology, blue for AP Lit, orange for AP Euro, brown for ceramics, and yellow for chemistry. It’s right fucking there! I’m looking at them so hard they’re burning a hole in my retina!
This is freaky. I do not like this.
I followed the path of each color through the days left on the calendar—just a few weeks—and double recorded each assignment and test coming up, once on my computer, once in my planner.
After I was finished, I noticed a new color, bright purple, an hour every day on the week leading up to graduation. On the day I graduate, it takes up the entire calendar.
It reads Valedictorian speech.
I flashback to my parents’ whispers, Agreed, and wondered how many inches I had taken in the long mile toward making them believe. Was I really fooling anyone? I picture blinking against the lights as I come through the Sheraton blackness, Maddie looking at me, angry, and the fear so cutting I want to cry.
I could blow the whole thing in a second, and if I do, NYU is gone.
Shit.