She hadn't known him very long. He'd shown up there at the beginning of eleventh grade. It was a small town and a small school district. You kept seeing the same kids year after year. He was a junior when he came, the same as her, but he seemed older somehow.
She'd heard many things about where and how he had spent the previous seventeen years of his life, but she doubted any of them were true. He was in mental institution before he came to Elmor, people said. His father was in jail and lived by himself. His mother was killed, they said, most likely by his father. He always wore long sleeves, somebody said, because he had burns on his arms. He'd never defended himself against these stories, as far as she knew, and never offered any alternatives.
And though Carrie didn't believe the rumors, she understood the thing they were getting at. Zach was different, even as he tried not to be. His face was proud, but there was a feeling of tragedy about him. It seemed to her as though no one had taken care of him and he didn't even realize it. One time she saw him standing in the cafeteria by the window while everyone else were jostling past him with their clattering trays, yakking a mile a minute, and he looked completely lost. There was something about the way he looked at that moment that made her think he was the loneliest person in the world. When