LXXXVI

However, the situation only gets direr and direr: Angela keeps finding ways to bully her. And it doesn't help that many of their classmates have joined in, as if the girl were some kind of queen bee.

With just a week left before spring break, she finds herself unable to hide it from her group of friends any longer.

"You should tell someone," Mike urges her over lunch.

Max snorts in response to this suggestion. "Tell who, exactly? Miss Kelley, so she can ask her how she feels about it and then not help her at all?"

"You're not being fair, Max," Will points out with a sigh. "Therapy really helps… I mean, you should've seen my mom when she and Bob had just broken up... But she's much better now, and she's even convinced me to go too, so—"

The girl shakes her head in response. "Look, I won't say therapy is useless, but, in this case, it's about a group of girls who have chosen to target Jane in particular. The real problem right now is Angela and her gang of snakes. If you ask me, I think they need to be taught a lesson."

The debate continues for a long time. As is common in these cases, they do not reach any definitive solution.

After Chrissy reminds Mr. Mundy about her practice—an exception, since there's a particularly important basketball game coming up—he doesn't give her any major trouble.

He only asks her for a favor: "During lunch, I graded some pending homework for the first-year kids. Could you take their notebooks back to them?"

To tell the truth, the girl is already late, and the first-year classroom is way too far away. However, she doesn't dare refuse, so she smiles at her teacher and nods.

Luckily for her, before she gets too far out of her way, Chrissy runs into one of the few freshmen she knows.

"Angela!" she greets her with a smile. "Can I ask you a favor?"

The girl, who is returning from the bathroom, smiles back.

"Chrissy! Yeah, sure, what is it?"

The next day, Chrissy takes a moment to stop by her locker before heading to the cafeteria while Jason and the rest of the group go ahead.

"Chrissy…?"

The girl turns around: the student who just spoke is a petite student, with a shy and slightly uncomfortable expression. Chrissy identifies her as a girl a few years younger than she who usually sits with her group of friends a few tables from hers at lunch.

She offers her a smile. "Yes? Need something?"

"Uh..." The girl looks away and rests a hand against her arm in a clear sign of nervousness. "Yes, well… Mr. Mundy told me that… he asked you to deliver some notebooks yesterday…"

"Ah, yes, for first years." Of course she remembers. "What's up with that?"

The girl grimaces and asks: "By any chance… couldn't you have forgotten one of them?"

Chrissy frowns. "No, not at all. I gave all the notebooks to—"

"Excuse me, are you Jane?"

The two girls turn to a tall boy with green eyes. The girl in front of Chrissy nods.

"Oh, this is for you." He hands her a sealed envelope that Jane takes with great care, as if she were afraid of breaking it. The boy, for his part, winks at her before trotting off in the opposite direction.

Chrissy puts a hand to her mouth, surprised.

"A letter?" Jane mutters.

"Open it!" she urges with a smile. "Could it be a love confession…?"

Jane does not seem convinced of her hypothesis, but she does as she's been told.

When they open the envelope, however, what they see is not a letter, not of love nor any other type…

… but a page full of equations.

Confused, Chrissy is about to ask her if she knows what it is about, when she notices the unfathomable sadness on the girl's face.

"Jane?" she calls. "What's wrong?"

The girl shakes her head. "It's… a page from my notebook."

Chrissy feels her heart sink.