At that Lara took off at a brisk walk once more. Although Caroline tried to pay attention to the directions, she soon lost track amid the hallway maze. She could only hope that she’d be able to find places again without her sister as a guide. After all, middle school was her big chance to do things all by herself. Caroline did not intend to squander that opportunity.
“Here it is,” Lara announced when they reached a set of double doors. “The cafeteria, in all its glory.”
Caroline peeked in through the small window. Looking at the empty rows of chairs and tables, she tried to imagine the room full of chattering middle schoolers. Where would she sit? Probably not with Lara, since sixth graders and seventh graders had different lunch periods. Yet she couldn’t imagine who else might sit with her, and her stomach turned.
“The food actually isn’t terrible,” Lara said. “Though I recommend avoiding the meatloaf at all costs. Your bowels will appreciate it.”
Just as Caroline began to type a thanks for the bowel-saving advice, a clomping sound startled her. She swiveled her head to see a trio of kids—two boys and a girl—rounding the corner toward the cafeteria.
Caroline oftentimes felt as though an artist silently lurked in the back of her mind. Her artist painted and doodled and shaded with a perfect precision that she herself lacked. She didn’t know if it was an autism thing or just an artist thing, but either way the artist had a way of knowing her feelings before she did. And right now, the artist was painting big, bold streaks of yellow and green.
This was Caroline’s big chance to meet real Pinecone students. Kids who weren’t related to her, kids who maybe could be her friends. She inhaled a deep breath and tapped a few buttons on her tablet. “Hello!”
The kids stared, and Caroline felt her heartbeat skitter. Of course they’d stare. They probably had never met someone like her before. Still, Caroline held out hope that they could get used to it. She stared at the tablet screen and tried to come up with the right words, words that might let them see that she was friend-worthy.
“Are you really talking to us?” the boy asked.
“Yes, she is. And when someone says hello to you, it’s generally considered polite to say hi back,” Lara said in her bossiest voice.
Caroline immediately shot her sister a Look. As much as the question hurt, she hardly thought that Lara’s response would help improve the situation in any way. There was a lot Caroline didn’t know about middle school, but she knew she didn’t want her sister acting like a bossy busybody.
The boy glared at Lara—an understandable response, in Caroline’s opinion. “Hey, look,” he said. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Yeah,” one of the girls added. “We just wanted to know! I’ve never met anyone who . . . you know . . . talks that way.”
“Well, now you have,” Lara said. “And Caroline would certainly appreciate it if you didn’t gawk at her like some kind of zoo exhibit.”
Bouncing on her tiptoes, Caroline flapped her hands at a rapid speed. Why, oh why, did Lara have to be so very protective? Sure, the kids’ ignorance was annoying, but Lara was even worse. Caroline could speak for herself! She didn’t need her big sister to swoop in and save her from anything.
With so many bad emotions flooding her, Caroline could barely keep up with everything that was going on around her. The girl was saying something, but it was difficult for Caroline to pick up on every word.
“Whatever . . . no offense . . . freak out . . .”
“I am not freaking out!” Lara said in a volume that suggested that she was on the verge of doing just that. “I just want you to apologize to my sister.”
Caroline put considerable effort toward not screaming as she mashed buttons on her tablet. The artist in the back of her brain started sketching messy scrawls in black and gray.
“No no no no no,” Caroline said. At times like these, the “no” button in her app was quite useful. All of this was moving way too fast for her to type out a proper response. Hopefully “no” would get the message across.
Caroline cradled her head in her hands and tugged at her hair. She wanted the sensation of ripped hair, painful though it was. But she had just enough awareness to know that actually doing so would be a very, very bad idea. To calm herself, she tried humming her favorite pop song.
“I think you’ve done quite enough,” Lara told the group, her voice cold. “Maybe you should get out of here.”
They did. As the kids scampered away, all Caroline could think was that they most definitely were not going to be her friends now. And it was all thanks to Lara and her big mouth.
CHAPTER THREE: THE CASE OF THE IRRITABLE LITTLE SISTER
For as long as she could remember, Lara had looked after Caroline. No one asked her to do it. It just felt right to her. Even before Caroline learned how to talk with her tablet, Lara could sometimes guess what her sister wanted to say. Her accuracy rate wasn’t perfect, but she was better at it than anyone else. Even Dad and Ima.
These days Caroline didn’t need Lara to be her translator. That was good, of course. Still. When awful kids were being awful, why shouldn’t Lara step in? It was her job as the older sister. Yet now Caroline was acting as though Lara had stepped on Kugel’s tail. On purpose!
Caroline did not say a single word on the walk back to Principal Jenkins’s office. Nor did she show any sign of talking once the car engine started humming and they began the ride home.
“I was just looking out for you,” Lara repeated
