I had to laugh at the word “bejeezus,” which sounded so American, even with her Serbian accent. “Well, Silas isn’t scared,” I said.
“I hope that’s right. And I hope it works out with all the kids at school.” Raina stood. “Shall we go to the lounge? They’re doing make-your-own sundaes, and I think we have some cool new stuff at the craft table.”
BEST PART OF THE DAY
After talking to Silas, I went to homeroom telling myself: Well, good, you’ll meet for lunch, and everything with him will get back to normal. Whatever normal was. Because the more I thought about what Raina had said about him in our last conversation, the less sure I felt. All the good stuff about Silas—how we hung out together after school, making up stories, cracking each other up until we fell off our bikes—seemed so long ago. My parents would never let me ride a bike now. Because what if I fell off and scratched my knee? Germs could attack my immune system. And then . . . you know. The apocalypse.
I took my seat and opened my sketchbook. But Kylie and Aria pounced right away.
“Norah, we didn’t think we’d see you today,” Kylie declared.
I looked up at her. “Why not?”
“Kylie said you’d be crazy to come back,” Aria said.
“Okay, that’s not what I said,” Kylie protested. “I said after what you’ve been through, Norah, you should be taking a long vacation somewhere, like on a tropical island. Instead of coming back here, to this.” She pointed to Malik and Harrison Warner, who were competing to see who could fake-burp louder. “I mean, seriously, though, if I had what you had—”
“Acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” I said.
She laughed. “What?”
“That’s the kind of cancer I had. It’s the most common type of leukemia. They call it ALL for short.”
Kylie swung her long, perfect black hair. “Omigod, we don’t need all the gory details.”
“Kylie, shut up,” Aria said, giggling nervously.
“Well, sorry, Aria. But don’t you think it’s kind of depressing? And anyway, Norah doesn’t have it anymore, so.”
See, Raina? I just explained it to people. My decision, my words. And look what happened.
“Excuse me, Norah, can I please talk to you for a second?” A girl I knew from before, Cait Gillespie, was standing in front of my desk. “In private?”
“Sure,” I said, glad for a chance to escape. I followed her over to the windows. “What’s up?”
Cait was twirling her dark reddish hair and gazing at me with slightly bulging blue eyes. “Norah,” she said in a quivery voice, “I just wanted to say I’m really so happy that you’re back, and I’m sorry I didn’t visit you more in the hospital. It was just really, really hard—”
“That’s okay,” I said quickly.
“I mean, seeing you like that, and all those other kids . . .” Her eyes filled. Oh, crap. She isn’t going to cry now, right?
I made myself smile. “Yeah, I know. We didn’t look so great.”
“You didn’t look so great, you know?”
I just said that. Why is she repeating? “Okay, anyway, it’s completely fine—”
“Also, if you need anything—I mean, if I could help you with anything at school . . . ,” she said. “Although really, Norah, you’re so smart, you should probably be helping me!” Her nervous laugh sounded like a hiccup.
“Do you need a tutor?” I asked her. “Because I know a great one named Ayesha—”
“No, no, that was a joke! Sorry! It wasn’t very funny. Just, you know, if there’s anything I can do . . . besides curing cancer.” She giggled, her eyes avoiding mine.
“Well, thanks, Cait. I’ll definitely ask you.”
“Great, Norah. Definitely ask me.”
“Okay. Um.” Was she done? I didn’t want to be rude by going back to my seat.
“Well, that’s it,” she said. “Just, you know. I hope you’re not mad at me? And sorry!”
Before I could tell her to please, PLEASE stop apologizing, she ran back to her seat.
* * *
“So have you decided on a norah?” Griffin asked. This was right before the start of math, and, except for a couple of girls I didn’t know, we were the only ones in the room.
For a second I had no idea what Griffin was talking about. Then I remembered yesterday’s conversation about names and mythical creatures.
“Not yet.” I opened my sketchbook and drew something swirly. “Although I’m thinking there are probably tentacles.”
His eyes lit up. “Yeah, with suckers at the ends.”
“Hmm, I don’t know about suckers. Maybe.”
“Well, okay. It’s your creature, so you get to decide. Does it swim?”
“Of course it does! It’s a water creature; why else would it have tentacles?”
“True.”
“But I’m also thinking it’s a hybrid. So it swims and flies.”
“You mean it has tentacles and wings? Is that even possible, engineering-wise?”
“Why not! If a griffin is a flying lion—”
“Okay, fine, Norah. You can be a flying octopus.”
I laughed. “That’s not how I’m picturing her! I’m thinking it’s more like she changes states—you know, like from sea creature to air creature. Anyhow, I’m still working out the details.”
“Cool,” Griffin said. He reached into his jeans and took out the green gel pen. For a second I thought he was going to give it back to me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted it. I mean, maybe it was stupid, but I liked the fact that he had my pen. But then he opened his math notebook and wrote the date. With the green gel pen.
I realized I was staring at his hand, so I opened my own notebook.
And that was when Thea and another girl walked over.
“Hey,” Thea said loudly. “Griffin. This is Astrid.”
“Hi, Griffin,” Astrid said. She was dressed completely in black and wore eyeliner, which made her eyes look like answers she’d circled on a multiple-choice
