Page 80 of The Glass Girl

Underadvantages,I write:

Feel more normal, like other people

Talk easier to people

Don’t feel so anxious

Relieve stress

Don’t feel

Be alone

Under disadvantages, I write:

Headaches

Making sure no one knows

I listen to everyone scratching away. Fran is on her phone. She looks briefly at my sheet.

“Those aren’t headaches,” she murmurs. “They’re hangovers.”

I ignore her. This istedious.

I grit my teeth and tell myself to play nice and just get through it and move down the sheet toNOT usingandNOT doing.

In the grid foradvantages,I write:

My family wouldn’t be mad at me anymore.

Amber would be my friend.

Maybe I wouldn’t have lost Dylan.

I wouldn’t feel so tired all the time.

I would remember more things, like homework (or Dawn).

I pause, thinking. Then, in very tiny letters, probably too small for anyone to read, I write,the videowouldn’t have happened.

In the grid fordisadvantages,I write:

I would feel anxious all the time again.

School would be harder.

I don’t know how to feel.

I can’t handle stress.

No one will be my friend/won’t go to parties.

I don’t know how to feel.

Lonely or lonelier

Then I write,This is the most ridiculous test I have ever taken and whoever wrote it sucks completely and 4-ever.I draw a smiley face with Xs for eyes and an arrow through its head.

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