Page 41 of Ward D
Suddenly, all the attention at the table is on me and my uneaten plate of food. Trevor, of course, has gobbled everything up in about five seconds. That kid is an eating machine—even more so since he hit puberty.
“I’m not hungry,” I mumble.
Mom peers at my face, studying me in a way that has me convinced that she can see all my insides like they’re on the outside. “Are you sick?”
“I’m not sick. I’m just not hungry.”
“Leave her alone, Dina,” my father says. “She doesn’t have to eat if she doesn’t feel like it.”
“Are you worried about that test?” Mom asks me. “Because I can talk to your teacher—”
“It’s fine.” I stab a hunk of beef with my fork, but I make no effort to bring it any closer to my mouth. My mom acts like I’m still five years old, and she can solve all my problems by talking to the teacher. “I just…”
Mom raises her eyebrows. “What?”
“Well…” I dig my fork deeper into the beef. “What if somebody was seeing something that wasn’t there? What does that mean?”
My mother’s eyes fly open. “Who is seeing things that aren’t there? What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” I drop my eyes. What was I thinking? I never should have mentioned it. But it’s been weighing on me so heavily. “I was just asking, like,hypothetically. It was something we were talking about in, you know… in class.”
“Is it Jade?” My mother reaches out and closes her fingers around my wrist. “Did Jade tell you she’s seeing things?”
I twist my arm out of her grip. “No! Of course not.”
“Please tell me the truth, Amy.” Her face is filled with worry. “It is Jade, isn’t it?”
“Dina, leave her alone,” my father mutters.
“It’s got to be Jade!” my mother declares. “She’s always been so troubled. And you remember her mother had those issues with—”
“Dina,” Dad says sharply.
“Honey.” Mom looks into my eyes. “If Jade is having problems, we can get her help. There are doctors and hospitals…”
“It’s not like it’s any secret that Jade is crazy,” Trevor speaks up. “Everybody at school knows it.”
Is that true? Do even the freshmen know that my best friend is crazy? But she isn’t.I’mthe one seeing things that aren’t there.
So that means I’m the crazy one—not Jade.
I can’t let anyone know. I don’t want them talking about me the way they talk about Jade. Or locking me up in some hospital.
“I really need to go study.” I scrape my chair against the floor in my eagerness to get up. “Can I be excused please?”
My mother narrows her eyes at me. I’m scared that she’s going to tell me no, that I can’t leave. I have to stay here and discuss this further with her. But finally, she nods. “Fine. But we’re going to talk more later.”
“Fine,” I agree, even though I can never tell my mother the truth.
23
PRESENT DAY
Ican’t stop screaming.
Miguel is standing in the middle of the hallway, stark naked, streaked in blood. What happened to him? Did Damon Sawyer get free? Is he currently roaming the hallways with a knife, ready to kill every single one of us?
I reach for the knitting needle in my scrub pants.
