Say What You Will Read Online Free PDF Page B

with exhaustion. Adult aides were easier. With them, she didn’t have to feel nervous or wonder what they were thinking of her the whole time. She’d done all this so she could get to know Matthew, but by the time she got to Friday—Matthew’s day—she wondered if it was worth it.
    Friday morning, she waited outside the front vestibule for Matthew in the same spot she’d met her other peer helpers. She was nervous, and so tired at that point, she just wanted to make it through the day and get to the weekend. She watched him walk toward her, smiling a little, his arms stiff at his sides, his hair hanging in front of his face. Before she could say good morning, he spoke first.
    “I like your shirt,” he said.
    She looked at him. Was he trying to be funny? Did he know she’d been using this stupid compliment all week? She looked down at her shirt, an aqua-blue one that she saved to wear today with him.
    “THANKS,” she said.
    “My problem is I don’t like talking in the hallway,” he said as they walked up the hall. He kept close to one wall, tapping lockers as he went, every other one. “I just don’t.”
    “THAT’S OKAY.”
    They walked down two corridors and stopped. He followed her into her classroom, opened her backpack, and pulled out her textbook. None of her other peer helpers had done this. “See you after class,” he said, tapping the book.
    “QUIET IS NICE,” she said at the start of their next passing period.
    “Good. I think so, too.”
    By the time they got to lunch, Matthew had to be honest. “I need to tell you that I don’t have a lot of friends to introduce you to. The ones I do have, you probably don’t want to know.”
    “DON’T WORRY,” Amy typed. “SANJAY INTRODUCED ME TO FORTY-SEVEN PEOPLE ON WEDNESDAY.”
    Matthew smiled, then frowned, then looked away. This whole day had been confusing. Amy looked prettier than she had last spring, her face tan, her hair even longer and curlier than he remembered. It made him feel shy in spite of the emails they’d exchanged, her last two saying how happy she was that he’d be doing the job. He wasn’t sure why she liked him so much. They’d only had the one conversation. He’d probably only disappoint her now.
    “I DID HAVE ONE IDEA,” she typed.
    He looked up. “What’s that?”
    She typed for a moment. He liked the slowed-down rhythm of conversation with Amy. It gave him a chance to breathe and think. “YOU COULD INTRODUCE ME TO THE CAFETERIA LADIES. THEY’RE ALL WEARING NAME TAGS.”
    He laughed and thought, Maybe I’ll make it through the rest of the day.
    He did. Much to his surprise, it was easier than he expected. And more interesting, too. He got the sense Amy didn’t agree with her mother’s approach. “SHE’S A SCIENTIST,” Amy explained over lunch. “SHE LIKES TO MAKE GOALS, THEN TRACK DATA TO PROVE IF SHE’S MET HER GOAL OR NOT.”
    Matthew thought about this. “Even if the goal is making new friends?”
    “EXACTLY. IT’S A LITTLE HARD TO FIND MEASURABLE BENCHMARKS FOR POPULARITY. SHE THINKS PEOPLE SAYING HI SHOULD BE ONE.”
    They were five days into the school year. “How’s that been so far?”
    “WELL, YESTERDAY FORTY-SEVEN PEOPLE FELT OBLIGED TO SAY HI, SO GOOD, I GUESS.”
    He laughed again. He could tell when she was joking even if the computer delivery was slightly off. He started eating his lunch, carefully the way he always did, holding his sandwich still half-wrapped in its baggie. He looked at her lunch, a single can of Boost. “Don’t you have more than that?” he asked.
    “NO,” she said. “JUST THIS.”
    He remembered the old days in second grade when mothers brought in cupcakes for birthdays, and Amy ate hers like a baby painting itself with frosting. The problem wasn’t her good hand that had freakish control over her talking board. It was her wavering head and mouth. Eating must still be a little like target practice.
    Toward the end of the day, it occurred to him: the job was