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few times who sat in the middle of the room, started the
conversation by talking about a recent trip she went on to Italy.
Just like the other private schools in the area, admission to Beech
Tree wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t unusual for students to vacation
out of the country. However, instead of listening to people discuss
their vacations, I thought about the quiz, trying to calculate how
much it would affect my final grade in the class.
    “ Élisabeth .” Mrs. Evans disrupted my
thoughts, causing me to jump a bit in my seat. “ Have you ever
taken a vacation to a foreign country and had an interesting
experience while there ?”
    I paused to translate the question in my
head, catching the words “interesting,” “experience,” and
“vacation.” There were a few words in the middle that I didn’t
understand, but not wanting to embarrass myself by letting everyone
know I wasn’t paying attention, I decided I got the gist of it
enough to answer.
    “ Two years ago I went to Hawaii .” I
spoke quickly, wanting to get the focus away from myself as soon as
possible. “ We went on a helicopter ride and saw the
volcanoes .”
    Mrs. Evans looked baffled, and a few
students began laughing—Jeremy included.
    I looked around, confused. “What?” I asked
in English, wondering what was so funny about helicopters and
volcanoes.
    “Hawaii’s a state,” Jeremy said, not making
an effort to contain his laughter.
    “Yeah,” I said, still unsure what the
problem was. “I know.”
    “But you just said your vacation to a
foreign country was to Hawaii.”
    A foreign country—those must have been the
French words I didn’t understand enough to translate into English.
The entire class looked at me like I was an idiot, and I glanced at
Mrs. Evans for help only to find her laughing right along with
them, although she tried to control herself when her eyes met
mine.
    “I just didn’t know the French words for
foreign country,” I explained, hoping everyone believed me.
    Jeremy laughed again. “Sure. Whatever you
say.”
    I nearly threw my pencil at him in
frustration. “I know Hawaii’s a state,” I said, crossing my arms
over my chest. “I just misunderstood the question.”
    He smirked in disbelief, and I knew I
wouldn’t hear the end of this later. I was beginning to re-consider
switching out of AP.
    When class ended, I left without waiting for
Jeremy. It wasn’t long until he caught up with me.
    “You never told us how your trip to the
foreign country of Hawaii was,” he said with a laugh, entertained
by my embarrassment.
    “You know I didn’t actually think that.” I
looked at him in annoyance, pleading for him to let it go. Arguing
about this was stupid.
    “Sure you didn’t,” he drawled, leaning
closer towards me. “Anyway, how’d you do on that quiz?”
    I took a step back. “I did fine,” I lied,
not meeting his eyes.
    “I got an A-,” he jumped at the chance to
brag about his grade. “But don’t worry too much about what you got.
It was one quiz. It doesn’t matter that much.” He stopped in front
of one of the English rooms for his next class, which was on the
way to the science wing where I had genetics. “I’ll catch you at
lunch,” he said, seeming to have already put the Hawaii incident
behind him.
    I started to walk towards my next class, but
didn’t get far before hearing someone calmly say my name.
    I recognized Drew’s voice before I turned
around. He leaned against the cement wall, both hands inside the
front pockets of his jacket. “I know you don’t think Hawaii’s a
foreign country,” he said with a smirk, like he was proud of
himself for being the only other person in the class who believed
me.
    I stopped walking, confused about why he
decided to talk to me after pretending that I didn’t exist for the
past few weeks. “Really?” I asked, walking towards him and resting
my hand against the wall. “Because everyone else seems to think I
do.”
    “I believe