Deborah didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was actually a plot to a soap opera her mother had watched in the nineties. She would never actually try to read the romance novels on Alison’s shelf. She needed to get some science fiction in there or something. “A girl’s got to read something,” she said. “Do you have anything better for me to read? I am planning on reading Brave New World tonight.”
“Brave New World is a good start, but it is too academic as far as science fiction goes. Miss Grosstree said it was not science fiction because it is good, but she doesn’t want to admit science fiction is good.”
“Who cares?” Deborah asked.
“Time for class.” She stood up and picked up her tray. “Are you ready to finish your powerpoint?”
“Why not?” Deborah followed her friend to put away her try and go to class.
Computer class was something else indeed. It should have been simple, but so much had changed while she was in prison. Bridge just wanted to run out screaming. She had used PowerPoint a bit, but it wasn’t like she was used to. So much was different.
It started out bad when she sat down and logged in. Fortunately Alison had written her username and password on the first page of her computer class notebook. No problem there. Her notes also said, “Finish PowerPoint,” not “do PowerPoint,” so it was saved somewhere.
She looked at Lia to see where she got her disk from, but Lia was already working on her project. She opened her backpack and began looking for it. It was nowhere to be seen. She closed her backpack and put her keys and cell phone next her keyboard. “Lia, where did I save my PowerPoint?”
“Probably on your thumb drive. It should be on your keychain.”
Deborah picked up her keys and looked over at Lia’s computer. She saw how it worked and put the thumbdrive in the USB port and fired up PowerPoint. It was surprisingly well done. The last two pages didn’t have the data listed. It was a simple matter type in the last two slides from the outline in her notebook. She saved it and had it ready in no time.
She spent the rest of class going over the slides and practicing the presentation she thought she would have to give.
Spanish was film day, so they just watched Spanish language films. Deborah was totally lost. At least there was no assignment given.
“Remember, your conversations are due next week. I think Alison and Lia are first on Monday,” said Senorita Faust.
Deborah groaned. At least it was only going to be like a play. She would have to work on the conversation with Lia that weekend.
She worked on homework in studyhall while Lia went to choir. She thanked God for small miracles that she didn’t have to go to choir. Deborah hated her voice and she hated the idea of trying to sing with Alison’s voice. Singing is a skill of the mind, not of the vocal cords and Deborah guessed she would be horrible at it even if Alison was good.
She finished pre-calculus okay and had to only take Physics, Spanish, and 1984 and Brave New World home with her. She sat with Lia on the bus.
When she arrived home, her bed was neatly made with fresh sheets. There was no pee smell at all. She lay on the bed and worked on homework and only came down for supper.
She lay in bed and read 1984 to its completion. She was going to read through Brave New World, but she glanced at the clock and it showed that it was already 12:30. She turned off the light and went to sleep.
There was no truck in her dreams. Instead it was rats.
Lots of rats like the ones that made Winston love Big Brother instead of Julia. She woke up screaming.
She felt around, but there were no rats. She was in her room. The sheets were sweaty and–she felt around her bottom and found a pee-soaked wet spot. “Uggg,” she said. She wet the bed again. A glance at her clock slowed her it was six. It was time to get ready anyway. Why was she wetting the bed? There was no truck dream with dying children. She got up and stripped her bed. She hoped Alison’s mother wasn’t too mad.
