All These Things I've Done Read Free Page A

because he passed his days digging up landfills. Scarlet went on about the new boy for a while but I wasn’t really paying attention. I couldn’t have cared less. I just nodded occasionally and pushed my repulsive lasagne around my plate.
    I looked across the dining hall. Gable caught my eye. What happened next is somewhat blurry to me. He would later claim that he hadn’t, but I thought he sneered at me, then whispered something to the girl sitting to the left of him – she was a sophomore, maybe even a freshman, so I didn’t know who she was – and they both laughed, and in response I lifted my plate with the uneaten, though still scalding-hot lasagne (all food was required by law to be heated to 176°F to avoid the bacterial epidemics that were so pervasive), and then I was running diagonally across the black-and-white linoleum floor like a bishop gone mad and just like that Gable’s head was covered with ricotta and tomato sauce.
    Gable stood, and his chair toppled over. We were face-to-face, and it was like everyone else in the dining hall had disappeared. Gable started to yell, calling me a string of names that I won’t bother to repeat here. I’d rather not type a whole long list of curse words.
    ‘I accept your condemnation,’ I said.
    He moved to punch me but then he stopped himself. ‘You’re not worth it, Balanchine. You’re scum like your dead parents,’ he said. ‘I’d rather just get you suspended.’ As he left the dining hall, he tried to wipe off some of the sauce with his hand, but it didn’t do any good. It was everywhere. I smiled.
    At the end of eighth period, I was delivered a summons to appear in the principal’s office after school.
    Most everyone managed to avoid getting into trouble on the first day of school so there weren’t that many people waiting. The door was closed, which meant someone was already in the office, and a long-legged guy I didn’t know waited on the love seat in the foyer. The secretary told me I should have a seat.
    The boy was wearing a grey wool hat that he took off as I passed. He nodded, and I nodded back. He looked at me sidelong. ‘Food fight, right?’
    ‘Yeah, you could call it that.’ I wasn’t in the mood for making new friends. He crossed his hands on his lap. He had calluses on his fingers and, despite myself, I found this interesting.
    He must have seen me staring because he asked me what I was looking at.
    ‘Your hands,’ I replied. ‘They’re kind of rough for a city boy.’
    He laughed and said, ‘I’m from upstate. We used to grow our own food. Most of the calluses are from that. A couple are from my guitar. I’m no good; I just like to play. The rest I can’t explain.’
    ‘Interesting,’ I said.
    ‘Interesting,’ he repeated. ‘I’m Win, by the way,’ he said.
    I turned to look at him. So, this was Scarlet’s new boy. She was right. He certainly wasn’t hard to look at. Tall and thin. Tanned skin and toned arms which must have come from the farming he’d mentioned. Soft blue eyes and a mouth that seemed more inclined to smile than to frown. Not my usual type at all.
    He offered me his hand to shake, and I accepted it. ‘An—’ I started to say.
    ‘Anya Balanchine, I know. Everyone can’t seem to stop talking about you today.’
    ‘Hmmph,’ I said. I could feel my face getting flushed. ‘Then you probably think that I’m crazy and a slut and an addict and a mafiya princess, so I don’t even know why you’re bothering to talk to me!’
    ‘I don’t know about here, but where I’m from we come to our own conclusions about people.’
    ‘Why are you here?’ I asked him.
    ‘That’s an awfully big question, Anya.’
    ‘No, I meant here outside this office. What did you do wrong?’
    ‘Multiple choice,’ he said. ‘A. A few pointed comments I made in Theology. B. The principal wants to have a chat with the new kid about wearing hats in school. C. My schedule. I’m just too darn smart for my classes. D. My