Eleanor Read Free Page A

her at all. He let her be as unnoticed as she wanted to be and surely wished her classmates would be as obligingly invisible as she was. He graded with numbers and percentages. Science and math were no place for opinion and so there was not even the suggestion of discussion. Lecture, demonstration, work time, test. That was chemistry, science, and math with Mr. Graham. He was beyond caring for his fourth decade of students and didn’t even make an effort to learn names. If you did not ask for help, you did not receive it.
    The class was so small that everyone could work alone, though only Eleanor did. The others cliqued up in groups, shared notes, and copied answers while Mr. Graham read fishing magazines and ignored the noise by turning down his hearing aid.
    Last year, science was the only class in which Eleanor scored above a B on her report card. She’d made a promise to herself to correct that this year.
    His back to the class, Mr. Graham began his lecture. The other students began whispering and passing notes. They could talk if they dared, hoping Mr. Graham’s hearing aid was turned down as it often was. But if they got caught, he’d send them to Mr. Curtz directly. Three trips to the principal’s office were an automatic one week suspension. Less than three weeks into the new school year, Mr. Graham had already sent two students, Barbara Pennon and Russell Liddle to the office once.
    She watched as David listened to Mr. Graham and studied his book, trying to locate text to match the lecture. At the end of the class, he looked lost and frustrated. The lunch bell rang.
    Eleanor avoided the chicken-fried steak and used her state voucher lunch coupon for a wilted salad and warm carton of milk. She sat at her usual table, alone in the shadows.
    David had remained after class to speak with Mr. Graham, but Eleanor couldn’t hear them over the rush of students in the cafeteria. When he finally appeared, the cafeteria had emptied outside to enjoy the warm late summer day. David found a table near the front and ate without noticing Eleanor watching him from the corner. He had just enough time to get his meal and eat it with a soldier’s speed before math began.
    After math was physical education with Mr. Blake. Eleanor moved through the locker room like a ghost, unnoticed by the other girls. She found her locker and took her clothes to a dressing room for modesty. Most of the other girls had dispensed with that and changed like the boys did, in front of the others. Only Eleanor, Midge, the fat girl, and Aubrey, the girl with scars on her back, changed in the dressing rooms. The skinny girl, Penelope, changed with the others, but Eleanor thought her sickly skeletal body was more shameful by far than Midge’s plump rolls. She did it to herself. Eleanor could smell bile on Penelope’s breath after lunch and knew she purged in the middle-school restroom when those students were in class. She carried herself like royalty and regarded Midge with an outward contempt that frequently slipped into outright cruelty and bullying. Barbara Pennon and the other girls frequently joined in. The school was full of bullies. The town was full of bullies.
    Outside, Mr. Blake had everyone run once around the track as a warm up. Eleanor was last. David had not brought gym clothes and so was excused. He sat on the bleachers with Mr. Blake’s clipboard in the sunshine and Eleanor smiled for him, though no one could see it.
    They split up into two co-ed soccer teams and played a game. Mr. Blake stayed in the center with his whistle, blowing frequent fouls and raising yellow cards like a World Cup referee.
    It was a dumb game. No one was good at soccer. The boys wanted to play football or basketball or be let out to the stables for rodeo training, and the girls just didn’t want to be there at all. Mr. Blake was from Nicaragua where soccer was king. He taught Spanish and sports and made the kids learn the