Still a Work in Progress Read Free Page B

and felt the need to discuss it “anonymously” at Community Meeting. It didn’t take long for everyone to figure out who she was talking about, and for a while, Emma was the most popular girl in school, not because she was the prettiest and smartest but because everyone wanted to find out if she thought they’d be a savage or a Ralph. Ralph’s the main character and the only one who doesn’t either die or turn into a beast follower, which is what happens to all the boys who become savages. Pretty soon, it didn’t matter who she labeled what, because the whole school was fighting about it and calling one another savages and it was all Emma’s fault. And just like in the book, they turned on her. Emma, who everyone loved and adored, suddenly became the outcast. I’m pretty sure she started out convinced she was a Ralph, but in the end she came to believe she was the beast after all. The entire incident changed her in a big way. It was like she’d seen how she was capable of being a terrible person without even being stranded on an island. Even though eventually people forgot about it and moved on and forgave her, Emma couldn’t. She started trying to be more perfect and more adored than she was before, but to do that, she was secretly punishing herself. It’s not a time we like to talk about.
    Emma used to want to be a psychologist someday. I think she liked to study people to find out if they had a dark side. Sometimes when I had friends over, she’d ask them weird questions, like if they killed insects quickly or tortured them first. I’m glad no one admitted to doing anything worse than squishing a spider with a shoe (Sam) and swatting flies with one of those flyswatter guns you get from the dollar store (Ryan). Sometimes I’d catch her watching me, like she was trying to figure out if I’d grow up to be a serial killer.
    But that all stopped after the
Lord of the Flies
incident. It’s really too bad, because as mean as it was to make that list, I bet she was right about a lot of people.
    “Noah, what was the beast?” Mr. Marshall asks me. “Why do you think the boys all believe in its presence?”
    Mr. Marshall never starts class in the usual way, like by saying hello to everyone or telling us what we’re going to do that day. He just launches into a discussion as if we never stopped talking from the day before.
    I think a minute before I answer. Unlike Mrs. Phelps, who gets closer and closer to your face until you answer, Mr. Marshall seems to put the whole room on pause to wait.
    I think of the boys on the beach and how they all act kind of scary. Even Ralph, the one who’s supposed to be the good guy.
    “I think the beast is the thing inside you that makes you tempted to do bad things,” I say. “It’s . . . something some people have and some don’t. Or maybe we all have it. When we’re put into a bad situation, like being stranded on an island, the beast inside wakes up, looking for who will follow him. The boys believed in the beast because they could feel it waking up inside themselves.”
    “Fascinating,” Mr. Marshall says. “Sadie, what do you think of that?”
    Sadie looks at me and smiles shyly. “I agree with Noah.”
    Ryan nudges me under the table. I nudge back.
    “Care to explain?” Mr. Marshall asks.
    Her face turns bright red. “No,” she says quietly. “Noah said it really well.”
    “Did you read the assignment?” he asks her.
    “Yes.”
    “And you don’t have any thoughts of your own to add?”
    She shakes her head. She looks like she wants to crawl under the table.
    “What about you, Lily?” Mr. Marshall asks hopefully.
    Lily starts talking, but I don’t really listen because Ryan slides a slip of paper over to me:
S likes u.
    I roll my eyes.
    Ryan crosses out the words and draws a heart with my and Sadie’s initials in it. Sometimes I think he forgets we’re not in third grade anymore.
    “Ryan? You seem busy over there. Do you agree with