The Fold Read Free Page A

shot him an annoyed look.
    Joyce quickly threw down the money and grabbed the yearbook. As the student behind the counter started to hand Joyce the change, she caught him staring at the side of her head. Joyce could feel the egg pulsing with attention. She quickly grabbed the change and ran out of the bookstore.
    “Joyce, wait up,” Gina called.
    Joyce cleared the crowd and finally stopped in the hallway. Gina caught up to her.
    “What’s wrong with you?”
    “I hate this place,” Joyce said, staring down the empty hall, clutching the yearbook to her chest.
    Gina pulled the edge of the yearbook down and grabbed the granola bar and her change from Joyce.
    “What’s new?” Gina said, peeling open the wrapper of her granola bar. They started walking down the hall. “Come on. It’s the last day of school. You’re supposed to be happy.”
    Joyce laughed bitterly. “Yeah, right. I just paid fifty dollars for a second yearbook and got called an Oriental bitch by that meathead in the bookstore. And then the guy behind the counter was staring at my zit. Did you see him?”
    Gina stopped. “What did that jerk call you?”
    “Us. He called us Oriental bitches who move as slow as we drive.”
    Gina closed her eyes and bit down on her lower lip. Then she opened her eyes and let loose. “That jock-grabbing, ass-scratching, meatheaded LOSER!” Gina turned around to go back to the store.
    Joyce reached out and grabbed the back of Gina’s shirt. “Come on, Gina. What are you going to do? Beat him up?”
    “No,” she said. “But I can call him some choice names and educate him. It’s ‘
Asian
bitch,’ dumb ass.”
    “Yeah, and then what?”
    “And then he’ll be enlightened and I’ll feel better.”
    Joyce shook her head. “Forget it. You can’t educate a Neanderthal. And it’s the last day of school, remember?”
    “I hate this school,” Gina said.
    Joyce snorted and smiled. Gina smiled back.
    “Come on, you slow-ass Asian bitch. I’ll walk you to your locker,” Gina said.
    “Thanks, bitch,” Joyce said, and they began their slow-motion walk to their lockers.
    Joyce stared at herself in the mirror hanging inside her locker. She kept brushing forward more hair to make sure the egg was covered. She didn’t want a repeat performance from it. Joyce turned to Gina.
    “Do I look okay?”
    Gina sat on the cement floor signing Joyce’s yearbook. “You look great,” she said without looking up.
    Joyce checked herself one last time. This was it. Fifth period. Her last chance to really see the color of John Ford Kang’s eyes.
    “Wish me luck,” Joyce said, taking a breath.
    “Luck,” Gina said, still not looking up from the book.
    Joyce scowled. “What are you doing? Stop writing in that. You better not be saying anything incriminating.”
    Gina finished with a flourish of her signature. “Come on. You can’t give the guy an empty yearbook. He’ll think you saved the entire thing for him.”
    Joyce felt anxiety creeping up on her again. “Oh, no, he’s going to think I don’t have any friends.” She grabbed the yearbook and opened it up to blank page after blank page. “Where did you sign?” Joyce asked in a panic.
    Gina stood up laughing. “Joyce, it’s okay. Look, here’s my entry. And I made it really big.” Gina flipped to the back and showed her the page with the photograph of the orange tree that symbolized the school. “Just have him sign on that page.”
    Joyce scanned the entry that started with the block letters HEY, ASIAN BITCH . Joyce looked up. “Gina!”
    Gina was already down the hall, waving. The bell for fifth period sounded through the open-air hallways. Gina cupped her hands near her mouth and yelled, “You can do it!”
    Joyce shut the yearbook. This was it.

THREE
    they had chemistry together. For this one whole school year, Joyce had been able to study John Ford Kang like the true specimen that he was. She knew every muscle twitch, every cadence of his laugh, every