Tara Kelly - Harmonic Feedback

I had to look twice at the questions on the paper. They definitely weren’t the normal set, like what’s your name, favorite subject, etc. This one wanted to know our favorite vacation, the best book we’d ever read, what we wanted to be when we grew up, and the first thing we did this morning.

“These are really random,” Justin said.

“Yeah, I had Duncan my freshman year,” Kari said. “He’s a nut job, but he’s entertaining.” She twirled a lock of hair around her finger, biting her lower lip. “We’ll just go around in a circle. I’ll ask you.” She nodded at Justin. “You can ask Drea and whatever.”

“That works,” I said, glancing at the clock and counting the minutes left. Thirty-six.

“Okay.” She poked Justin. “Tell me all about your favorite vacation.”

Justin rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. “You’ll have to give me a minute to think about that.”

“Sure.” Kari smiled at him. Her eyelashes looked like they belonged in a mascara commercial; every lash was perfectly separated and curled. I’d tried to use my mom’s eyelash curler once, but it ended up being more of an eyelash eradicator.

“Do I have something on my face?” she asked me.

“No. I like your makeup.”

The corner of her glossy mouth perked up. “Uh—thanks.” She glanced at Justin, but he was doodling on his questionnaire. “Got an answer yet?”

He dropped his pen and folded his arms across his chest. “I guess it would be the summers I stayed in Milan with my grandma. She lived right by this gelato place, and they had a coconut and mango combo that rocked.”

“I like coconut,” I said.

“Hold up. You spent summers in Milan and all you can say is you liked the ice cream?” Kari asked.

“It ruined me on pizza in the States too. Can’t eat it unless I use my grandma’s recipe.”

Kari wrinkled her nose at him. “Come on, you gotta give me more than that. Did your parents just, like, put you on a plane every summer?”

“Well, my dad worked for a company based out of Munich, so sometimes he took me with him. And Milan was only about a five-hour drive. Staying with my grandma was more fun than a hotel, you know?”

“Not really. My parents don’t exactly frequent Europe much.” Kari rolled her eyes. “We might see my aunt in Vancouver if they’re feeling daring.”

Justin looked down, drumming his hands on his desk.

“Do you speak Italian?” I asked.

Both their heads jerked up like they’d suddenly remembered I was sitting with them. Kari’s eyes darted from me to Justin.

“Sì.” He smiled at me. “I’m a lot better at understanding it than speaking it, though.”

“I have a bunch of language books at home,” I said. “But they don’t teach me how to say the weird stuff.”

“Nah, you have to actually experience the place to learn the good words,” he said.

“Do you study languages for fun?” Kari asked me.

“Yes.”

“Interesting.” She shifted her gaze to Justin and pursed her lips.

“Do you have a favorite language?” he asked me.

“Gaelic.” I didn’t even have to think about it. “It’s really lyrical.”

“Say something in Italian, Justin,” Kari said, biting the cap of her pen.

“Like what?” He glanced at his hands again. His nails looked like the edges of broken glass. Maybe he bit them, like Naomi did.

She leaned closer to him. “Anything.”

“Sono strano.” He gave me a side glance.

“You don’t seem that weird,” I said, hoping I got the translation right.

“That’s because you don’t know me that well yet.” The way he said yet made my cheeks feel hot. Like he’d actually remember my name in a couple of weeks after he made friends here. Normal friends, like Kari.

By the time Kari was done prodding Justin, we’d learned that his favorite book was Slaughterhouse Five , he was interested in psychiatry because the human mind “fascinated” him, and he needed to make sure he still had teeth this morning. He’d dreamed that they’d all fallen out.

“So what was your favorite vacation, Drea?” he asked.

Considering my mom and I were always too busy moving to take vacations, I didn’t have a lot to draw from. “My mom took me to SeaWorld once. I didn’t want to leave after we saw the dolphins—so we watched them until the park closed.”

“If that’s your best vacation, you’re even worse off than I am,” Kari said. “Mine was when I snuck off with my ex during spring break. We drove along the coastline all the way to some town in southern California.”

“Hey, it’s Drea’s turn,” Justin said with a smile.

“I was just trying to speed this up.” She grinned back.

“I want to be a sound designer, don’t have a favorite book, and I tripped over a moving box this morning. Fast enough?” I asked. Next time I would have to come up with a better story for my vacation. Maybe one involving skydiving out of a plane with my “ex.”

“For now,” Justin said. “I’ll just grill you more later.”

Kari’s favorite book was Anne of Green Gables , she wanted to be a journalist, and she’d hit the snooze button three times before she got up. My interview went a lot quicker because I didn’t ask her to elaborate on her experiences. And Justin drew pictures of rectangles and eyeballs on his paper. I wondered if he was even paying attention to her answers.

“Guess we moved too fast,” I said, looking around the room. Some students were using animated hand gestures, others were laughing, and many were writing furiously.

Kari leaned back in her chair, studying me. “So—when did you meet Naomi?”

“When I moved in on Friday. She lives across the street.”

“What do you think of her?”

“She’s nice.” What else could I say? Mom told me to keep my answers to a minimum around people I didn’t know, especially when they wanted to gossip about someone else.

“Yeah.” Kari chuckled. “She sure seems that way, doesn’t she? Watch your back around her.”

Kari’s words made me squirm in my seat. She was the second person in three days to warn me about Naomi. But almost everyone I met made me feel like a freak. They’d give each other these looks, much like the ones Kari gave Justin. I didn’t notice the looks when I was little—the smirks and raised eyebrows. Not until the teasing started. Naomi never looked at me like that.

“She’s my friend,” I said.

Kari put her hand up and shook her head. “You need better taste in friends.”

I opened my mouth to retort, but Justin reached under my desk and brushed his fingers against the back of my hand. It was a quick gesture, but enough to make me forget whatever I was going to say. Warm tingles shot up my forearm, and my stomach felt weird.

“Nothing wrong with loyalty,” he said, giving me a smile.

NAOMI JUMPED IN FRONT OF ME and grabbed my shoulders as I left fourth-period biology. “Anyone?” she asked in a low monotone. “Anyone know what this is? Class?”

I pulled out of her grasp. “You’re not making any sense.”

She fell into step alongside me, her mouth hanging open. “Please tell me you’ve seen Ferris Bueller .”

“I might have.” It’s not like I took notes on every single movie I saw.

“Okay, we’re so watching that. There’s a teacher in it who’s just like the Bot.”

“The Bot?”

“Yeah—that’s what we call Mr. Harvey. He’s the only bio teacher I’ve had who can make dissecting a fetal pig seem like a real estate seminar.”