“Hi,” Caitlyn said.“Hello.”“I’m Caitlyn.”Mathilde grinned. “The Wild West girl who rode bareback! Yes, I know. The whole school knows! Can you shoot a gun, too?”Caitlyn’s cheeks heated in embarrassment. “Urg,” she gurgled, “no.”

“The driver bumped his way through the door and plopped down Caitlyn’s “luggage.” Caitlyn watched Madame Snowe’s eyes go to it, widening asshe took it in. Caitlyn’s cheeks heated.Her “luggage” was a Vietnam War-era army green duffel bag, bought for a dollar at a garage sale. Cloud-shaped moisture stains mottled itsfaded surface, and jagged stitches of black carpet thread sealed a rip on one end, Caitlyn’s clumsy needlework giving the mended hole the look ofone of Frankenstein’s scars.“Is that all you brought?” Greta asked.Caitlyn nodded, wishing the floor would swallow her.“Very good. You will have no trouble unpacking, and then you can burn your bag, heh?”“Reduce, reuse, recycle!” Caitlyn said with false cheer. “We’re very big on living green in Oregon. Why buy a new suitcase when someone else’sold duffel bag will do?”“We’ll see that it gets … disposed of properly,”

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Caitlyn protested. “I’m sure it keeps you out of trouble.”“Thierry told me I was cold. He wasn’t the first boy to say that, either.”Caitlyn winced. “Ouch.”Amalia turned toward Caitlyn. “I wish I could be more like you.”“Me? Are you kidding? Why?”“You let your emotions show on your face. They’re right on the surface, for all to see.”Caitlyn grimaced. “I thought I’d learned to control that.”“See?” Amalia copied her grimace. “Right on the surface!”“Mmph,” Caitlyn grunted unhappily.“Mmph,” Amalia copied.Caitlyn threw up her hands in defeat, then cast a quick warning look at Amalia. “Don’t you do it!”Amalia chuckled.”

“Monsieur Girard grinned at the effect his story had had, and moved on, grunting disparagingly at another student’s efforts. As he approached her,Caitlyn went back to work, afraid to be caught slacking. He came to stand behind her, watching her attempts, and despite her best efforts her armslowed and then dropped as she was overcome with self-consciousness.“Do you, too, have a brilliant artist locked in your head?” he asked.“No. I’m beginning to think I don’t know a thing about art.”“Class! Do you hear? She knows nothing about art! And she proves it in her drawing.”Caitlyn cringed.“This,” he went on, laying his hand upon her head, “is the proper state of mind for learning to draw. Your mind must be blank of your old ideas andold ways of seeing. You must start fresh, like a baby who has never seen the world.” He dropped his hand from her head and pointed to the areashe’d shaded with parallel lines. “This is nice.”“Thank you,” Caitlyn said in soft surprise.He nodded in acknowledgment. “Keep listening. With open ears, you will be one of the few who learn.”

“There's no bright side," Phineas objected. "The man's got no gonads.""But she hit the target," Carlos said."The man has got no gonads," Phineas repeated forcefully."It was an accident." Caitlyn set her gun on the counter. "I was aiming for his chest.""You blew his pecker to Connecticut," Phineas muttered.She grinned. "I think you have issues, Phineas. It was only a paper pecker.”

“Caitlyn, s’il vous plait!” Madame said, whacking the blackboard with her stick, its end pointing to the irregular verb devoir, “to have to.” Shewanted Caitlyn to conjugate it.Caitlyn felt the class’s attention turn to her, and a clammy sweat broke out in her armpits. Her brain stopped in its tracks, unable to move underthe pressure. A vague sense of having known how to speak French in her dreams tickled at her brain, but the skill was as lost to her in the wakingworld as was Raphael.“Devoir,” Caitlyn croaked. “Er. Je dev? Tu dev?”Madame gaped at her, horrified.Caitlyn shook her head; she knew those words were wrong. “Er … I mean, uh …” And then out of nowhere came, “Egli deve, lei dovrebbe …”These words felt right. He must, she must …Several girls burst into laughter.“What?” Caitlyn demanded.“You’re speaking Italian!” one girl shrieked, and collapsed into hysterical giggles.”