Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac(30)

I waved at him.

“Jesus, I thought Zuckerman was cheating on you, Chief,” Will called.

“He’d love that,” Ace muttered under his breath.

Will walked up to me and tousled my hair. “You look like you just got out of prison.”

“How’d you know? That’s exactly what I was going for,” I said.

Will looked at me and nodded. “I like it,” he declared after a moment’s consideration. The first bell rang, so we all scattered to our lockers and classes.

“I just want you to know that I think your hair is complete genius,” Alice Leeds, the girl who had helped me open my locker, said to me as I was fishing out my precalculus book.

“Thanks.”

As her locker was only two to the left of mine, I usually saw her several times a day. After third period, Alice brought up my hair again. “It’s weird, but I can’t stop thinking about your hair. It intrigues me. It’s like you have nothing to hide behind anymore.”

“Um, okay.”

At lunch, Alice came up to my table in the cafeteria and handed me a flyer. “I know you’re big into yearbook, but I’m directing this play. Come audition, if you want.”

I looked at the paper, which announced auditions for the Thomas Purdue Country Day School’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. “Oh, that’s not really my type of thing,” I demurred.

“Have you ever been in a play before?” she asked.

“Not since second grade. I played the dual roles of Corn and Plymouth Rock in the school’s Thanksgiving pageant. I was pretty awesome.”

“Well, if you’ve really never been in a play, how do you know for sure that it’s not your thing?”

By now, Alice was starting to attract the attention of the other people at Ace’s table.

“Yeah, Nomi, how do you know?” asked that awful Brianna-girl. Since that first day, she hadn’t spoken to me at all unless it was to say something nasty. She really let loose when Ace wasn’t there, which he hadn’t been that day on account of making up a Spanish test.

“You’re right. I don’t know. I’ll see you there, Alice.” I wasn’t really going to go. I only said I would because Brianna was being such a jerk.

Alice smiled at me and nodded.

“Nice gloves,” Brianna called to Alice as she walked away. Alice was wearing black lace gloves with the fingers cut off. “You better watch out. I heard she’s a total lezzie,” Brianna whispered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your hair,” she said, sweet as vomit. “It might give some people the wrong idea.”

“Your comments might give some people the wrong idea, too,” I said even sweeter. I picked up my tray and left. I decided to tell Ace I wasn’t ever going to eat with those people again.

Somehow, that day managed to become the best one of school so far. It made me cheerful not to be recognized. I went through my classes in a sort of happy fog and by the time eighth period rolled around, I had completely forgotten about my Advanced Photography Workshop project proposal. Mr. Weir had already given me two other extensions, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t come up with an idea. I was probably going to have to drop the class after all.

“So what’s it gonna be, Naomi?” Mr. Weir asked.

“Well, it’s still in progress,” I said, looking around the classroom desperately. Student and professional artwork covered almost every space. In the uppermost corner of the room was a picture from an ultrasound machine. “Maybe something to do with pregnancy?” I suggested.

“Good, but how is that a personal story?” Mr. Weir asked.

“Well…” I tried to improvise. “I’m adopted…and my sister isn’t…Is there anything there?”

Mr. Weir thought about it for a second and then nodded. “Maybe. I’d need to hear a bit more first.”

I wouldn’t have gone to the audition except that I ran into Alice Leeds at our lockers. “Want to walk down with me?” she asked.

And I would have probably said no to that, too, except that idiotic Brianna was watching us from across the hallway. “Sure,” I said loudly enough for her to hear. “Let’s go.”

Alice appraised me over her glasses. “You definitely shouldn’t audition for Rosencrantz or Guildenstern. Not with yearbook. Those roles rehearse every day.”

“Um, okay.”

“I think you might make a good Hamlet…I like the idea of a girl Hamlet, don’t you?”

“Sure,” I said. “Why not?” I watched her make a note on a legal pad and wondered when I could slip out of the theater without her seeing.

At that point, we were inside the theater, and Alice turned her attention to organizing the auditions. I probably could have left, but something kept me there. With its dingy red velvet seats and its scuffed wooden stage, the theater reminded me of a foreign country. It was like all of a sudden discovering that Prague or Berlin was in the middle of my high school. The room was overflowing with nervous energy and excitement, and I guess I wanted to see how it would all turn out.

Before the auditions, Alice made a speech, a few words about the play and her “vision” for it. I liked how passionate she was about things, and somehow she made me forget that I had intended to leave.