Faire Exchange: Chapter 28

Gregg looks up an address.

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Gregg held his head in his hands. "This bites."

"Not so loud," Nadia said. Nobody else in the hallway was talking, and with the kind of trouble they were in, it didn't seem like a good idea to speak too much.

"It's still true." He went into Ms. Ivory's room with Nadia. What was he going to tell Mom? The last time he'd even gotten a demerit was in third grade. He'd always prided himself on being a good student with good conduct. He never even threw any food at Rina. Not that it mattered. As far as the teachers were concerned, all of fifth grade was responsible.

Nadia leaned back in her desk and let her arms hang straight down. "My parents are going to kill me."

"Mine too. I'm gonna be six feet deep because of this."

Jeremy passed by the door, only giving Gregg the slightest glance. He was undoubtedly thinking the same thing as Gregg and Nadia. Jeremy's mom was cool, but she could be tough. Gregg half-expected Jeremy to be missing a piece of his throat by tomorrow.

Outside, the third graders were shouting and squealing, enjoying their recess.

"So what're we gonna do?" he said.

"I wish I knew," Nadia said. "Mr. Newell said he'd be sending letters home."

"And our parents are gonna have to sign it," Gregg said. "How good are you at faking signatures?"

"Never tried it. But… no, I'd know it was fake." Nadia stared up at the ceiling. "What I did to Rina's already bad enough."

"That stuff you said this morning."

"I didn't really mean it. She came for help and everybody was watching and I panicked and I threw it back in her face."

Guilt welled up in Gregg like the stench from a trash can. It was just like what he'd done yesterday, all to show Martin and Jeremy that he could hate Rina just like them. He'd spent the last day trying to think of anything but her, and failing completely. "If only I could apologize to her."

"Yeah." Nadia hung her head, then suddenly perked it up. "Yeah."

Gregg knew what Nadia was thinking, because he had the exact same idea at the exact same time. "We should apologize to her. Go over to wherever the Wyrdnin are staying and tell her we're sorry."

"Right. I've been fighting it all week, and I have to face facts. I'm her friend. I'm all she's got. You know she doesn't even have any Wyrdnin friends? Somebody's gotta be there for her. "

"I guess it might as well be us."

As it turned out, Ms. Ivory also had apologies on her mind. She entered the classroom and announced that in addition to the letters being sent home with everybody, the boys and girls were going to write Rina their own letters of apology to be sent to the Wyrdnin home.

The letter Gregg wrote consisted of the right words for what Ms. Ivory wanted, but it wouldn't be his real feelings. He would save that for when he could say it to Rina in person. But this presented an interesting opportunity. Right now, neither Gregg nor Nadia knew where the Wyrdnin's house was. Ms. Ivory probably did.

When Nadia got up to turn in her letter, Gregg whispered as low and quiet as he could, "Ask for the address."

Nadia nodded, and proceeded to the front of the room. She whispered to Ms. Ivory a moment, then Ms. Ivory whispered something, then Nadia returned to her desk.

Soon she slid a neatly-folded scrap of notebook paper by his elbow.

She doesn't know, but has the address up there. I didn't get a good look.

Soon Gregg finished his letter. While he was at Ms. Ivory's desk, he lingered and scanned the papers on her desk. One of them had an address for Frazier Street. That was in Kramer Heights. Hadn't Jeremy mentioned…?

"May I help you?" Ms. Ivory said.

Gregg whispered, "Is that the address for the Wyrdnin?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Just wondering." The address was 9182 Frazier. 9-1-8-2. A while back he'd learned a memorization technique, where he could turn numbers to letters, then letters to words, and then memorize the words. So 9-1-8-2 became B-T-V-N. He turned that into "Beethoven" on his way back to his desk. As soon as he sat down, he wrote a new note to Nadia.

9182 Frazier St. —Kramer Heights.

Nadia wrote back: I know where that is! The Asian grocery store my mom goes to is near there.

Maybe my mom can take us after school. Can you give directions?

Sure can, Nadia replied.

And so, Gregg pledged himself to his mission. By the end of the day, he was going to tell Rina how he really felt.