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Stefan.
I just hope I can remember my part.
Nine
"& And so, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the class of '92!"
Bonnie threw her cap into the air along with everyone else. We made it, she thought. Whatever happens
tonight, Matt and Meredith and I made it to graduation. There had been times this last school year when
she had seriously doubted they would.
Considering Sue's death, Bonnie had expected the graduation ceremony to be listless or grim. Instead,
there was a sort of frenzied excitement about it. As if everyone was celebrating being alive before it
was too late.
It turned into rowdiness as parents surged forward and the senior class of Robert E. Lee fragmented in
all directions, whooping and acting up. Bonnie retrieved her cap and then looked up into her mother's
camera lens.
Act normal, that's what's important, she told herself. She caught a glimpse of Elena's aunt Judith and
Robert Maxwell, the man Aunt Judith had recently married, standing on the sidelines. Robert was holding
Elena's little sister, Margaret, by the hand. When they saw her, they smiled bravely, but she felt
uncomfortable when they came her way.
"Oh, Miss Gilbert I mean, Mrs. Maxwell you shouldn't have," she said as Aunt Judith handed her a
small bouquet of pink roses.
Aunt Judith smiled through the tears in her eyes. "This would have been a very special day for Elena,"
she said. "I want it to be special for you and Meredith, too."
"Oh, Aunt Judith."Impulsively, Bonnie threw her arms around the older woman. "I'm so sorry," she
whispered. "You know how much."
"We all miss her," Aunt Judith said. Then she pulled back and smiled again and the three of them left.
Bonnie turned from looking at them with a lump in her throat to look at the madly celebrating crowd.
There was Ray Hernandez, the boy she'd gone to Homecoming with, inviting everybody to a party at his
house that night. There wasTyler 's friend Dick Carter, making a fool of himself as usual.Tyler was smiling
brazenly as his father took picture after picture. Matt was listening, with an unimpressed look, to some
football recruiter fromJames Mason University . Meredith was standing nearby, holding a bouquet of red
roses and looking pensive.
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Vickie wasn't there. Her parents had kept her home, saying she was in no state to go out. Caroline
wasn't there either. She was staying in the apartment in Heron. Her mother had told Bonnie's mother she
had the flu, but Bonnie knew the truth. Caroline was scared.
And maybe she's right, Bonnie thought, moving toward Meredith. Caroline may be the only one of us to
make it through next week.
Look normal, act normal. She reached Meredith's group. Meredith was wrapping the red-and-black
tassel from her cap around the bouquet, twisting it between elegant, nervous fingers.
Bonnie threw a quick glance around. Good. This was the place. And now was the time.
"Be careful with that; you'll ruin it," she said aloud.
Meredith's look of thoughtful melancholy didn't change. She went on staring at the tassel, kinking it up.
"It doesn't seem fair," she said, "that we should get these and Elena shouldn't. It's wrong."
"I know; it's awful," Bonnie said. But she kept her tone light. "I wish there was something we could do
about it, but we can't."
"It's allwrong ," Meredith went on, as if she hadn't heard. "Here we are out in the sunlight, graduating,
and there she is under that stone."
"I know, I know," Bonnie said in a soothing tone. "Meredith, you're getting yourself all upset. Why don't
you try to think about something else? Look, after you go out to dinner with your parents, do you want to
go to Raymond's party? Even if we're not invited, we can crash it."
"No!" Meredith said with startling vehemence. "I don't want to go to any party. How can you even think
of that, Bonnie? How can you be so shallow?"
"Well, we've got to dosomething & "
"I'll tell you whatI'm doing. I'm going up to the cemetery after dinner. I'm going to putthis on Elena's
grave. She's the one who deserves it." Meredith's knuckles were white as she shook the tassel in her
hand.
"Meredith, don't be an idiot. You can't go up there, especially at night. That's crazy. Matt would say the
same thing."
"Well, I'm not asking Matt. I'm not asking anybody. I'm going by myself."
"You can't. God, Meredith, I always thought you had some brains "
"And I always thought you had some sensitivity. But obviously you don't even want to think about Elena.
Or is it just because you want her old boyfriend for yourself?"
Bonnie slapped her.
It was a good hard slap, with plenty of energy behind it. Meredith drew in a sharp breath, one hand to
her reddening cheek. Everyone around them was staring.
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"That's it for you, Bonnie McCullough," Meredith said after a moment, in a voice of deadly quiet. "I don't
ever want to speak to you again." She turned on her heel and walked away:
"Never would be too soon for me!" Bonnie shouted at her retreating back.
Eyes were hastily averted as Bonnie looked around her. But there was no question that she and
Meredith had been the center of attention for several minutes past. Bonnie bit the inside of her cheek to
keep a straight face and walked over to Matt, who had lost the recruiter.
"How was that?" she murmured.
"Good."
"Do you think the slap was too much? We didn't really plan that; I was just sort of going with the
moment. Maybe it was too obvious& "
"It was fine, just fine." Matt was looking preoccupied. Not that dull, apathetic, turned-in look of the last
few months, but distinctly abstracted.
"What is it? Something wrong with the plan?" Bonnie said.
"No, no. Listen, Bonnie, I've been thinking. You were the one to discover Mr. Tanner's body in the
Haunted House last Halloween, right?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]