Pass/Fail (2012) Read Online Free Page B

school started. I had some friends in Chicago, that wasn’t so bad. But here I don’t know anybody. That’s where we’re from, Chicago. It was a lot different. It’s so hard, not having anybody to talk to.”
    Jake nodded in sympathy. During the summers, when Cody was in Florida with his grandmother, he often felt the same way. Like part of his life was missing, like there were resources he needed and he couldn’t find them.
    She went on about her life, her childhood, her parents. Trying so hard to make good grades in school, not because it seemed very important but because nothing else did, either, nothing seemed to make much difference but at least with grades you knew there was something to work towards. There was a concrete goal, and she liked that.
    He did not choose to share his Pass/Fail status.
    Finally she wound down, until there were pauses between her sentences, stretches where they did nothing but walk together in silence. It wasn’t nearly as awkward as the silence that came before, though. “This is kind of nice,” that little laugh that couldn’t, “it’s nice talking to you. You’re so quiet. I feel like you’re just listening, paying total attention to me. Most people when you talk to them they’re nodding and acting like they hear you but they’re actually thinking about what they’re going to say next. They aren’t really listening at all. That always makes me so crazy.”
    Jake nodded again. He wondered if he should offer to carry her books or something, then thought better of it. Instead he asked, when it was clear she had finished, “What happened that night in your car? Why did you drive into my house?”
    Her eyes flashed and he saw that deep blue again. He wouldn’t mind just looking at those eyes for a long time, he thought.
    “It was just an accident. I got careless, I think.”
    “You think?” he asked.
    She shrugged as if the question didn’t make much sense. “I was going home. I’d been at the mall, buying some stuff for school. Just notebooks and pens and things, and a couple outfits, I guess. I was driving home, I mean, I don’t drink, so it wasn’t that, but there was this moment where my eyes were closed. It’s funny, I wasn’t even tired. I don’t remember being tired… I guess I must have been. My eyes were closed, just for a second, and then the car was headed right for a brick wall. That’s all I remember. I’m sorry. I wish I had a better answer for you.”
    “That’s fine.” They reached the school a few moments later and walked inside together. “Listen,” he said, as they split up to go to their individual homerooms, “do you walk the same way every morning?”
    She nodded, her eyes wide.
    He was a little surprised himself. “Tomorrow, when you get to that corner, wait for me. Or I’ll wait for you. I want to—ask you some more questions.”
    It was almost like he’d asked her out, Jake thought. It was very close.
    She agreed to the plan and then went her way. Jake headed toward Mr. Schneider’s room—his head was spinning and he wanted to talk to Cody very badly, he needed to talk to Cody—but when he got there the door had a note on it telling him to go to a classroom on the other side of the school. By the time he arrived the bell had rung and the halls were deserted, but he figured he didn’t need a hall pass. Unless that was part of the test—he couldn’t rule that out.
    This was it. It had to be. The next test. His palms started to sweat.
    He reached for the doorknob of Classroom 187 but the door opened before he could touch it. Standing inside was a man in a navy blue three piece suit, wearing black leather gloves and a perfectly reflective mask. In the reflection Jake’s face looked terrified.
    “Hello, Jake,” the Proctor said. “Are you ready to get started?”
     

Chapter Seven
    The Proctor’s voice wasn’t electronically distorted, at least it didn’t sound that way. It didn’t sound human, either, though. It had a