"Make friends with my daughter, and I'll pay you a thousand dollars."
Tara's junior year of high school is turned upside down after she collides into the life of Aurora Rosenberg, the autistic teenage heiress to Rosenberg Technologies. Mr. Rosenberg...
I walk through the crowd at the end of the day, headed to my locker. That Communication 2 class really surprised me. I've never seen a classroom set up like that. It was... nice.
Not going to lie: I also like sitting next to Adam. A grin spreads over my face. He wants to go on another date this weekend! I wonder where we'll go...
I find my locker, do the combination, and swing it open.
And I stare into the face of a murderous clown.
I shriek. The picture looks like it came from one of my worst nightmares, where the clown-monster chases me down the maze of endless hallways with its claws held out to choke me... My heart feels like it wants to hurl itself out of my chest.
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[A sketch of Tara jumping back in shock and fear. Lexi looks at her with a confused or worried expression. Beverly, turned mostly away, fails to contain her amusement.]
People stare. Lexi stares. Beverly laughs.
I slam my locker shut, face burning hot, running down the hall, pushing past strangers in backpacks, racing away from that place...
... I see the girls' bathroom and dash inside. I hurry into a stall and slide the bolt shut.
My breath comes out in heaves and sobs. My face burns like a furnace and I realize tears have left streaks down my face. One picture, and I'm left like a panicked little girl. My nose is running, so I wipe it again and again between labored breaths. How can I get so scared by just a picture? It's not fair! It's not fair!
I try to slow my breathing, my shoulders shaking as I exhale. I can't believe this. I panicked in front of everyone. In front of my ex girlfriend. In front of Beverly.
They're going to talk about it, aren't they? People are going to tell their friends. I won't just be the girl who lost her mom and disappeared for a year, but the girl who lost her mom and panicked because someone stuck a clown picture in her locker. They're going to think I'm a freak. A freak who runs away whenever things get hard.
No, Tara, no. Stop. You're spiraling.
I keep trying to take deeper breaths. This is a big school. Most of them don't know me by name. It'll probably blow over by next week. Nobody thinks about me as much as I do. I'm doing my best, and that's what my old therapist said was important.
I'm doing my best. Nobody cares that much.
I'm doing my best.
I'm a smart person. I can figure this out. I never told anybody at school about my clown fear at school. Except the girls at the sleepover. But no, I don't think they'd do something like this. I don't know them that well, but they all seemed sweet.
I blow my nose. I'm breathing slower now.
Whoever did this would have had to have access to my locker. I only shared the combination with my aunts in case of emergency, and they know better than to share it. That's two mysteries.
