In Lakewood, a small town with a reputation of crime, gangs, outcasts and violence, Lana Takumi is an orphan and a gang member disguised in ripped jeans of her late mother and old flannels of her late father. She feels stuck in an endless cycle of b...
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E V E R E T T
HALFWAY THROUGH MATHS TODAY, I was really starting to question my life choices. What was I thinking when I chose to continue with advanced math in my senior year when I could barely focus on school after Emma died?
I glanced at Lana seated next to me but instead of having her nose buried in her notebook like she did most of the time during maths and physics, she was today seated crossed-legged in her seat, fully engrossed in the Nintendo in her lap. She again wore a flannel way to large for her, baggy ripped jeans, and her usual ratty uggs. Her black hair fell loose and her pale skin was in contrast.
When I looked her up on Facebook and sent her a friend request, I saw an old picture of her, which was her only post. It was a girl in a red summer dress with long shiny black hair. Her was face round and a big smile reached her eyes, making them nowhere near as dull and empty as they seemed now.
The Lana next to me looked almost like a different person. It made me wonder what happened.
Another week had passed since my first day here and after sitting next to Lana in physics and advanced math on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I had figured out that she was not the talkative type at all. In fact, she only spoke when she had to. Otherwise, she was either too engrossed in her textbooks or in her Nintendo.
In addition to being very quiet, she was also a genius. When the teacher wrote a problem on the whiteboard, Ali, Lily, and my brain barely started taking in the numbers while she was already halfway through solving the whole thing in her notebook.
"Lana." I poked her arm with my pencil and she raised her chin and turned her head, dull, coal-black eyes meeting mine.
I offered her a small smile. "Did you solve it?"
"Yeah."
"I don't understand the last part." Could you help me out?"
With a blank face, she dropped her gaze to the halfway unsolved problem scribbled in my notebook before meeting my eyes again. I expected her to mumble an emotionless "Baka" and look away but she actually sighed briefly and nodded.
She put down her Nintendo in her lap and I shoved my notebook closer to her. She put her a finger by the x and started explaining, "So to find the x..."
Despite it only lasting for a few minutes, it was the longest time I had heard her talk and I was really surprised. Her voice was different than I expected. It was raspy like she hadn't talked in days.
Despite looking like she just wanted to return back to her game, she didn't seem to mind repeating the explanation when she noticed I hadn't quite gotten the hang of it.
