It’s not much—Chloe knows this. It’s just car windows rolled down, the blue-and-white glow of a Walmart in the distance, the smell of wet pavement under the tires, the hum of neon from a Dairy Queen, the same radio station as always blasting a rotation of the same fifteen songs. But she thinks she’s starting to understand what it means to be from here, because she could swear the bright red burn of artificial cherry is the best thing she’s ever tasted.
She leans out into the wind and tips her head back, opening her eyes to the stars, and thinks maybe everything in the world really can fit inside False Beach city limits.
Shara has that effect.
FROM THE BURN PILE
Extracted from the back of Brooklyn’s accordion folder （the pink one, not the green one）
Student Council Meeting Minutes
January 19, 2022
1.??Call to order by Brooklyn Bennett, Student Council President
2.??At 11:37 a.m. in Room C204
3.??12 members, 1 advisor, 1 guest present
a.??Guest: April Butcher, lounging in the last row, practicing a drum solo on a desk; unclear if aware student council meeting taking place
4.??Minutes of the previous meeting read by Bailey Hunt, Student Council Secretary
Motion to approve the minutes
Moved by Rhett Taggert
Seconded by Julie Tran
Motion carried
5.??Officer’s report
a.??Treasurer’s report
i.???Nothing to report
ii.???April Butcher （not a member） suggests adding more spicy items to the vending machines
iii.??April Butcher is not recognized by the chair
6.??Standing Committee Report
a.??Senior Executive Committee
President Brooklyn Bennett declares the formation of a subcommittee of the Senior Executive Committee: the Prom Planning Committee, which would not be officially recognized by the administration due to dancing （a sin） but will choose theme and decorations
i.????April Butcher proposes Teen Mom 2 as a prom theme
ii.???April Butcher is again not recognized by the chair
iii.??April Butcher is asked to leave the meeting by Secretary Bailey Hunt
iv.???April Butcher eats half of the sandwich President Brooklyn Bennett’s packed for lunch
v.????April Butcher is removed from the meeting
11
DAYS SINCE SHARA LEFT: 16
DAYS UNTIL GRADUATION: 27
Monday afternoon, Chloe is sitting on the floor of the choir room, tapping the eraser of a No. 2 pencil against a sheet music study guide. It feels ridiculous to be transcribing quarter notes into block letters when everyone in the room has been sight-reading since sophomore year. Everyone in Mr. Truman’s sixth hour, Girls Select Chorus, knows that the final exam is a technicality.
“Y’all know if they would let me count the spring festivals for the grade, I would,” Mr. Truman tells them.
She’s not thinking about sheet music though. She’s thinking about the note in Rory’s file, the postscript at the end. Take your heart back.
The reference is easy. Her brain filled in the rest of the lyric as soon as she got home: When you find that once again you long to take your heart back and be free …
“Think of Me” was her big solo in Phantom; she’ll probably have every line seared into her brain until she’s dead.
But she can’t figure out why Shara would specifically use that song as a reference unless there’s something more to it. Like maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber’s birthday corresponds to her coordinates. Or she’s starting a new life with a man named Raoul. Or she left to get a nose job and is recuperating in a subterranean labyrinth beneath an opera house in France.
She thinks about junior year, when she was Sonia in Godspell. At least there weren’t any football players in that cast, so she didn’t have to see Shara’s face while she was doing a G-rated burlesque act about the teachings of Jesus. When she’s on stage, she’s always thankful the spotlight’s too bright to see the audience beyond the first row.
Up close, with the light in your eyes, all you can see is what’s right in front of you.
She drops her pencil.
The front row of the auditorium. Where Shara sat to watch Chloe in Phantom.
Mr. Truman shrugs when she asks to go to the bathroom, and she books it toward C Building instead. Rory is easy to find—she’s learned that he usually skulks around the back staircase for his study hall hour—and she fires off her theory.
Rory nods. “We should probably get Smith for this.”
“I don’t know where he is for sixth hour,” Chloe says. “God, the fact that they don’t let us have phones—”