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Back She's Gone Save as PDF
Chapters (95)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Video #1
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Video #2
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Video #3
  73. Sixty-Six
  74. Sixty-Seven
  75. Sixty-Eight
  76. Sixty-Nine
  77. Seventy
  78. Seventy-One
  79. Seventy-Two
  80. Seventy-Three
  81. Seventy-Four
  82. Seventy-Five
  83. Seventy-Six
  84. Seventy-Seven
  85. Seventy-Eight
  86. Seventy-Nine
  87. Eighty
  88. Eighty-One
  89. Eighty-Two
  90. Eighty-Three
  91. The Final Video
  92. Acknowledgments
  93. About the Author
  95. Back Cover

Students are all over the hallway. Some are dancing around on one side of the landing while another films them. A few more stand off to the side in a group of four. They all hold phones, gesture wildly, and laugh. They’re part of school’s new TikTok Club. They meet after school once a week and post videos they hope will go viral. A month ago, a freshman uploaded a video of her dancing with her eighty-year-old grandfather, and the thing took off. Millions of views. Now it seems like every kid in the school wants to make something like that. The club is officially sanctioned. It even has a faculty sponsor—Mr. Williams, who teaches journalism and new media.

They ignore me—even the kids I know—because they’re too busy to notice anything. At least that’s how it looks until someone in that group of four sees me. They all grow quiet and stare at me, and two of the kids who were dancing like maniacs stop moving and look as well.

Why are all eyes on me? Am I really such an object of fascination that even the inane TikTok Club comes to a halt when I walk by?

When no one says anything and when they don’t go back to filming, I lift my arms. “What?”

They continue to stare, like I’m a piece of furniture that suddenly started talking.

I give up and turn around, heading back toward my original destination, the English department. I want to see Ron Hartman, who teaches creative writing and runs Ex Libris. Ron is the real deal. It seems strange to see the TikTok kids meeting so close to his office since he detests social media, cell phones, and anything that goes viral on the internet. He’s a poet, even published a book twenty years ago. He says he wants to write more, but teaching takes too much time and energy. The rumor is he used to teach at a college in Colorado but got fired or left because he thought the higher-ups were too uptight. He taught for a while in Europe, too, and then came to Bentley because his grandparents were from here.

Chloe and I both belong to Ex Libris. Even though Chloe plans to study chemistry in college, she’s always loved to read and write. That explains the journal, and it explains why she joined the club sophomore year when Ron heaped praise on every poem she wrote. I didn’t know Chloe very well then. I knew who she was—a beautiful, unattainable girl way out of my league. Obviously, we never hung out, and whenever Ron praised her writing, I felt a sting of jealousy deep in my chest.