I didn’t want to go to school on Monday, but when I woke up, I did the things I always did. I got ready and ate my cereal and opened the door real quiet. My mom was still asleep because she’d had to work a lot over the weekend, but also probably because I’d worn her out with all my stupid baby crying.

When I got to the cafeteria, I sat down and took Ms. G.’s book out of my backpack, even though I’d finished it. It stayed pretty sad. But I didn’t want Ms. G. to think I was the kind of kid who didn’t finish books.

I held it up in front of my face like a mask. My name is Austin. My name is Austin. My name is Austin.

“What did you think of the Safety test?” Bertie sat down right next to me. “What did you put for number one?”

I shrugged. I held up my book.

“What did you put for number two?” she asked. “I was surprised there were so many ‘all of the above’ and ‘none of the above’ questions. I guess it’s so you have to read through all the choices, right? And it was way longer than I expected. What did you put for number three?”

I gave up. I put my head down on the table. I didn’t even bother to pretend to read.

“Well, aren’t we the gloomy Gus riding the gloomy bus this morning,” Bertie said.

But then she made a funny little noise like the tiniest bit of air escaping out of a balloon.

“Oh no,” she whispered. “Your aunt.”

I didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“When you didn’t come find me at recess on Friday, I thought maybe you got picked up early,” she said. “It was either that or you didn’t want to be friends anymore.” She laughed a bird chirp kind of laugh.

“No,” I said.

“No, you don’t want to be friends?”

“No, I didn’t get picked up early.”

“Oh, right,” Bertie said. “I couldn’t imagine why you would get picked up early. But now I’m remembering about your aunt who is quite ill. Did something happen to her?”

“No,” I said again. I wasn’t sure how I’d gotten into this whole conversation. I wasn’t sure how I’d gotten into any of these conversations. If I had just stopped talking to Bertie the first day I showed up at this school, by now she definitely would have stopped talking to me.