Ammu finally picked up the phone. She agreed to swing back around and pick me up, though she didn’t sound happy about it. Surprisingly, Catherine came to see me off, though she still wore that tight-lipped smile.

“Shame you couldn’t stay, we were going to watch a horror movie,” she said, turning the lock so she could open the door. “I guess it’s bound to happen though, with the food you eat.”

“Excuse me?”

“Chyna said … you know, because Indian people eat so much spicy food, you had …” She leaned down to whisper the next words, like they were a dirty secret. “Some digestive issues.”

“I don’t have … I’m not …” But my words got lost because the next minute Catherine had opened up the front door and was pushing me out with a cheery wave of her hand.

That was how the rumor that my father’s restaurant gave people diarrhea started, and spread around the whole school.

It was also the last day Chyna and I were friends.

7

I DON’T HAVE ANY CLASSES WITH FLÁVIA IN THE MORNING. At lunchtime I watch out for her, but when I catch her sitting down with Chyna and her posse I quickly put an end to my roaming eyes.

Chaewon and Jess share one of their curious looks, and I’m sure that it’s about me, but I pretend not to notice.

At the end of the day, the three of us stroll into our Business class. Even though it’s only the first day of the school year it already feels like we’ve been here forever, and I’m restless for the end-of-school bell to ring.

“The front?” Chaewon asks, resting her bag on the row of tables right in front of the teacher’s desk—the seats that everybody detests but Chaewon adores for some reason.

Jess is already sidling into the back row, apparently done with sitting through teacher scrutiny at the front of the class. Chaewon purses her lips tightly but she doesn’t complain. The two of us slip into chairs beside Jess, pulling our Business books out of our bags.

“Which teacher do you think we’ll have for Business?” Jess leans forward on her desk to whisper to us as a slew of students trickle in, the sound of their chatter filling up the room.

“Ms. Montgomery, maybe?” Chaewon asks hopefully. Ms. Montgomery used to teach us Business back in First Year, and she always had the most creative ways of teaching. She made us think about everything practically instead of just making us read through the book and do exercises. Her classes were always just … fun. Although that was something First Year Business could afford to be. First Year was when exams seemed impossibly far away.