“Yo.”
“Nice to meet you.” Jonas nodded once toward Brian, then turned back to Tyler. “You’re friends with Noemi?”
“Friendly. I mean, she doesn’t hate me, I think?” He gave two thumbs up. “What are we supposed to be talking about?”
“The dissolution of the ‘American dream,’” Brian suggested. “That one book of required reading people seem to really like for some reason.”
“This guy,” Tyler said, rolling his eyes at Brian. Jonas felt like he had missed something. “Did you do the reading?”
“No, but I had to read the book for English last year at my old school.”
“Cool, cool. I thought it was okay.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah,” Brian agreed.
“Well, now that that’s settled, how’re you liking Shivery?”
There wasn’t anything to like, but Jonas didn’t want to say that to someone who, for all he knew, had grown up there and bled the place. “It’s fine. Um, the inn where Noemi lives is pretty cool, so that’s good. I haven’t seen much. The town smells like popcorn. That’s different. My dad took me to a diner called Hildi’s.”
“Hilda’s.”
“Right.”
“Great pancakes,” Tyler said. Jonas had thought their pancakes were pretty regular. “Brian lives here.”
“In Galaxie,” Brian clarified. “Not inside the school.”
“Right. But a good chunk of the people who go here live in Shivery.”
“My dad said one of the kids who went here drowned in Shivery last year? Or something. In the woods?” It was a clumsy effort at small talk, but Jonas knew little else about Shivery outside of what was in a single brochure.
“Oh. Yeah.” Tyler picked at one of his cuticles. “Did Noemi not give you the details?”
“We haven’t crossed paths much. She’s not at home that often.”
“Oh.” Tyler nodded, satisfied with the extent to which they’d discussed the subject. Jonas turned to Brian.
“Um, some guy who would have been a senior this year,” Brian offered. He looked at Tyler, whose eyes widened as though to show how devoid they were of answers. “His sister is in our grade,” Brian continued. “I mean, I’m from Galaxie, but Tyler would know better.”
“Not really,” Tyler said.
“So all I know are the same rumors everyone else in school knows,” said Brian. Though the class had barely started, Brian glanced at the clock. “It looked sketchy, but I think they eventually decided he must have drowned in a puddle accidentally? It had been raining. It rains here a lot.”
“That seems weird. Was he drunk or something?”
“Don’t think so,” Brian said at the same time Tyler said, “No.” When Tyler fell silent again, Brian continued. “They didn’t rule it a suicide, but some people think that. I guess his girlfriend just broke up with him.”
“What girlfriend? People talk a lot of nonsense,” Tyler said. “How about that Gatsby, though? Great or not? Discuss.”
And they did discuss—or Brian monologued, really. Tyler took notes in horrendous handwriting, and Jonas contributed very occasionally when his memory aligned against something Brian said. Mainly, he spent the class discretely perusing the internet on his phone.
Shivery, MN, Teen’s Death Ruled “Accidental”
The death of local high school student, 17-year-old Lincoln Miller, was ruled accidental. Miller’s body was discovered in a wooded area by 69-year-old Garret Browning who was walking his dog on the morning of May 20. When autopsy results revealed the cause of death was asphyxiation by drowning, investigators considered foul play, believing that Miller’s body would have had to be relocated from the place of death due to the absence of any water source, natural or man-made, near the site of the body’s discovery. However, the coroner’s report showed no signs of struggle or external injury, and pine needles in the deceased’s stomach and lungs were consistent specifically with the area where he was found. Toxicology reports came back negative.
When asked for comment, police chief Mark Gallagher said, “It’s possible to drown in less than two inches of water. What we suspect is that the deceased may have drowned in a puddle of rainwater after fainting or deliberately lying down to rest due to exhaustion.” Miller’s family confirmed their son, a junior at Galaxie Regional High School, was planning to apply to colleges this coming fall.
“The stress and exhaustion that some teenagers face when they start thinking about graduation and after is really unbearable,” said Katherine Miller, 42, mother of the deceased. “It might not seem like a big deal to be a little tired, but if your child faints in an isolated place with no one around to help them, it suddenly becomes a very big deal.” The Miller family says they hope their loss will encourage other parents to be mindful that children are taking care of their health, regardless of the academic pressures many teens face.
• • •
For the first time in their shared existence, Matt Lake had made Jonas lunch to take to school with him. It consisted of a red delicious apple and a sandwich of unknown specifics (American cheese and some kind of lunch meat) in a brown paper bag. Matt had forgotten to add a drink, so Jonas purchased a bottle of orange soda from a well-stocked vending machine. Fortunately, the cafeteria seating far exceeded the number of students having lunch that period, and Jonas wasn’t forced to ask strangers if he could sit with them. He sat at the very end of a long row of tables that stretched the entire width of the room. This was almost like eating with someone else, but he was far enough away from the nearest group of people that he didn’t infringe on their territory. Jonas was not someone who minded eating alone in a room of near-strangers.
But Noemi seemed to mind seeing a person eating alone in a room of near-strangers. She appeared at the end of Jonas’s table, holding a metal Sleeping Beauty lunch box that somehow didn’t appear childish in her arms. He suddenly became self-conscious, feeling for remnants of sandwich around his mouth.
“Jonas, did you want to eat with us?” She pointed a few tables away where, amid a swath of empty seats, two girls turned and waved.
“Um.” He looked back and forth, Noemi to friends, friends to Noemi.
“You can say no. But I’ll probably never invite you to do anything again.” Though she was smiling, it did not sound like a joke.
“Okay.”
He followed Noemi to a seat beside her, putting him directly across from a girl he hadn’t met yet. The other person was the green-haired girl from homeroom.