Free After Ever After (9780545292788) by Jordan Sonnenblick Page A

I repeated the whole ugly cycle for the next two days — the only difference was that the turkey in the sandwiches kept getting older and drier. If there hadn’t been any school on Monday, I think I would have been eating green turkey jerky, and died of food poisoning.
    But no, there was the whole candy heart thing to contend with instead. When I got to homeroom, my teacher told me to report to the guidance office and see Dr. Galley. She’s new this year, or at least sort of new. She was around when my brother was in middle school, but then took the last couple of years off to get an advanced degree. I knew all this because, believe it or not, Steven stayed in touch with her by e-mail. Which is more than he did with me.
    I hadn’t seen her since the first year of my treatment. All I remembered was that she had soft, blond hair that didn’t quite match her tough-sounding voice. Plus, I knew Steven had an old in-joke with her: He always said that if she offered him a candy heart, he would run away in terror. Apparently she only busted out with the candy hearts right when she was about to tell you some horrible news. I knew Steven thought she was awesome, but truthfully, as I walked into her office I was kind of scared.
    I sat down in the hard plastic chair next to her desk, and she swiveled to face me. The blond hair had gone partly white, but other than that, she looked very much the same. She smiled at me and said, “Would you like a candy heart?”
    Yikes.
    â€œUh, no, thank you.”
    She smiled warmly, like a happy grandmother. “So. Jeffrey Alper. I can’t believe how grown-up you are. I’m Dr. Galley. I don’t know whether you remember me, but I could never forget you. I can’t believe you’re that same little boy with the baseball cap from your brother’s All-City jazz band concert.” At this point, her eyes got all misty, and I almost got myself ready to hand her a tissue, but then she recovered. “I’ve kept meaning to call you down just to say hello, but with four hundred students on my caseload and all this testing to deal with …” She swept her hand in a circle to indicate the huge piles of official-looking boxes all around the little room. What perfect decor for a counselor’s office — nothing says Relax like a million standardized test booklets.
    â€œAnyway, I’m really happy to see you again, looking so big, strong, and healthy. How is your eighth-grade year going so far?”
    She sat there perfectly still, smiling and waiting for my answer. It was unnerving. If genetic scientists ever cross an elderly homemaker and a praying mantis, the result will look a whole lot like Dr. Galley. Oh, boy. This woman knew something. But what?
    â€œOh, fine, fine. Thanks for asking.” I looked down into my lap and folded my hands.
    â€œThat’s great to hear. I’ve been looking over your five-oh-four plan, and I see that you have faced some academic challenges in the past. But your first marking period grades look good. I haven’t heard any complaints from your teachers, either.”
    She stared. I twiddled my thumbs. She stared some more. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I grabbed my backpack, started to stand up, and said, “OK, then, since everything’s going so well, I guessI’ll just head on back upstairs. It was really great seeing you again, but I have science first period, and I wouldn’t want to miss any —”
    â€œJeffrey, I just got off the phone with your mother.”
    Wham! My butt hit that chair again so hard my teeth rattled. I suddenly remembered this time in sixth grade when Jimmy Blasingame got called downstairs, and the counselor told him his father had been in a car accident. “Is everything all right? Is Steven OK? What happened?”
    It was weird — even though I’ve been mad at my brother for months, he was the very first person I worried about. I