Chapter 3: What Sachi Inoue Has Been Hearing for Three Weeks

The bell for third period had not yet finished ringing when Sachi Inoue stepped directly into Hana's path in the second-floor corridor and said, without preamble, "I need to show you something, but not here."

Hana stopped. Around them the corridor moved in its usual current — shoes on linoleum, someone's laughter going sharp and brief, the particular smell of chalk and cleaning solution and fifty bodies that had spent July sweating into the same recycled air. Sachi stood perfectly still inside all of it, which was the thing Hana noticed first: the deliberate stillness of someone who had learned to manage how much of herself was visible.

"When," Hana said.