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how it happened?”

    CHAPTER 6
    The next morning I was looking forward to my meeting with Sylvia and Natalie. I whistled on my drive to school. Well, maybe whistling isn’t the best way to describe it, because with my braces, the best I could manage was a sound like the wind moaning.
    As I walked through the auditorium, the lights were already on backstage. I leapt onto the stage and hurried to the dressing room. Natalie was there, but I didn’t see Sylvia. Natalie was dressed in a blouse without transparency, although the top couple of buttons were enticingly unbuttoned.
    “Hi,” I said in my friendliest voice. And then, stating the obvious, “I guess Sylvia’s not here yet.”
    “She’s not coming. She called me last night. She’s got a meeting or something to go to. She’s always got something happening.”
    “Oh.” Suddenly I felt awkward, alone with Natalie. With Sylvia I had felt comfortable from the moment I had met her, but Natalie was different. “She seems to be involved in a lot of things.”
    “Yeah. Now she’s trying to reform the school.”
    “Reform the reform school? I didn’t know it needed reforming.” Natalie gave a condescending chuckle, and I said, “Well, I guess we should practice nim.”
    “That’s what we’re here for.”
    There were things I would rather have done alone with Natalie, but we sat side-by-side and practiced nim. Over and over again. Until she caught on. Until she could respond to every move I made, instantly and correctly, almost without thinking about it.
    As we played, thoughts ran through my head as they always did when I was close to a good-looking girl. I wondered what it was like for two people with braces to kiss. I didn’t have a lot of experience in that area. The top of her blouse came open a little when she moved, and I saw a strap. One strap. She was not wearing a full slip today. Only a bra. That was very unusual. Most girls always wore slips.
    “I think I’ve got it,” Natalie finally said, jumping up and doing a little dance. “I’m ready for Barney.”
    “Are you sure?” I asked. Okay, it was partly because I didn’t want to lose this intimacy with her, but I also had real fears about whether she would clutch when faced with the overbearing Barney and forget the right moves.
    “I’m a cheerleader,” she said when I mentioned this to her. “I’m used to performing in front of crowds. I can handle the pressure.”
    The awkwardness began to come back now that we were no longer busy. It was time for me to go to my homeroom in the cafeteria. Only I didn’t want to leave just yet. To make conversation, I said, “Does Sylvia have a boyfriend?”
    “She’s going with a guy who graduated in June.”
    “So he’s in college now?”
    “He enlisted in the Army. He wants to go to Korea.”
    “Oh.” Korea. That conjured up ghastly images. People were dying there. Or at least they had been. I changed the subject. “Did you know this fellow, Ralph, who fell from the balcony?”
    She looked at me, a startled expression on her face. “You heard about that, eh?”
    “Yes. Umm…Sylvia told me.”
    “Everybody knew him. Ralph was a great guy.” Natalie choked up a little. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
    “Do you know how it happened?”
    “He was alone. Probably clowning around. That’s how boys are.”
    Dr. Graves had said much the same thing. It irritated me that everybody assumed Ralph was responsible for his own death. “Do you really believe that nobody was with him?”
    “That’s what everybody said.” Natalie looked at me. “Why are you so interested in Ralph?”
    I almost told her that I was Ralph’s cousin, but I couldn’t get it out. It would make the moment too emotional, and I wasn’t an emotional person. Instead, I said, “Just curiosity.”
    Why would he be in the balcony of the auditorium alone? If he were really clowning, he probably had an audience. I knew from my own experience that there was no point to