Amal > Recent Status Updates

“And even though there’s so much I don’t know—so much that I can’t know—I’ve also never felt more sure of myself.”

“There’s only about forty minutes left at this point,” I say. “I think he’s earned at least that much of a reprieve.”
“Very well,” Dr. Guinn says. “Reprieve granted.”

The patience of this man I kinda feel bad

“Hello, Sentinels. This is Len DiMartile.”
“And this is Serena Hwangbo.”
“Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.”

“Come on, Eliza.You know it’s not always that easy. Especially with you. How would you have reacted if I’d told you?”
“I would’ve never talked to you again.”
“Is that what you want? For us to have never been friends?”
“Yes.”
“You really mean that?” His voice cracks on the last syllable, and my chest pinches. But I don’t back down.
“I mean everything I say. Not like you.”

OH

“What’s wrong, Len?”
He looks away. “I posted the manifesto.”

OH MY GOD WHICH MEANS HE WROTE THAT CONCLUSION TOO

“Okay, then tell me the real reason. The truth.”
Len lies back down when I say this, gazing up at the ceiling instead of me. And even though I’ve been trying to needle him, it strikes me that maybe these things can be confusing for him, too.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you,”
“It’s okay,” I joke gently. “I already know that you like me.”

“him. “Especially because it’s still unclear whether you’re going to resign or not.”
“I’ll resign,” he says.
His directness disarms me. “Really?”
“Sure. If that’s what you want, I’ll tell Mr. Powell tomorrow.”
“Are you just agreeing because you want to keep hooking up?”
“So that is on the table?”

Bro rly wants that cookie

“And then?”
“He told me that he’d let us work it out ourselves.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
We’re both silent for a minute. Then Len pulls his keys out of his pants pocket, tosses them in the air, and catches them with one hand. “So . . . what do you think?” he says, giving me side-eye. “Should we try to work it out?”

“How did Guinn react to the fact that you were low-key threatening legal action on my behalf?”
“He asked whether my mother customarily sends me to represent her clients.”
“Oh my God.” I’m dying. “He called you out.”
“A little bit.”

“shake my head in disbelief. “You didn’t have to do that, you know. I could have survived detention.” Something bitter occurs to me. “I didn’t need you to rescue me.”
“Oh, I know.” The corner of his mouth goes up. “But isn’t it nice to have the patriarchy conspire to benefit you for once?”
I mean, I would prefer if there were no patriarchy at all. But also, he’s not wrong.”

“Right, but schools reserve the right to discipline behavior that is disruptive.”
“Does standing on a lunch table while yelling into a megaphone count as ‘disruptive’?”
“Maybe if you’re dressed like that.”
“Get to the point, victim-blamer.”

“Free at last?”
I wheel around, and there’s Len, standing behind me, his backpack hanging from one shoulder.
“You look good,”

He probs freed her

“No,” I say again. “It’s the principle of it.”
He drags his hands over his face, like I exasperate him. Then he kind of chuckles as he rubs his eyes. “It’s always about the principle with you, isn’t it?”
“A girl’s gotta have a code.”

“That I’ve read all about Tommy John surgery even though I don’t give two shits about baseball because I wanted to know if you would be okay.”

2/2
You just outright confessed by saying that but ok

“Don’t lie,” I say. “You want me to say that I like you.” The words come out before I can stop them. “You want me to say that every time I have a bubble tea now, I can’t help thinking of your sad boba-drinking technique. That I sped through three hundred pages of Life: A User’s Manual with a confusing sense of urgency because you lent it to me...”
1/2

“What do you want me to say, Len?” I wave his laptop like I’m about to throw it across the room.
“Nothing.” He eyes the computer as it dangles from my hand, but he doesn’t break his calm. “Say whatever you want, I don’t care.”

Nonchalant ahh response

“If I were a betting man,” he says, without looking up from his computer, “I’d say you were following me.”

“But do you even like her?” I blurt out. “Because if you don’t, then you shouldn’t encourage her.”
Len looks at me for a long moment. “Sometimes, things aren’t always so black-and-white,” he says. “I think you know how it is.”

Insert Disney Ooo

“ “I don’t know how you stand her,” I say, hating how peeved I sound. “She’s the worst.”
“Well, she’s nice to me.”
“She’s obviously flirting with you,” I argue. “She’s always flirting.”
“What’s wrong with that?” He stops to face me when he says this, and I almost fall over his toes. “She knows what she wants, and she lets people know.”

Do not defend the opp in front of us

“It’s too bad you’re not pitching anymore,” she says. “It would have been cool to see you play.”
“Maybe you will,” says Len. “Maybe I’ll get back into it.”

You told us sum else

“Six three,” says Len. “How tall are you?”
“I’m five three!” Natalie laughs like this is the most hilarious thing in the world.”
Sybau Natalie

“You were right”

“He seems a bit too pleased with himself, a bit too smug about this victory. When I understand what he doesn’t, I lean up and kiss him.”

“Why don’t you tell me,” I say, brushing past him.”

ATE.

“We don’t know what it means.”
Now it’s my turn to look at him like he should know better. “No guy leans into a girl like that without being into her,”
“That seems like conjecture.”
“No, it’s definitely true.”
“Are you sure?” Len takes a few steps closer and unexpectedly pulls the move on me, putting out a hand to support his weight against the shipping container wall. “Still?”

“Well, alternate-universe Len would be . . .Chatty. Direct. Very serious.. “And a feminist, of course.”
.“I see.”
“What about alternate-universe Eliza?”
L:“She’d probably be . . . easygoing, humble, and totally obsessed with boys.”
I snort. “What does she think of alternate-universe Len?”
“Oh, she likes him.”
“Does he like her?”
“Sure. They get along pretty well.”

“This is so weird,” I say, after Len has parked. “I feel like we’re gonna run into the alternate-universe versions of ourselves here.”
“Oh yeah?” Len’s got the camera around his neck again, this time with a long zoom lens. Walking backward, he holds it up and snaps a photo of the Hargis quad. “What would they be like?”
.

“I had to shuffle some things around.” I square my shoulders at Len. “But lucky for you, I can make it.”
“What can I say? I’ve always been a lucky guy.”

“You’re always reading so many books, and working on that newspaper,” Mom likes to say. “You must be good at writing.”

Me n my mom core

“I thought your elbow was supposed to be injured.” I pick up the basketball from the floor and throw it at the hoop, achieving an impressive airball.
“It is.” Len retrieves the ball and tosses it lazily with one hand, sending it in clean through the net. Then he raises his other arm. “But I’m a lefty.” He stretches out his fingers, one by one. “Like you.”
When the hell did he notice that?”
Exactly

“Also on his desk: a plush Totoro (not expected) and Life: A User’s Manual (more expected).”

Totoro mentioned