“Exactly.”
She rips off his waistcoat and drops it on the floor, then stalks off. William listens intently for the sound of her falling through one of the steps.
To his disappointment, she makes it down unscathed.
“MR. ROCHESTERshould have told Jane about Bertha from the start,” says Lorena the following Friday in English class, speaking in what William perceives to be a superior tone. “That way she would have known what a monster he was, keeping his wife locked up like a rabid animal, before falling in love with him.”
William is already twisted in his seat. “Am I going senile, or was it not you defending his behavior just last week, bemoaning how he wastrapped by societal norms?”
“At your age, you really should get yourself checked out,” she says, and Salma kicks her under the table while Zach whispersouch.
“Well, for a senile person,” says Minaro, “William has perfect recollection because that is word for word what I remember you saying as well.”
William’s gaze lingers on Lorena, enjoying the mortification plastered on her face. When he straightens in his chair, the instructor is staring at him. “How flattering for Lorena that you seem to hang on her every word.”
Ire flashes through William, nearly making his cold blood generate heat. “I merely find it fascinating,” he says in his own defense, “how fickle her feelings are for Mr. Rochester.”
“If you’re really listening,” says Lorena, and he turns around again, eager for the next round of their bout, “then you should know it’s about the context,William. I was never defending him in particular. I think the whole culture of that time was at fault for oppressing people and presenting them with bad options.”
“That sounds a lot easier to say today than it was to do yesterday,” says William, not caring that anyone else is here. “You sit there and judge him from your twenty-first-century pedestal and do not even try to see things from his point of view, yet you fault him for not considering Jane’s.”
“There is a term,” says Minaro, “that explains our tendency to interpret past events through modern values. It is calledpresentism.”
No one even pretends to care.
“Okay, how about we end class here today?” asks Minaro. As everyonegets up, she adds, “William, Lorena—I will see you tomorrow morning after breakfast. Be prepared to discuss your vision for your Shakespeare club.”
AFTER DINNER,Lorena and her friends, along with the rest of the student body, make their way to the game room that opened last weekend.
William also travels in that direction, but instead of joining them, he keeps to the shadowy outskirts, where he can listen without being seen. He would much rather be in the library reading, but he still does not trust Lorena to keep his secrets.
She and her friends go straight to something called a pinball machine, just as they did last Saturday and Sunday nights. He watched them then, too.
Trevor goes first as usual, and the ball pings through the obstacle course, triggering sounds and lights as it knocks into things.
“So, Navarro,” he says to Lorena, “how come your boyfriend doesn’t hang out with us outside of meals and the LUB?”
“I’ve been asking her the same thing,” says Tiffany.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she says, “and I don’t know. He probably thinks he’s too cool for us or something.”
“Maybe we don’t make him feel included enough,” says Zach, who always seems to lead with empathy.
“We literally made a place for him at our table,” says Tiffany, “and the staff now sets ours up as the only six-person table. What more do we need to do—send him a formal invitation?”
“We don’t need Rochester here,” says Lorena, taking her turn at the ball while Trevor chuckles appreciatively at her joke. She pulls back on the lever as she says, “We’re better off without—”
“Thought I heard my name.”
She lets go of the lever at the sound of William’s voice and looks up at him in shock.
“Mind if I join you tonight?”
CHAPTER 20lorena
The metal ball zips through the display at the frenzied rate of my heart.
“Sure,” says Zach. “You’re always invited.”
