I went looking for Walter. He wasn't by his locker and there was some girl standing in front of yours. She opened it up in front of me and was putting all these sparkly binders into it and a bunch of notebooks and I went to the bathroom and threw up.

Walter found me there. He asked me if I was okay in his stupid clown voice and I think I would've strangled him or something if he hadn't held up this funny looking toy. It's a little gnome and it clatters around when you wind it up. He said you left that in his locker for him the last day of school and he almost peed himself when he opened the door and it got set off and started clacking all around behind his books. That kind of made me laugh. He gave it to me and said I should keep it. I have it now. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, Em. I'll give you that. I kind of chuckle every time I look at it. Just thinking how you got one over on him the last day of school. Gets me every time.

Funny thing was, for a minute, it didn't hurt so bad to hear your name. The way he said it at least, as if you were still here. Sometimes the hurting gets so that you wonder if you've only dreamed it all up and you can't tell if somebody's real or not anymore. He started telling me stories about other pranks you pulled on him and then I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said we should go get something to eat but I think he just said that because we were both standing across from the mirrors and even I could tell I look like a scarecrow next to him. So now we're in the cafeteria. All the guys I used to sit with are across the hall. I can tell that Reid kid wants to come over. Keeps looking this way. He didn't come over after you were gone though. Funny, isn't it? He could have come over then. Funny how people are, you know.