Love from a to Z

Okay, I’m moving toward officially liking Noemi. “I wish I’d been there.
Just so Fencer could see me enjoying the entire thing, and then giving her a

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standing ovation at the end.”
“Well, here’s the awful thing. For some reason, you did enter the picture,
right after Noemi’s presentation. Before the next student went up, Fencer
came over and told me that you had to turn in the analysis too. That he’d e-
mailed you a copy of the assignment and article, and that it was due by the
end of today. Or you’d lose ten percent of your grade.” Kavi shrugged her
shoulders. “I’m sorry, but maybe Noemi triggered him into remembering to
shit on you again.”
I drew my laptop to me and logged into my school account. There it was,
an e-mail from the fiend, from four days ago.
GIRL BURIED ALIVE IN HONOR KILLING Analysis was the subject
line.
“No problem,” I said to Kavi. “I’ll just follow Noemi’s brilliance and
compare it to American culture, heh-heh. Lord knows I can find enough
dirt.”
“That’s what I did too. But I wasn’t brave enough to present it like
Noemi.” Kavi’s face suddenly lit up as she looked beyond her phone’s
camera. “Speak of the devil and she shows up.”
Noemi? In our room again?
“Hey, I’m going to have to say see you later to finish this thing for
Fencer. Bye, Kav.” I waved, reaching to end the call.
“Bye, Zay. Wait!” Kavi shouted. “If he makes sense, he makes sense.
Adam. Okay?”
I nodded, pretty sure she was saying that because she didn’t want me to
get upset about Noemi.
• • •
Auntie Nandy wouldn’t let me cut out dinner at the French restaurant on the
Pearl, even though I’d told her about the homework I had to do (“EXCUSE
MY LANGUAGE, BUT THAT DICK OF A TEACHER OF YOURS IS
NOT GOING TO RUIN MY FRIDAY!” was her response), so we went and
ate (me, gratin dauphinois, her, boeuf bourguignon), and then she drove me
to a café that she said I could work in while she met with a friend.
The friend turned out to be Adam’s dad.
With an iced coffee by my laptop, and glasses on, I pretended to be
completely absorbed in my homework, but I couldn’t stop myself from

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glancing over once in a while. They were near the entrance of the café,
almost at an angle so that I couldn’t see either of their faces, but I could tell
that Auntie Nandy was the one doing most of the talking.
She wouldn’t be revealing all, would she? About Adam?
He was planning on talking to his dad this weekend. I’ve gotta let at least
three days pass after the date of Mom’s death, he’d texted.
Wait, weird. Auntie Nandy was laughing. Here in the café.
Her back was shaking the way it does when she guffaws.
I stood and made my way to the counter, as though I wanted to order
something else. After studying the menu for a few seconds, I let my gaze
fall on Auntie Nandy.
She wasn’t laughing. She was sobbing.
Adam’s dad was too.
In my urgency to get away, I almost ran back to my table in the corner.
• • •
As a result of not getting any work done at the café, due to a mind racing
with wondering about what exactly Auntie Nandy was talking to Adam’s
dad about, I stayed up on returning to the apartment to finish my analysis of
GIRL BURIED ALIVE IN HONOR KILLING
.
Springdale was eight hours behind Doha, so because I sent my analysis in
right before twelve a.m.—with the subject line COMMUNITY COVERS UP
RAPES BY FOOTBALL PLAYERS Analysis—I made the end-of-school-day,
end-of-term deadline.
• • •
At one a.m., as I was climbing into bed, the best thing happened.
Ayaan texted me. 
All right. I still love you.
I clipped my hair up into a bun and smiled at the message in my lap. 
My
heart is floating in the air right now.
I’m sorry for not answering your texts. And your crying faces. And the million broken hearts you
sent.
My heart is swelling and pulsing, covered with a zillion golden beams of pure light.
Z, can we cut the drama. Enough of that happening in real life.
But what am I, if not drama?
I don’t want to leave Porter, graduate, with Fencer still here.
Ok, I’ll stop shakespearing. Listening.
I also want to be reinstated on student council. I worked damn hard for that.

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At your service. Tell me what to do.
Kavi and that other girl found out he has a new online name.
@StoneWraith14. Kavi and Noemi.
Right. I need you to sleuth @StoneWraith14 from over there.
I tried to do a lot of sleuthing already. And failed.
Different countries have different firewalls. Including here at home. You’ll have access to sites
and information we can’t get in the US.
I sat up completely in bed. 
What do you mean?
I mean there are certain things I can’t see that you can. That you can find for us.
Are you talking about censorship?
Yup, I know this from traveling. It’s not just China that does it.
So I can see things here in Doha that you can’t over there in Springdale?
And I can see things here that you can’t in Doha.
Whoa. But I couldn’t find anything on @StoneWraith14.
That’s because you weren’t looking in the right places. Fencer is very tight online with British
Islamophobes. I’m guessing he’s got some internet tunneling service to pretend he’s in the UK.
I’m getting excited. Like I’ve been asked to join a secret spy mission of international significance.
I’ll send you the list of sites I want you to check for his presence. The ones I’ve tracked links to
but can’t access.
I’M ON IT.
• • •
For the first time in a long time, I went to sleep completely happy.
• • •
And that’s why today I’ve recorded no oddity.

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