First look at my novel
March 1982 1 I first met Lauren Hitchcock when I was a 17- year-old junior at South Miami High. It was a spring day in 1982, and I was making my way from my third period class (English Three, College Bound) to my fourth period one (Mixed Chorus). I walked quickly – or, rather, as quickly as possible in a corridor full of my fellow high school students trying to get to their classes before the bell rang. I had attended South Miami for nearly two years, so I had lots of practice in weaving through the crowds and clambering the stairs from the Language Arts department on the second floor down to the music department wing on the first. I had just pushed open the door that led to the stairs when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a svelte jeans-and-blouse clad girl sitting alone on the landing. Her algebra textbook lay on the floor to her left, and her leather purse sat on top of a green Mead Organizer to her right. She slumped forward on the top step, and her dainty hands covered