"We walked to the end of the street and turned toward the highway."Still depressed?" she asked as we reached the highway."Depressed? How could I be de...ressed, walking with the most beautiful girl in the state?" I'm not the most beautiful. Alana is." Okay, the most beautiful eighth grader in the state." No, Robbie or Cathy Morgan."How could you want to kiss someone and kick her at the same time?"Okay, the smartest girl in the state." Callie Tenley."The urge to kick was starting to overwhelm the. I know what they'd think.And tomorrow night they'd be back from vacation.Damn.Oh well.I went in my house and walked around in a circle. I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt like I should feel different. Like the whole world should seem different. I looked around the house; it looked the same. I looked at the mirror in the alcove by the front door. My hair was a mess. Other than that, I looked the same.No letter A stamped on my breast. No smiley face stamped on my forehead either.Now. Not even Jesus Christ, judging by what happened to him. So God thinks Mark is more worthy of protection than any other human being has ever been. The Andersons and Williams agree with God. Mark understands his capabilities and security needs better than any of us - which would be the case even if he was as bad at fighting as I am - so he's in charge of security."I added, "I don't want be involved in the minutiae, Paul. PLEASE continue to dump that stuff on Dad. All I want is when I give any of. And yes, it probably was. Alright, it was. I did think about asking mother for his phone number, but if she asked me why I wanted it, I would be struggling for an answer. Anyway, I didn’t really want it. Why would I need to ring him? Mother and I did have a brief discussion about Rick during the week when I mistakenly referred to him as ‘her boyfriend’ only to be told that he was only someone who satisfied her need. So I gave up on Rick. That is until a few days later when I got home from.