OOM: Question
Here's how it is.
There's not a single thing that has ever been changed without somebody asking a question first. It doesn't have to be a big question, though it can, of course. Like, "So why can't women vote, anyway?" Or, "So what if the Earth goes around the Sun, instead of the other way around?" Or even, "Hey, did you ever think about slicing that bread?" But there's always a question that gets you thinking, before there's action.
Hannah doesn't want to pursue this line of thought too far. It's a little too New Age Zen a-journey-of-1000-miles-begins-with-a-single-step for her taste. But she does, maybe, decide that asking a question or two isn't an all bad idea.
And the one she starts with is, "What happens if, from the time I leave Mom's house to the time I get back, I don't look at my feet?"
So from 7am to 4pm, that's what she does -- she looks up and out rather than down. She meets people's eyes in the hallway, and volunteers answers in class, and when Andy Gilligan makes a rather crude suggestion about exactly what she could do for him later, the only reaction he gets is a short glare that's equal parts disdain and "Dream on."
She's disappointed, if not surprised, when she goes over to her old lunch table for the first time this year, to find that Amber contrives to take up enough room that there's no room for Hannah's tray. But rather than retreating to a hidden corner, Hannah just shrugs and sit down at a table ten feet away.
She is surprised, though, when Emily joins her. "Amber's kind of a bitch, you know?" Em says, and it's all the explanation or apology Hannah gets, but it's enough.
It's a better day than she's had in a while, and when she gets home she sends a long chatty e-mail to her former roommate Hilary, rather than just replying with a few sentences, and then makes popcorn and curls up on the couch to read.
She's still there when her mother gets home.
"Hey, Mom."
"Hi, Hannah." Steph Denenberg looks at her daughter for a moment. Finding Hannah in the living room is not surprising, but finding her with a book is pretty rare. "What are you reading?"
"A book," Hannah offers.
"A popular history of frigates and frigate captains?" her mother reads from the cover. "For school?"
"No," says Hannah. "It's just interesting."
If it were any one of several hundred other topics, Steph would assume there was a boy involved. But she cannot think who Hannah might have met who would be interested in British naval history, so she just shakes her head a little and figures it's a better use of Hannah's time than a lot of other choices are.
"I'm gonna start dinner, okay?"
"That's fine, Mom. Do you need help?"
"No, I got it. Oh, and, Hannah, your socks don't match."
Hannah looks from the book down to her feet for the first time in eleven hours, then looks up at her mother and grins. "I hadn't noticed."