Daelyn's mom offers to take her for a drive to a place they used to go when she was little. She doesn't want to go but she doesn't have much of a choice. While they are driving, Kim (her mom) tells Daelyn a story about how in high school she tried out for Pom-poms. Kim isn't athletic at all so she didn't really want to, but her friend Bonnie asked her to because they had to try out in pairs. Kim realized that she actually wanted to be in Pom-poms, she had never been popular and this was her chance. They did the routine and Kim did better than she had ever done. She had her hopes up. The list came out. They were the only team where one person made it and one person didn't. Daelyn had thought that her mom had actually made it. She didn't. And it just proves further to Daelyn that she can't trust anything in life. She can't control the things that happen to her.
The place they were heading for was closed down, so they turned back around. Daelyn wonders if her mom actually knew this. When they get home, Daelyn finds that her dad has installed a router to her computer so they can monitor her websites. They are not helping her. They are just taking away her privacy. Only another reason to take her life.
Day seventeen, sitting on the bench after school. The boy, Santana is sitting there still. He is using a little laptop, reading the weather, which he loves. He is trying to attract Daelyn's attention, and pulls out his pet rat. She is repulsed by this, and tries to walk away. He apologizes and asks her to come back, and she does because it's either that or go back into the school. Her mom pulls up to the curb and runs away from him. She gets in the car and motions for her mom to drive but Santana comes up to the window and introduces himself, and his rat. Kim gets a little freaked out. Santana backs up and they drive away.
On through-the-light, Daelyn is trying to decide a way to go. She reads about carbon monoxide poisoning and jumping off buildings. She hears her dad in the hallway. She decides she wants to die at home. She doesn't want to be mutilated so badly she won't be able to be identified, she doesn't want her parents to suffer the unnecessary.
Day sixteen. Daelyn is in chorus. This is completely ironic since Daelyn doesn't have the ability to sing. It's sort of a joke. It makes the other kids feel awkward. She doesn't even pretend to sing, but she only has to endure standing there because she wants to see what the others have reduced her to: a joke.
She sits on the bench outside, Santana a mere foot or so away. If at any point in his one way conversation, she feels any sort of change of heart or attraction, she tells herself to ignore it, to push away all feeling. She doesn't want any one to come into her life now, she feels it's too late for that. It is a shame too because, as nerdy and lame as he is, Santana is a nice guy, he just has abolutely no experience with women. He starts to talk more about his life and asks if she wants to IM. But then her mom pulls up she gets in the car and Santana follows her there. He introduces himself more formally and she introduces herself back, giving away Daelyn's name. When he says Daelyn is a "women of few words", Kim also gives away that Daelyn cannot speak. Daelyn rolls up the window so she won't say anymore.
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