For two years, I watched her leave our house each morning with her shoulders straight and return every afternoon looking a little smaller.<\/p>\n
Her classmates laughed at the secondhand sweaters she loved.<\/p>\n
They moved her backpack when she wasn\u2019t looking and watched her search for it.<\/p>\n
Once, somebody wrote \u201cFREAK\u201d across her locker in thick black marker.<\/p>\n
I drove straight to the school that afternoon.<\/p>\n
Rosalie begged me not to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll get bored eventually, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t gotten bored in two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
She shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen maybe they\u2019re really committed to being idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it lightly, but I saw the tears gathering in her eyes.<\/p>\n
I complained to teachers. I spoke to the principal. I called parents.<\/p>\n
Sometimes things improved for a week.<\/p>\n
Then the whispers started again.<\/p>\n
The worst part was that Rosalie slowly stopped telling me.<\/p>\n
If I asked how school had been, she said, \u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n
If I asked who she ate lunch with, she said, \u201cWhoever sits close enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew she was protecting me from worrying.<\/p>\n
I also knew she was lonely.<\/p>\n
Then one Monday morning, I went into her room and found her unable to sit up.<\/p>\n
Her face was pale. Her pajamas were soaked with sweat, and when I touched her forehead, I pulled my hand away.<\/p>\n
She was burning.<\/p>\n
By lunchtime, we were in the emergency room.<\/p>\n
By evening, she had been admitted.<\/p>\n
At first, the doctors thought it was a severe infection.<\/p>\n
Then the blood work showed something they didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n
More tests followed.<\/p>\n
For nearly a week, nobody could give me a clear answer.<\/p>\n
Rosalie became weaker.<\/p>\n
She barely ate.<\/p>\n
Every morning, I wrote down her temperature, medications, test results, and whatever the doctors told me because keeping notes made me feel as though I was doing something.<\/p>\n
Rosalie noticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wrote Dr. Patel\u2019s name three times.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at my notebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like being thorough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do that when you\u2019re scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m your mother. I\u2019m allowed to be scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
She reached for my hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m scared too.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the first time she admitted it.<\/p>\n
I stayed beside her bed until she fell asleep.<\/p>\n
For the first six days, I was almost her only visitor.<\/p>\n
Then, on the seventh afternoon, I heard voices in the hallway.<\/p>\n
Teenage voices.<\/p>\n
A lot of them.<\/p>\n
I opened Rosalie\u2019s door, prepared to ask whoever was making the noise to keep it down.<\/p>\n
Instead, I stopped.<\/p>\n
Almost her entire class was standing there.<\/p>\n
One girl carried balloons.<\/p>\n
Another had a box of cupcakes.<\/p>\n
Someone was holding a huge stuffed bear with a red ribbon around its neck.<\/p>\n
And standing in front of them was Keaton Price.<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
Keaton had mocked Rosalie for years.<\/p>\n
He had once knocked her books from her desk and laughed while she picked them up.<\/p>\n
Another time, he posted a photograph of her old shoes online and wrote something cruel beneath it.<\/p>\n
I had spoken to his mother twice.<\/p>\n
Yet now he stood outside my daughter\u2019s hospital room holding a bag filled with snacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
The students went quiet.<\/p>\n
Keaton looked uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came to see Rosalie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m asking why.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before anyone could answer, a familiar voice came from behind me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
Rosalie was awake.<\/p>\n
When she saw the group in the hallway, her mouth fell open.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys actually came?\u201d<\/p>\n
A girl lifted the cupcakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said we would.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosalie smiled.<\/p>\n
It was the biggest smile I had seen on her face in months.<\/p>\n
So despite every question running through my mind, I let them in.<\/p>\n
They couldn\u2019t all stay at once, so they came in small groups.<\/p>\n
Keaton placed the ridiculous stuffed bear on the bed.<\/p>\n
Rosalie stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat thing is terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe picked it,\u201d one girl said.<\/p>\n
Keaton looked offended.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the least creepy one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like it watches people sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone laughed.<\/p>\n
So did Rosalie.<\/p>\n
I stood near the window and watched them.<\/p>\n
Something felt strange.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t behaving like guilty classmates visiting a sick girl because a teacher had told them to.<\/p>\n
They knew her.<\/p>\n
One boy knew Rosalie hated raisins.<\/p>\n
A girl remembered that she always ate the blueberries out of muffins first.<\/p>\n
Keaton knew which band she listened to while studying.<\/p>\n
And Rosalie knew things about them too.<\/p>\n
She teased one boy about failing his driving test.<\/p>\n
She asked another girl whether her little brother had finally learned to ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n
I felt as though I had walked into a room full of people who knew a version of my daughter I had never met.<\/p>\n
The next day, they returned.<\/p>\n
Then again.<\/p>\n
They brought homework, card games, nail polish, magazines, and photographs they taped to the wall.<\/p>\n
Rosalie started waiting for them.<\/p>\n
She ate more on the afternoons they visited.<\/p>\n
She laughed.<\/p>\n
Even the nurses noticed the difference.<\/p>\n
I should have been happy.<\/p>\n
Part of me was.<\/p>\n
Another part couldn\u2019t stop wondering what I had missed.<\/p>\n
So I called her teacher, Mrs. Whitcomb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand what happened,\u201d I admitted. \u201cThese children barely spoke to Rosalie before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Whitcomb hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not completely true.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed some of them had started spending lunch with her over the past few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
That stunned me.<\/p>\n
\u201cRosalie never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed you knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
That evening, I asked her.<\/p>\n
Her expression immediately changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou called Mrs. Whitcomb?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was curious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the same kids who made you miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosalie looked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are complicated, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t erase what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never said it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen help me understand what changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pulled her blanket higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRosalie\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked exhausted.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust let me have something that isn\u2019t being examined.\u201d<\/p>\n
That stopped me.<\/p>\n
I promised I would leave it alone.<\/p>\n
I lasted three days.<\/p>\n
One afternoon, Rosalie\u2019s room was crowded with laughter, so I stepped into the hallway to get some coffee.<\/p>\n
A minute later, the door opened behind me.<\/p>\n
Keaton came out.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t smiling.<\/p>\n
He looked pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Mercer?\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared through the glass window in Rosalie\u2019s door.<\/p>\n
Then he asked something that made my stomach twist.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you really have no idea what Rosalie did?\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes widened slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you really don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow what?\u201d<\/p>\n
Keaton pulled out his phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe promised her we wouldn\u2019t tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart started beating faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me what?\u201d<\/p>\n
He rubbed his sleeve across his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe keeps protecting everybody. Even now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he unlocked his phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to watch this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video began with Keaton sitting alone in the school library.<\/p>\n
His eyes were red.<\/p>\n
His voice came from behind the camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad left last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The image shifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t tell anyone. My mom was barely paying the bills, and I thought if people found out, they\u2019d look at me differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Rosalie appeared in the corner of the frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a panic attack in the library one day. Rosalie found me.\u201d<\/p>\n
My hand tightened around the phone.<\/p>\n
Keaton continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought she\u2019d tell everybody. I\u2019d been horrible to her. She had every reason to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe sat beside me instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video changed.<\/p>\n
A girl named Sienna appeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were fighting every night. I fell asleep in class because I was afraid to sleep at home. Rosalie figured it out and let me stay with her during lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another student appeared.<\/p>\n
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