Chapter 9: Her Name Called Twice

Graduation was on Thursday evening, on the football field behind the high school.

I wore a rented gold gown over the blue dress, with a safety pin where the missing pearl had been.

Kenzie had sewn a new one on that morning and I had said it was not necessary.

"It's necessary," she'd said, biting the thread.

From the line of seniors waiting by the gate, I could see the bleachers filling up.

Kenzie's mom sat in the third row with her two younger sons.

She was holding a sign made from a pizza box.

It said: HAZEL TINDALL, ALL OF US ARE PROUD.

I looked at it for a long time.

Then I looked at the front row, and I found my family.

Dad wore his good gray suit, and Mom wore a navy dress and pearls.

Lacey sat on the aisle with her sunglasses on.

Maisie sat between them in a yellow sundress, swinging her legs.

They had saved seats up front, where the families of the honor students sat.

I was not an honor student.

I had been invisible so long that nobody had thought to check my grades.

The principal read the names alphabetically.

Kenzie went up early, and her family stood and cheered so loudly that she tripped on her gown.

Then came the T's.

"Hazel Tindall."

I walked across the stage, my chin up.

I heard a voice from the third row, a sharp piercing whistle, and then Kenzie's mom shouting my first and last name across the field.

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