When she reached into the crappy, beat-up washing machine, she found nothing but the wet slick sides of the drum, and - like a bad joke - the worst pair of underwear she owned, plus one sock. She was in a hurry, of course - there were only a couple of machines on this top floor of Howard Hall, the least valued and most run-down rooms in the least valued, most run-down dorm. Two washing machines, two dryers, and you were lucky if one of them was working on any given day and didn't eat your quarters. Forget about the dollar-bill slot. She'd never seen it work, not in the last six weeks since she'd arrived at school.
"No," she said out loud, and balanced herself on the edge of the washer to look down into the dark, partly rusted interior. It smelled like mold and cheap detergent. Getting a closer look didn't help. One crappy pair of underwear, fraying at the seams. One sock. She was missing every piece of clothing that she'd worn in the last two weeks. Every piece that she actually wanted to wear.
"No!" She yelled it into the washer, where it echoed back at her, and slumped back down, then kicked the washer violently in the dent made by all the other disappointed students before her. She couldn't breathe. She had some other clothes - a few - but they were last-choice clothes, oh-my-God-wouldn't-be-caught-dead clothes. Pants that were too short and made her look like a hick, shirts that were too big and too stupid, and made her look like her mom had picked them out. And she had.
Claire had about three hundred dollars left to last her for, well, months, after the latest round of calling out for pizza and buying yet another book for Professor Clueless Euliss, who didn't seem to have figured out yet what subject he was teaching. She supposed she could find some clothes, if she looked around, that wouldn't totally blow her entire budget. After all, downtown Morganville, Texas, was the thrift shop capital of the world. Assuming she could find anything she could stand to wear.
Mom said this would happen, she thought. I just have to think. Keep my cool. Claire threw herself into an orange plastic chair, dumped her backpack on the scratched linoleum, and put her head in her hands. Her face felt hot, and she was shaking, and she knew, just knew, that she was going to cry. Cry like the baby they all said she was, too young to be here, too young to be away from Mommy. It sucked to be smart, because this was where it got you.
She gulped deep, damp breaths and sat back, willing herself not to bawl (because they'd hear), and wondered if she could call Mom and Dad for an extension on her allowance, or use the credit card that was "just for emergencies." Then she saw the note. Not so much "note" as graffiti, but it was addressed to her, on the painted cinder-block wall above the machines.
Słownictwo
- reach into - zbliżyć się
- valued - wartościowy, cenny
- edge - krawędź
- rusted - zardzewiały
- fraying at the seams - strzępienie się szwów
- echoed - rozbrzmiewać, dudnieć
- slumped - osunąć się, gwałtownie spaść
- dent - wygięcie
- hick - wieśniak
- blow the budget - zrujnować budżet
- gulped - przełknąć ślinę
- bawl - wrzeszczeć
Pytania
- Put sentences in the right order.
a) Claire has financial problems.
b) Loundry description.
c) Claire thinks about buying clothes without blowing her budget.
d) Claire kicks a washer.
e) Claire goes to the loundry.
f) Claire sees notes for her.
g) Unpleasent smell in the loundry.
h) Claire's clothes description.
i) Claire tries not to cry.
j) Claire misses her parents. - Desribe situation, when Claire feels:
a) angry
b) disappointed
c) home sick - How much chores can you mention?
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