Miranda's Relationship with Via and Auggie

Part 7: Miranda
I forgot that I might see
So many beautiful things
I forgot that I might need
To find out what life could bring
—Andain, “Beautiful Things”
Camp Lies
My parents got divorced the summer before ninth grade. My father was with someone else right away. In fact, though
my mother never said so, I think this was the reason they got divorced.
After the divorce, I hardly ever saw my father. And my mother acted stranger than ever. It’s not that she was
unstable or anything: just distant. Remote. My mother is the kind of person who has a happy face for the
rest of the world but not a lot left over for me1. She’s never talked to me much— not about her feelings,
her life. I don’t know much about what she was like when she was my age. Don’t know much about the
things she liked or didn’t like. The few times she mentioned her own parents, who I’ve never met, it was
mostly about how she wanted to get as far away from them as she could once she’d grown up. She never
told me why. I asked a few times, but she would pretend she hadn’t heard me.
I didn’t want to go to camp that summer. I had wanted to stay with her, to help her through the divorce.
But she insisted I go away. I figured she wanted the alone time, so I gave it to her.
Camp was awful. I hated it. I thought it would be better being a junior counselor, but it wasn’t. No one I knew
from the previous year had come back, so I didn’t know anyone—not a single person2. I’m not even sure
why, but I started playing this little make-believe game with the girls in the camp. They’d ask me stuff
about myself, and I’d make things up: my parents are in Europe, I told them. I live in a huge townhouse on
the nicest street in North River Heights. I have a dog named Daisy3.
Then one day I blurted out that I had a little brother who was deformed. I have absolutely no idea why I said this: it just
seemed like an interesting thing to say. And, of course, the reaction I got from the little girls in the
bungalow was dramatic. Really? So sorry! That must be tough! Et cetera. Et cetera4. I regretted saying this the
moment it escaped from my lips, of course: I felt like such a fake. If Via ever found out, I thought, she’d think I
was such a weirdo. And I felt like a weirdo. But, I have to admit, there was a part of me that felt a
little entitled to this lie. I’ve known Auggie since I was six years old. I’ve watched him grow up. I’ve played
with him. I’ve watched all six episodes of Star Wars for his sake, so I could talk to him about the aliens and
bounty
1This is important fact the reveal the character of the author’s mother.
2This can I connect with the other parts of the story as well as in my own life.
3This is important fact the reveal theenvelopment where the author lives.
4It is an example of strcuture

hunters and all that. I’m the one that gave him the astronaut helmet he wouldn’t take off for two years. I mean,
I’ve kind of earned the right to think of him as my brother.
And the strangest thing is that these lies I told, these fictions, did wonders for my popularity. The other junior counselors
heard it from the campers, and they were all over it. Never in my life have I ever been considered one
of the “popular” girls in anything, but that summer in camp, for whatever reason, I was the girl everybody wanted
to hang out with.5 Even the girls in bungalow 32 were totally into me. These were the girls at the top of the food
chain. They said they liked my hair (though they changed it). They said they liked the way I did my
makeup (though they changed that, too). They showed me how to turn my T-shirts into halter tops. We
smoked. We snuck out late at night and took the path through the woods to the boys’ camp. We hung out with boys.
When I got home from camp, I called Ella right away to make plans with her. I don’t know why I didn’t call Via. I guess I
just didn’t feel like talking about stuff with her. She would have asked me about my parents, about camp. Ella never
really asked me about things. She was an easier friend to
have in that way. She wasn’t serious like Via. She was fun. She thought it was cool when I dyed my hair pink.
She wanted to hear all about those trips through the woods late at night.
School
I hardly saw Via at school this year, and when I did it was awkward. It felt like she was judging me. I knew she
didn’t like my new look. I knew she didn’t like my group of friends. I didn’t much like hers. We never
actually argued: we just drifted away. Ella and I badmouthed her to each other: She’s such a prude, she’s
so this, she’s so that.6 We knew we were being mean, but it was easier to ice her out if we pretended she
had done something to us. The truth is she hadn’t changed at all: we had. We’d become these
other people, and she was still the person she’d always been7. That annoyed me so much and I didn’t know
why.
Once in a while I’d look to see where she was sitting in the lunchroom, or check the elective lists to see what
she’d signed up for. But except for a few nods in the hallway and an occasional “hello,” we never really
spoke to each other.
I noticed Justin about halfway through the school year. I hadn’t noticed him at all before then, other than that he
was this skinny cutish dude with thick glasses and longish hair who carried a violin everywhere. Then one
day I saw him in front of the school with his arm around Via. “So Via has a boyfriend!” I said to Ella, kind
of mocking. I don’t know why it surprised me that she’d have a boyfriend. Out of the three of us, she was
totally the prettiest: blue, blue eyes and long wavy dark hair8. But she’d just never acted like she was at all
interested in boys. She acted like she was too smart for that kind of stuff.
5This is important fact the reveal thecharacter of the author.
6Here author and Ella are bullying Via
7This sentence reveal character aspect
8It reveals physic of Via

I had a boyfriend, too: a guy named Zack9. When I told him I was choosing the theater elective, he shook his head and
said: “Careful you don’t turn into a drama geek.” Not the most sympathetic dude in the world, but very cute.
Very high up on the totem pole. A varsity jock10.
9It is important information about the author.
10This is an example of diction.