My Dark Vanessa

It is June. Vanessa’s parents refer vaguely to Browick and to Vanessa’s experience there. One day, after Vanessa and her father go for a swim in the lake, her mother arrives home from work with a pizza for dinner. Vanessa and her mother snap at each other, then each retreat to their own space. Vanessa’s mother tries to talk to her later about “let[ting] go” (201), which inspires Vanessa to cling even more tightly to her memories.

As the summer passes, Vanessa hopes the situation will improve and that she will return to Browick. Instead, she starts the school year at the local high school, noticing that the other students seem to know her story already. A girl named Jade Reynolds and her friend Charley invite Vanessa to eat with them, and when they sit down, the girls tell Vanessa they heard she had sex with a teacher. They sneak off campus, walk to a grocery store, and shoplift makeup.

Vanessa becomes accustomed to her new routine, and on September 11, she compares her own personal losses to the tragedy of the Twin Towers, calling herself “selfish and bad” (207). Charley, Jade, and Vanessa smoke cigarettes off campus during lunch, and later, in chemistry class, Charley confesses a crush a senior named Will.