Lisa Bellow is the queen bee of the 8th grade. She’s popular, has a boyfriend in high school, and a clique of beautiful friends. Her locker is right next to Meredith Oliver’s. Meredith is not popular, but she has close friends. She does well in school and has a happy home life. Until the day she decides to stop at the Deli Barn on her walk home from school to treat herself to a root beer. The Sandwich Farmer is creating sandwiches for Lisa when Meredith walks in; then the robber comes in wearing a ski mask. He waves a gun at the two girls and makes them lie on the floor while he takes the worker in the back demanding he open the (non-existent) safe. Moments later he comes out alone. He asks Lisa to get up and the two leave; Meredith is still on the floor and the worker is unconscious in the back room when the middle school custodian comes in the store to buy dinner. This isn’t the story of Lisa Bellow. This is Meredith’s story: how does a thirteen-year old cope with being the girl left behind?
A really good choice on audio; the narrator voices the characters well and you can hear the teen angst and emotion clearly. Meredith is suddenly the center of attention, she’s popular for an awful reason, and she’s trying to figure out how to cope with it all. Also, she’s trying to imagine what Lisa is going through. Is she alive? Is she dead? To help assuage her guilt for not running outside and getting the car’s license plate, or at the very least a description of the car, for just lying there on the linoleum for who knows how long, she makes up a fantasy life for her and Lisa where they are in this together instead of both being alone.
While I think it’s impossible to know what would go through someone’s head in similar circumstances I think the author makes a very believable guess at how Meredith could begin to live with the aftermath of that day.
