Anyway, I hate the Plaza. Last time my dad stayed there, they wouldn’t let me in to see him because I was wearing shorts. The lady who owns the place was there, they said, and she doesn’t like to see people in cutoffs in the lobby of her fancy hotel. I had to call my dad from a house phone and ask him to bring down a pair of pants. He just told me to put the concierge on the phone, and the next thing you know, everybody was apologizing to me like crazy. They gave me this big basket filled with fruit and chocolate. It was cool. I didn’t want the fruit, though, so I gave it to a homeless man I saw on the subway on my way back down to the Village. I don’t think the homeless man wanted the fruit either, since he threw it all in the gutter and just kept the basket to use as a hat.
I told Lilly about what my dad said, about not being able to have kids, and she said that was very telling. She said it revealed that my dad still has unresolved issues with his parents, and I said, “Well, duh. Grandmère is a huge pain in the ass.”
Lilly said she couldn’t comment on the veracity of that statement since she’d never met my grandmother. I’ve been asking if I could invite Lilly to Miragnac for like years, but Grandmère always says no. She says young people give her migraines.
Lilly says maybe my dad is afraid of losing his youth, which many men equate with losing their virility. I really think they should move Lilly up a grade, but she says she likes being a freshman. She says this way she has four whole years to make observations on the adolescent condition in post–Cold War America.
STARTING TODAY I WILL
Be nice to everyone, whether I like him/her or not
Stop lying all the time about my feelings
Stop forgetting my Algebra notebook
Keep my comments to myself
Stop writing my Algebra notes in my journal
The 3rd power of x is called cube of x—negative numbers have no sq root
Notes from G & T
Lilly—I can’t stand this. When is she going to go back to the teachers’ lounge?
Maybe never. I heard they were shampooing the carpet today. God, he is so CUTE.
Who’s cute?
BORIS!
He isn’t cute. He’s gross. Look what he did to his sweater. Why does he DO that?
You’re so narrow-minded.
I am NOT narrow-minded. But someone should tell him that in America we don’t tuck in our sweaters.
Well, maybe in Russia they do.
But this isn’t Russia. Also, someone should tell him to learn a new song. If I have to hear that requiem for dead King Whoever one more time . . .
You’re just jealous because Boris is a musical genius and you’re flunking Algebra.
Lilly, just because I am flunking Algebra does NOT mean I’m stupid.
OK, OK. What is wrong with you today?
NOTHING!!!!!
slope: slope of a line denoted m is
Find equation of line with slope = 2
Find the degree of slope to Mr. G’s nostrils
Thursday, October 2,
Ladies’ Room at the Plaza Hotel