The atmosphere in the classroom of Senior Class One was not merely cold; it was suffocating.
Despite the gentle words of Selene Moore, the homeroom teacher, the parents seated in the small wooden chairs showed no signs of softening. In their eyes, Lemon Faulkner was already a "problem child," a product of a fractured home and a disgraced mother. To the working class and the small-time sole proprietors in the room, social standing was a ladder they clung to with white-knuckled desperation. They wouldn't allow their children to "associate down" with a girl like Lemon.
Furthermore, there was the matter of her illness. Leukemia. To these people, a sick child wasn't a tragedy to be pitied; it was a source of "bad luck" and a potential financial drain. They looked at Lemon and saw a looming sh
