Excerpt from A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I don't know if he's mad about me laughing but he falls silent as if he is. "Do you want to ask me anything else?" I finally say. I feel terrible. I thought I would be good at this—or better than Lucas Kessler, at least—but apparently I'm wrong. I'm awkward and self-conscious and I have terrible instincts. I wonder what Harrison will say when he introduces me. In this group, there seems to be a tendency toward honesty that worries me.

"I only have one more question."

"Okay!" I say hopefully. Maybe this will be a break-through—he'll ask about school or what I'd like to do in the future. "Why are you volunteering in this class?"

My face goes red. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that someone might ask this. Obviously I should have an answer prepared, but I don't. I can't get any words to come out of my mouth.

Harrison nods as if he understands. He may be blind but he's seen all he needs to of me.

Mary waits until the end of class to have our partners introduce us. She asks Lucas's partner, Francine, to go first. "Lucas is eighteen years old and is pretty good-looking even though he's very, very humongous. He likes cats, some TV show I never heard of, and football. He also plays football, but not for the Patriots. He plays for some school but I can't remember the name. His favorite food is ..." She squints down at the paper. "I don't know. I can't read what I wrote."

He leans across his chair-desk and whispers in her ear.

"Really?" she says. Everyone laughs. "Meatloaf, I guess.

But I don't know why."

Everyone claps. Francine smiles and takes a bow. "Thank you for doing a wonderful job with that, Francine," Mary says. "Harrison, your turn to introduce Emily." My heart races as he stands up. I wonder if he'll say, Emily seems like she feels very uncomfortable being here.

But he doesn't. Instead, he says, "The week Emily was born in 1996, the number-one hit song on the Billboard charts was 'Because You Loved Me,' by Celine Dion."

I'm stunned. As we finished our interview, he asked for my birthday with the year, but could this possibly be right? Everyone laughs and claps as if this is another inside joke. Harrison smiles, bows, and sits back down. Mary asks what my birthday is and goes over to her desk in the corner to check on an iPad. "You're right, Harrison! Well done, sir!"

Everyone claps again, this time with a few whistles.

I'm not sure what just happened. Apparently Harrison isn't just blind, he has a savant's ability to memorize the entire history of Billboard number-one songs and their dates. It wasn't about me, but it also wasn't terrible. We've gotten through it fine, or at least everyone has overlooked the awful job I just did my first day in this class.


BELINDA

Lately I've been watching Pride and Prejudice a lot. Not the new version starring Keira Knightly, but the old one that takes longer to watch and stars Colin Firth. It's the only boxed DVD set that Nan owns but she says that's okay, it's the only DVD set she needs. Nan loves Mr. Darcy who is also Colin Firth and so do I.

Lately I've been watching it all day long instead of going to school.

I go to Westchester High School but this is my last year, which means I am supposed to be having a great time. My first day of school this year Mom played a song called "Anticipation," because she wanted to make me feel less nervous. The singer kept saying, "Stay right here 'cause these are the good old days," which made me think maybe I should stay right there at home and not get on the school bus because sometimes at school, I do not feel like these are the good old days.

I got on the bus, though. Then I sat where I always sit, in the first seat behind the driver. Some years the driver changes and instead of a man named Carl, we have a woman named Sue. Even if this happens, though, I never change where I sit, which is right behind the driver. Behind the driver means no bus jerks can make fun of me or do their jokes where they pretend to be my friend and then give me candy that's been on the dirty bus f loor. Behind the driver means I usually sit near seventh graders who are scared, too.

Excerpted from the book A Step Towards Falling by Cammie McGovern. Copyright © 2015 by Cammie McGovern. Reprinted with permission of HarperCollins.