一到自助餐厅，3号楼一眼就可以看到了。东边的角上有一个白色的方块，方块上用黑漆写着偌大的一个"3"字。快到门口时，我觉得自己的呼吸渐渐有点急促了。我跟在两个穿着男女皆宜的雨披的学生后面走进教室时)，我尽力屏住了呼吸。

 

 

The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, one a porcelain-colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least my skin wouldn't be a standout here.

 

教室不大。我前面的那两个人一跨过门就停了下来，把雨衣挂在了一长排钩子上。我也跟着她们那样做了。那是两个女孩子，一个是棕红皮肤、金发碧眼，另一个皮肤也很苍白，一头闪亮的褐发。起码，我的皮肤不会很显眼了。

 

I took the slip up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked at me when he saw my name — not an encouraging response— and of course I flushed tomato red. But at least he sent me to an empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my new classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow, they managed. I kept my eyes down on the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. I'd already read everything. That was comforting… and boring. I wondered if my mom would send me myfolder of old essays, or if she would think that was cheating. I went through different arguments with her in my head while the teacher droned on.

 

我把纸片拿上去交给了老师，一个高个子、秃顶的男老师，他在讲台上放了一张名牌，写明自己是梅森先生。看到我的名字后，他呆呆地看着我——不是什么鼓励的反应——我自然刷地一下子红了脸，红得跟番茄似的。不过至少，他没有把我介绍给全班同学，直接把我打发到后面的一张空着的课桌上去了。坐在后面，增大了我的这班新同学盯着我看的难度， 但是无论如何他们还是做到了。我一直低着头，看着老师发给我的阅读书目清单，都是相当基础的：勃朗特、莎士比亚、乔叟、福克纳。我全都读过了。这很令我欣慰……同时又让我觉得厌烦无聊。我不知道我妈妈会不会把我原来写的那一夹子论文给我寄过来，或者说不知道她会不会认为那是作弊。老师嗡嗡嗡地讲他的课时，我在脑子里跟我妈妈进行了各种各样的争论。