Three months in, Ms. Nakamura declared that I no longer needed ESL. My English was strong, and I was perfectly equipped to attend regular classes. She assumed that such an evaluation would be a badge of honour for a new refugee kid dying to be accepted, but what she didn’t realize was that ESL class was my safe haven. I was terrified of the wickedness that awaited me outside its doors. There was no predicting what might set off girls like Lisa, Tara, and Angie.
