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pedestrian out for a stroll.<br />
Once I got back to my house I waited for Teddy. He didn’t show up. I waited thirty<br />
minutes, forty minutes, an hour. No Teddy.<br />
Fuck.<br />
I ran to Teddy’s house in Linksfield. No Teddy. Monday morning I went to school. Still<br />
no Teddy.<br />
Fuck.<br />
Now I was worried. After school I went home and checked at my house again, nothing.<br />
Teddy’s house again, nothing. Then I ran back home.<br />
An hour later Teddy’s parents showed up. My mom greeted them at the door.<br />
“Teddy’s been arrested for shoplifting,” they said.<br />
Fuuuck.<br />
I eavesdropped on their whole conversation from the other room. From the start my<br />
mom was certain I was involved.<br />
“Well, where was Trevor?” she asked.<br />
“Teddy said he wasn’t with Trevor,” they said.<br />
My mom was skeptical. “Hmm. Are you sure Trevor wasn’t involved?”<br />
“No, apparently not. The cops said there was another kid, but he got away.”<br />
“So it was Trevor.”<br />
“No, we asked Teddy, and he said it wasn’t Trevor. He said it was some other kid.”<br />
“Huh…okay.” My mom called me in. “Do you know about this thing?”<br />
“What thing?”<br />
“Teddy was caught shoplifting.”<br />
“Whhaaat?” I played dumb. “Noooo. That’s crazy. I can’t believe it. Teddy? No.”<br />
“Where were you?” my mom asked.<br />
“I was at home.”<br />
“But you’re always with Teddy.”<br />
I shrugged. “Not on this occasion, I suppose.”<br />
For a moment my mom thought she’d caught me red-handed, but Teddy’d given me a<br />
solid alibi. I went back to my room, thinking I was in the clear.<br />
—<br />
The next day I was in class and my name was called over the PA system. “Trevor Noah, report<br />
to the principal’s office.” All the kids were like, “Ooooohhh.” The announcements could be<br />
heard in every classroom, so now, collectively, the whole school knew I was in trouble. I got<br />
up and walked to the office and waited anxiously on an uncomfortable wooden bench outside<br />
the door.<br />
Finally the principal, Mr. Friedman, walked out. “Trevor, come in.” Waiting inside his<br />
office was the head of mall security, two uniformed police officers, and my and Teddy’s<br />
homeroom teacher, Mrs. Vorster. A roomful of silent, stone-faced white authority figures