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The next Monday, at lunch, she had paused beside Karen's table and tried to smile. "Sorry about my dad," she said. "God, he's so embarrassing."
下周一吃午饭时，她在凯伦的桌子旁停了下来，努力微笑着说：“我为我爸爸感到抱歉，天啊，他真让人尴尬。”
Karen had peeled the lid from her yogurt and licked the foil clean and shrugged. "It's okay," she said. "Actually, it was sort of cute. I mean, he's obviously just trying to help you fit in."
凯伦已经打开了酸奶盖，把锡纸舔干净，耸耸肩说：“没关系，其实有点可爱。我的意思是，显然他只是想帮你融入这个圈子。”
Now Lydia glared at her father, who grinned brightly at her, as if proud to know so much about her friends, to remember their names. A dog, she thought, waiting for a treat. "They're great," she said. "They're both great."
现在莉迪亚瞪着父亲，父亲对她快活地笑了笑，好像很自豪知道了那么多关于她朋友的事，还记得他们的名字。她觉得父亲像是一条等着夸赞的狗。“他们很好，”她说。“他们都很好。”
At the other end of the table, Marilyn said quietly, "Stop badgering her, James. Let her eat her dinner," and James said, a little less quietly, "I'm not the one nagging about her homework."
桌子另一端的玛丽琳平静地说：“别再烦她了，詹姆斯。让她吃晚餐。”詹姆斯小声嘀咕说：“我不会对她的作业喋喋不休。”
Hannah prodded a pebble of hamburger on her plate. Lydia caught Nath's eye. Please, she thought. Say something. Nath took a deep breath. He had been waiting to bring something up all evening.
汉娜在盘子里戳了一块汉堡包。莉迪亚引起了纳的注意。她想着他能说点什么。纳深吸一口气。他整个晚上都在等着提起话题。
"Dad? I need you to sign some forms." "Forms?" James said. "What for?" "For Harvard." Nath set down his fork. "My housing application, and one for a campus visit. I could go in April, over a weekend. They have a student who'll host me."
“爸爸？我需要你在一些表格上签字。”“表格？什么表格？”詹姆斯说。“哈佛相关的。”纳放下叉子。“我的住房申请，还有一次校园参观。我可以四月周末去。有学生会来招待我。”
Now that he had started, the words tumbled out in a breathless blur. "I have enough saved for a bus ticket and I'll only miss a few days of school. I just need your permission."
现在他已经开始说了，那些话令人喘不过气来，模糊不清地脱口而出。“我攒的钱够买一张汽车票，我只好翘几天课。我只是需要得到你的允许。”
Miss a few days of school, Lydia thought. Their parents would never allow it. To her surprise, they nodded. "That's smart," Marilyn said.
莉迪亚想：翘几天课，父母绝不会允许的。令她吃惊的是，他们都点了点头。“这很聪明，”玛丽琳说。
"You'll get a taste of campus life, for next year, when you're there for real." James said, "That's an awfully long bus ride. I think we can afford a plane ticket for such a special occasion."
“明年你在那里的时候，你会体会到校园生活的滋味。”詹姆斯说：“坐公共汽车时间太长了。我想我们能为这样一个特殊的日子负担得起一张机票。”
Nath grinned at his sister in double triumph: They're off your back. And they said yes. Lydia, making trails in the cheese sauce with the tip of her knife, could think only one thing: He can't wait to leave.
纳带着双重的喜悦对妹妹咧嘴一笑：他们在你背后。他们同意了。莉迪亚正用刀尖在奶酪酱上做着记号，她只能想到一件事：他等不及要走了。
"You know who's in my physics class now?" she said suddenly. "Jack Wolff, from down the street." She nibbled a shred of iceberg and measured her family's reaction.
“你知道现在谁在我的物理课上吗？”她突然说。“街那边的杰克·沃尔夫。”她咬了一小块奶酪，试探家人的反应。
To her parents, the name slid past as if she hadn't spoken. Her mother said, "Lyddie, that reminds me, I could help you go over your notes on Saturday, if you want."
父母对这个名字毫无印象。妈妈说：“莉迪，这倒提醒了我，如果你愿意的话，我可以在星期六帮你复习笔记。”
Her father said, "I haven't seen Karen in a while. Why don't you two go to a movie sometime? I'll drive you." But Nath's head, across the table, jerked up as if a rifle had gone off.
父亲说：“我有一段时间没见到凯伦了。你们俩为什么不找个时间去看场电影呢？我开车送你们。”但桌子对面的纳猛地抬头，好像步枪走火了一样。
Lydia smiled back down at her plate. And right then she decided that she and Jack were going to be friends. At the beginning, it seemed impossible.
莉迪亚又对着盘子笑了笑。就在那时，她决定和杰克做朋友。一开始这似乎是不可能的。
Jack hadn't come to class in nearly a week, and she hovered near his car after school for days before she caught him alone.
杰克有将近一个星期没来上课了，她放学后在他车旁徘徊了好几天，最后才发现只有他一个人。
The first day, he came out of the building with a blond junior she didn't know, and she ducked behind a bush and watched through the branches.
第一天，他和一个不认识的金发大三学生一起走出大楼，她躲在灌木丛后面，透过树枝看着。
Jack slid his hands into the girl's pocket, then inside her coat, and when she pretended to be offended and pushed him away, he tossed her over his shoulder, threatening to throw her into the snowbank, while she squealed and giggled and hammered his back with her fists.
杰克把手伸进女孩的口袋，然后伸进外套里，当她佯装生气把他推开时，他把她扛在肩上，威胁要把她扔进雪堆里，她尖叫着，咯咯笑着，用拳头锤着他的背。
Then Jack set her down and opened the door of the Beetle, and the blond girl climbed in, and they drove off, steam billowing from the tailpipe, and Lydia knew they wouldn't be back.
然后杰克把她放下，拉开甲壳虫车的车门，金发女孩爬了进去，他们开车走了，排气管里冒出滚滚蒸汽，莉迪亚知道他们不会回来了。
