Summary

In “January,” Claudia admitted that she had seen bruises on Monday many times, but had thought nothing of them. When she was discovered, Monday’s body had over two dozen scars on it. In “One Year Before the Before,” Monday arrived at school in a daze. She stopped picking up August because she claimed he was sick at home for weeks.

In “The Before,” Claudia helped her family volunteer at the church’s annual soup kitchen for Martin Luther King Day. At school, Claudia cried in the bathroom. Shayla and Ashley bullied her for it. Ms. Valente arrived to save Claudia and sent her to the nurse. Ms. Moser was a new nurse who had replaced the recently retired Ms. Orman. Claudia pretended to be Monday to get information from her file. Ms. Moser gave her Ms. Orman’s phone number.

In “The...