Wilder Girls: Chapters 5–9

by Rory Power
When the Tox begins to infect students at the Raxter School for Girls, Hetty attempts to discover the truth about the mysterious illness — and the disappearance of her best friend.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–9, Chapters 10–16, Chapters 17–26
25 words 46 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. convulse
    contract involuntarily, as in a spasm
    She convulses, her muscles snapping tight as a curve sweeps up her body like a wave.
  2. hyperventilate
    breathe excessively hard and fast
    I ignore her and crawl back to Byatt, who’s nearly hyperventilating, trying to sit up.
  3. aback
    by surprise
    “Because it affects me,” she says, and I’m taken aback by the sting in her voice, by the snarl of her lips.
  4. concession
    a point that is yielded
    She’s dressed the same as always, slacks and a button-down shirt, her sturdy hiking boots the only concession to what’s happened at her school.
  5. dormer
    a gabled extension built out from a sloping roof
    It slants up from the second floor to the roof deck, with dormers for each window poking out.
  6. shingle
    building material used as siding or roofing
    Strange without Byatt behind me to swat at my heels, but soon enough I’m crouched low on the slope of the roof, shingles wet with melted frost under my hands.
  7. contortion
    the act of twisting or deforming the shape of something
    “My house,” she says. A strange contortion of her face, like she’s trying not to laugh, or maybe cry. “You're sure he said my house?”
  8. gurney
    a metal stretcher with wheels
    Gone, until I’m not. Flat on my back, the world moving around me as four suited figures wheel my gurney into a dark room.
  9. shroud
    cover as if with a burial garment
    The table in the middle is shrouded in paper, lit stark and hard.
  10. innocuous
    lacking intent or capacity to injure
    It’s something else, lying small and innocuous next to a bottle of water.
  11. ricochet
    spring back; spring away from an impact
    I wait for it to fade, the way I’m used to, wait for it to turn into blinding pain. Instead, it builds, ricocheting through my body, shredding my insides, and I feel my hands clench into fists, nails biting deep into my palms.
  12. lance
    move quickly, as if by cutting one's way
    I scream. Blood dripping from my nose, agony lancing down my back.
  13. reprimand
    rebuke formally
    I’ve only been there twice before: once on my first day at Raxter and then again a semester later, when I got reprimanded for talking during assembly.
  14. affected
    speaking or behaving artificially to make an impression
    After her first flare-up the other day, she was bouncing off the walls, excited to be like the rest of us even if her flare-up left her coughing up teeth from somewhere deep inside, but today she’s got on an affected solemnity.
  15. solemnity
    a trait of dignified seriousness
    After her first flare-up the other day, she was bouncing off the walls, excited to be like the rest of us even if her flare-up left her coughing up teeth from somewhere deep inside, but today she’s got on an affected solemnity.
  16. lintel
    a horizontal beam over a door or window
    It comes to my turn, and I duck under the lintel into the pantry and step aside to make room for Cat as she joins me.
  17. impassive
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    She’s staring at her boots, and Carson is watching helplessly with that look I recognize, the look of someone beaten almost into submission by Reese’s impassive silence.
  18. rueful
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    “Oh, good, another one,” Reese says, but she sounds a bit gentler, looks almost rueful as she smiles at me.
  19. stifle
    smother or suppress
    It’s a stifling quiet as we eat.
  20. stilted
    artificially formal or stiff
    I lined up for my radio call and we had short, stilted conversations.
  21. bracing
    refreshing or invigorating
    And Reese took my hand, like she did last night, and she led me back outside. The air bracing and quick, waking the blood in my skin and thinning the pain in my head until it was barely there anymore.
  22. taper
    diminish gradually
    Off to the left, the cliff tapering to nothing on our side of the grounds, and up ahead, a tetherball pole and a rusted swing set, both listing to one side, the dead grass around them covered in frost.
  23. copse
    a dense growth of trees, shrubs, or bushes
    There’s a copse of spruce trees off to the left of the gate, where some of the older girls used to bring their mainland boyfriends on visitor days.
  24. stoic
    seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
    She’s warm through her jacket, alive and here with me, and if I couldn’t feel it myself, I wouldn’t believe it, but she’s trembling. Reese, stoic and sharp and steel, shaking under my touch.
  25. flush
    of a surface exactly even with an adjoining one
    We hold there, her frame inside of mine, and then she relaxes. Just barely, and not all at once, but it brings her back flush against my chest.
Created on Fri Mar 27 16:39:47 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Mar 27 16:50:46 EDT 2020)

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