The truth was worse. A truck had hit a telephone pole at the end of Lake Street. The super said it would be eight hours before the internet came back.

| File | Language point | Example from story | |------|----------------|---------------------| | 1A | Greetings & introductions | “Hello, what’s your name?” | | 2B | Present simple (he/she/it) | “She lives downstairs.” | | 5C | Can/can’t for ability | “I can’t do my grammar exercises.” | | 7C | Weather vocabulary | “Rainy, cloudy, windy, humid.” | | 8A | I’d like to… / Can I…? | “I’d like to speak to the manager.” | | 9A | Prepositions of time (at/in/on) | “At 10:47 PM, the Wi-Fi came back.” | | 10C | Past simple (regular/irregular) | “A truck hit a pole.” / “They sat in a circle.” |

They played the game for an hour. They made silly guesses. Rob pretended to be the detective with a terrible British accent. Carol laughed so hard she spilled her soda. Jenny forgot about her test.

They sat in a circle on the floor—Jenny, Rob, Jake, and Carol. The rain hit the window. The room was quiet except for the sound of the F train in the distance.

“No,” Rob said. “I mean we go back to the old way . Page 4. ‘Getting to know you.’ We talk. Face to face. No screens.”