Performance day. Read this passage silently once, aloud twice, then PERFORM it for a family member, making deliberate choices that convey its shifting tone, irony, and subtext.

The Homecoming

Twenty years he had been gone, and the town looked exactly the same, and completely different. "Well, well," said the woman behind the counter, not quite smiling. "Look who decided to come back." Marcus felt the old weight settle onto his shoulders. "Just passing through," he said, though they both knew that was a lie. The bell above the door had the same tired ring. The coffee smelled the same. Even the silence between them was familiar, an old argument neither had ever finished. "Passing through," she repeated softly, and this time there was something almost like forgiveness in it.