Directions: Read the excerpt from the short story "Safety of Numbers" and annotate with a purpose for evidence of conflict. Highlight examples of conflict and identify the type of conflict.

Excerpt:
> That final week of preparations, I barely leave the house at all. Mom has me in bed by nine thirty every night and taking Vitamin C pills every day, just in case. On the Friday before the test, I am concentrating for once, really concentrating when she comes into my room and throws bits of colored paper on my desk.

> "What is this?" she asks. "8.5? 9.1? 10? 'I'd do you!'?"

> Cat's performance Post-Its lie there looking defeated, having been crumpled and then smoothed out again. Mom's hair is bigger than usual, and suddenly I feel my own stand up at the back of my neck, as if some gene of hers has just decided to assert itself, to remind me whose daughter I am.

> "You go through my trash?"

> Mom blinks a couple times and stands up straight, as if she has been asked a difficult theoretical question. In that moment of triumph, I feel my chest expand and my eyebrows rise a fraction of an inch—this, too, is an expression of hers. The shock of reacting like her twice in twenty seconds makes me look away, and by the time I look back, she is pretending that she hasn't heard me at all.

> "I don't want you around that girl anymore," she says quietly.

> When I realize she is talking about Cat, my face grows hot. I think of all the words I could use to say how I'm feeling now: irate, livid, incensed. I am one adjective away from bellicose. But they are all too neat to describe the mix of emotions going through me.

> "She's my best friend. You don't have a say in it."

(Note: This version maintains the instructions and organizes the text for clarity and focus on the task of identifying conflict.)