Important Characters in "When You Reach Me"

            I am still reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Many things have happened to Miranda, the main character, since I wrote about her in my last blog post. Sal still won't talk to her, and she has to make new friends. The key that Miranda's mother keeps in the staircase of their building goes missing. Then, suddenly, Miranda starts getting these letters that say creepy things like "I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own" and "please remember to mention the location of your house key." These notes are obviously very frightening, as Miranda does not know who they are coming from. There are many characters in this book that play an important role in Miranda's life, and I would like to write about the ones that I think are the most important to her and to the story.        
          Sal, Miranda's former best friend, stopped talking to her after the day he got punched by a boy on the street, while walking home with her. Ever since that day, he's started to ignore her. They no longer walk home after school together; they no longer hang out at all. Because of this, Miranda must make new friends. She starts hanging out with her two classmates Annemarie and Colin. I wonder if Miranda misses Sal, whom she knew since they were babies. I feel like Miranda doesn't really care about her friendship with him anymore. She doesn't talk to him anymore, as he told her not to. If I were in Miranda's place, I don't know if I would be able to just stop talking to my best friend and to have him suddenly ignore me, like he doesn't know me. But at a point I would probably just give up on the friendship. 
            Annemarie and Colin are important to Miranda. They all get jobs at a sandwich shop, and beyond becoming best friends with Annemarie, she also starts to like Colin. I think that Miranda would miss Sal much more if she didn't have Annemarie and Colin.   
           Also, I think that an important character in When You Reach Me is Marcus, who keeps on showing up. He turns out to be the boy that punched Sal. Marcus is really smart, and he loves math and reading. Miranda and Marcus have many conversations about the book she's reading and about time travel. It seems like Miranda is connecting more with Marcus now than she did with Sal. But still, Miranda knows that this is the boy who punched her best friend, and who caused Sal to stop talking to her. I wonder why Marcus would punch Sal, who did nothing to him.
             Lastly, I think that a third important character in this book is the one that Miranda doesn't know, or at least she doesn't think she knows. The writer of the letters remain a mystery. Two days after her and her mother's extra key goes missing, Miranda finds the first letter. It says things like "you must write me a letter", "I will not be myself when I reach you" and "please remember to mention the location of your house key." Then she finds the second one, in a bag of rolls that Miranda is counting at the sandwich shop. The third letter she finds in her coat pocket. The person writing the letter knows her name, about her friend Colin, about a science poster she did about yawning, and about how she shared her first letter. Miranda has know idea who the person is who is writing the letters, and why. 
             In conclusion, there are many important characters in When You Reach Me, including Miranda's ex-best friend Sal, her new friends Annemarie and Colin, Marcus - the boy who punched Sal, and the person writing the mysterious letters to Miranda. There are other important characters in this book, such as her Miranda's mother and her mother's boyfriend. I'm curious to read on to see how Miranda's relationship with all these other characters changes or grows, and most importantly, who the person is who is writing the letters to Miranda.