There was a softness about her that hadn’t been there before, Jenny thought. Callie and Easy had gotten back together on Valentine’s Day and had stayed together for the rest of the term, happier than they’d ever been before. Maybe love really could conquer all.
She took a final look around Dumbarton 303, making sure they weren’t leaving anything behind. With their posters off the walls and their belongings packed into boxes, the room seemed smaller. Nothing more than bare white walls, a dark wood floor, three empty cots, and dust. The memories were hers to take with her.
“What are you guys doing?” Tinsley’s unmistakable voice came from the doorway. “I texted both of you at least seventeen times.”
She stood with a couple of small boxes in her arms and a bag slung over her shoulder. Next to her was Brett, who was laden down with a huge pile of her belongings. Tinsley had a smudge of dust on her forehead from packing up her things, yet she still managed to look elegant.
“Want to take a load down?” Brett asked, her voice muffled behind a box. Her red hair reached her shoulders, no longer ruthlessly maintained in her old bob. She’d stopped dyeing it fire-engine red, and it was now a beautiful, natural russet color.
Jenny hoisted her own duffel bag to her shoulder and took a last look at the boxes that housekeeping services would ship out before the end of the week.
Callie smirked at Tinsley. “You look like a Sherpa,” she said. “All I’m bringing is my carry-on.”
“Bitch,” Tinsley replied, smiling, while Callie grabbed her giant hobo bag and the satchel she used as a carry-on.
“But I’ll walk down to the parking lot with you all,” Callie continued. “For moral support.”
Jenny kept pace with Brett as they headed down the stairs and out the propped-open side door into the quad. The grass was green and lush. A few Owls who had finished packing were picnicking, sitting in little groups in the sunshine. Alison Quentin was blaring some kind of guitar solo from her bedroom window up above the doorway. She yelled a good-bye out the window, and Callie waved enthusiastically in response.
“I’m so jealous that you and Sebastian are road-tripping,” Jenny said, grinning at Brett. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
“You say that,” Brett replied with a giggle, “but you don’t realize that Seb is very serious about his car. It requires a lot of maintenance. And, you know, we’re from New Jersey. The road trip is like an art.”
“A summerlong art!” Jenny said with a laugh. “That’s pretty impressive.”
“We’re going to camp the whole way, hit the Dakotas and Montana and Idaho,” Brett said dreamily. “Spend some time in Seattle and drive down the coast to California. Then take our time coming back. The Grand Canyon. Austin. New Orleans.”
“That sounds amazing,” Jenny said, sighing happily over the sounds of laughter from Callie and Tinsley behind them.
“We just have to get Seb to Rutgers in August,” Brett said. “Everything else is up to us.”
“You’d better send a million pictures,” Callie said from behind them. “All of you. Maybe there should be a daily photo assignment.”
“That sounds a lot like homework,” Tinsley complained. “No, thank you.”
“An assignment to make my summer more fun!” Callie protested. “What could be better than that?”
“How about no assignments at all?” Tinsley retorted, but there was laughter in her voice.
They walked across the quad in the spring sunshine, headed for the parking lot. Benny Cunningham and Sage Francis were walking arm in arm toward Dumbarton, and they all chorused their goodbyes and text mes when they passed on the pathway. Celine Colista and Verena Arvenal were lying out on a blanket, soaking up rays and gossiping rather than packing up their rooms. Brandon Buchanan and his girlfriend, Cora, sat together on one of the stone benches, their heads close together while they talked intently. He and Cora seemed to really be into each other—Jenny had heard him telling an incredulous Heath Ferro the other night that he and Cora were definitely planning to stay together even after she headed to MIT in the fall.
A group of guys were playing Frisbee in the farther part of the quad, nearer to Richards. Teague Williams and Ryan Reynolds went down in a tackle that had them both laughing. Alan St. Girard was sauntering along behind, looking as half-asleep as ever. Heath Ferro grabbed the Frisbee out of a sweet throw by Lon Baruzza and then threw it back. It curved through the air, orange and blue, headed straight for Lon’s head.
“Hey!” Heath yelled, loud enough to get even Benny’s and Sage’s attention, way in the other direction. His shirt was off and his tanned chest glistened in the sunshine. He was still smarmy Heath Ferro, but he was also undeniably gorgeous. From a safe distance. “Carmichael! You’d better not be taking that hot ass off campus without letting me say goodbye to it!”
Tinsley smirked, but Jenny could tell she was pleased.
“Excuse me,” Tinsley said, heaving a long-suffering sigh. “I have to go deal with that mess.” She adjusted her bag on her shoulder and made a face at Callie, who rolled her eyes—but then relented and smiled when Tinsley hugged her.
Tinsley gave Brett and Jenny hugs as well and then sauntered toward Heath, her heels digging into the soft earth as she headed across the grass. It was funny that they’d been put together for Perfect Match back in February, Jenny thought, because they really were each other’s perfect match. Their flirtation had continued since Valentine’s Day, but Jenny doubted that they’d ever really be a couple. They were both too pretty and too dangerous. It would be like an explosion waiting to happen.
As they neared the parking lot, Brett picked up the pace when she saw Sebastian waiting by his beloved Mustang.
“How can you possibly have more stuff?” he groaned, but he was smiling as he took the boxes out of Brett’s arms, kissing her on the nose as he did so.
“We’re dropping all of this off at home,” Brett reminded Sebastian. “You can pack the car for the road trip any way you want.”
Callie gave her a long hug, then Jenny stepped forward and did the same. She could hardly remember a time when she hadn’t known Brett—and she was sad that she wouldn’t see her every day this summer. It seemed like a dream to Jenny now, that there had ever been a before Waverly.
Sebastian gunned his powerful motor, and then the two girls waved, watching as the black car peeled out of the parking lot toward Waverly’s majestic iron gates.
“I guess it’s just us,” Callie said, turning to Jenny and resting her hands on her hips.
Easy jogged down the path from Richards. Callie turned and smiled at him as he drew closer. Jenny did, too, genuinely glad to see him. The ache that she used to feel when she saw him had disappeared completely. Maybe she’d accepted what it seemed like Callie and Easy had finally accepted—they were made for each other.
“The car the governor sent is here,” he said as he approached. He nodded a hello to Jenny. “The driver is worried about traffic getting out to JFK.”
“And by the driver,” Callie drawled, “he really means my mother, who’s probably calling the poor driver every fifteen seconds to stress him out.”
“You do have a habit of missing flights, Cal,” Easy said. His smile when he looked at her was so sweet and intimate, Jenny had to turn away.
“Off to Atlanta we go,” Callie said with a sigh. “I’m going to have to think up something to do, or the boredom really might kill me.” But she reached for Easy while she spoke and took his hand. Jenny had a feeling they weren’t going to be bored on the trip at all.
“Keep me posted, whatever you do,” Jenny said. The three of them hugged their good-byes before Easy led Callie away.
“I thought you were coming to Kentucky and learning how to be a serious horseback rider, Cal,” he teased her as they walked away. “Didn’t you tell me that?”
“In your dreams, maybe,” Callie replied, laughing.
Jenny was all alone. She let out a breath and shifted her
duffel bag to the ground. At various spots along the edge of the asphalt, there were other Owls with boxes and bags, either loading their stuff into idling cars or, like Jenny, waiting to be picked up. She told herself she wasn’t feeling lonely, exactly. She just wasn’t used to a whole lot of solitary time anymore. She was used to a shared life now. Callie, Tinsley, Brett, and Jenny had been inseparable this past semester. It was going to take some getting used to, being just one-fourth of their foursome.
Rufus had called to say he was on his way and had checked in several times since then, so Jenny expected him at any moment. She wished he’d come sooner. She laughed a little to herself, remembering how insistent she’d been about taking the train to Waverly at the beginning of the year. She’d been too embarrassed to have anyone meet her dad—the thought of it had practically killed her. Now she wished her friends could have waited a little longer, to meet Rufus and see her off.
She sat down on the curb and pulled out her sketchbook. Ever since she’d gotten an A on her Jan Plan project, prompting the dean to rethink his policy on underclassmen not being allowed to work alone, she’d been feeling confident about her work, and inspired. Jenny’s fingers flew across the page as she started to draw whatever came to her mind: The spire on the top of the Waverly chapel. The big bay windows in Dumbarton 303. Callie’s head thrown back in a ridiculous belly laugh. Tinsley and Brett whispering to each other. Her own face in the mirror of Dumbarton 303. All the funny, touching, and tumultuous moments that had made up her year at Waverly—maybe the best year of her life.
She looked up, and there was her dad driving up in her brother Dan’s beat-up old Buick Skylark. Jenny had to smile at the difference between the Humphrey family vehicle and all the Mercedeses, Lexus SUVs, and limos that littered the rest of the parking area. And then she really had to smile, thinking about how humiliated she would have been by this back in the fall. She would have been mortified. But over the course of the year, something had happened to make her less embarrassed. Maybe, just maybe, she’d grown up—if only a little.
Rufus climbed out of the car to give Jenny a hug. “My favorite daughter!” he cried.
“Very funny, Dad,” Jenny said, but she hugged him tight.
They set about loading her things into the car. But when she went to pick up her heavy duffel bag, a tall, lanky figure appeared in front of her.
“Let me get that for you.”
Jenny looked up at Julian. He was so tall—ridiculously tall, especially next to a midget like her—and he was so cute. His smile was sweet and his golden brown eyes glowed like summer. She couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Juniors shouldn’t have to carry their own things.” He grinned. “That’s what we measly underclassmen are for.”
“You’re not a freshman anymore,” she pointed out. “They’ll have to stop torturing you.”
Julian swung the duffel into the backseat of the Buick and then turned to grin down at Jenny. “I can dish out a little torture myself now,” he said. “It could be fun.”
“Sure,” she said. “But I can’t exactly picture you being mean to anyone.”
Julian shrugged, but he was still grinning. “Did I hear you’re going to Prague?”
“My mom lives there,” Jenny explained. She hadn’t really thought about her summer, but when she’d realized that everyone was scattering and she’d be on her own, she’d decided to go to Europe. The year before, at this time, she never would have considered living across the world for an entire summer, but she was no longer the Jenny who was afraid to take risks.
She looked up at Julian, and as the sun came out from behind a cloud, it danced on his messy hair and defined cheekbones. She wanted to draw him so badly, her hands itched.
“You’re lucky.” Julian shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be in Seattle, hanging out with my parents. Not quite as much fun as exploring Prague, I assure you.” He smiled at her. “Will you keep in touch?”
“I will,” Jenny said, and the words hung there between them, like a promise.
He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, and a tingling sensation rushed through her, the way it always did when she got too close to Julian McCafferty.
“I’ll see you,” he said as she opened the passenger door.
Jenny just smiled. Definitely.
She buckled herself into her seat. As her dad pulled out onto the main campus drive, she looked back at Waverly’s stately, graceful buildings. The red bricks and New England white clapboard all blended together with the lush green lawns, the flowering trees, and the tall birch trees.
It had been a great year, she thought with a smile, settling back into her seat. But she had a feeling that next year was going to be even better.
It Girl #10: Classic Page 16