A week or so after that, I got my SAT scores and there was general rejoicing throughout the household.
Mom came into my room that night and said, “I really am so proud of you, Ellie.” She sat down on the edge of my bed, where I’d been reading, and I drew my knees up to make room for her.
“I’m just relieved I don’t have to take them again.”
She glanced sideways at me. “I did a little research. With these scores, you’d have a good shot at getting into an Ivy.”
“I don’t want to go to an Ivy. I want to go to Elton College. Remember when I toured it last year and came back and said it was exactly what I wanted? Remember that?”
“I know, but . . .” She leaned back on her hands. “When I was a kid, I heard about Yale and Princeton and Harvard and thought people who went to those places were like a different species. And now I have this daughter who could probably get in. And we can actually afford it—”
“But it’s your dream,” I said. “Not mine.”
“I can’t help wanting big things for you. You’re so brilliant, Ellie. I don’t think I appreciated how easily things came to you until all of this happened with Jacob and I see him struggling just to . . .” Her voice sank to a whisper. “Just to talk.”
“Jakie’s going to be okay,” I said. “Me, I’m not so sure about.”
“My kids,” she said, like those two words were a sentence all by themselves.
sixteen
I didn’t hear from Heather that night, which seemed like a bad sign. Since my scores were good, I couldn’t text her to ask how hers were—there are rules about these things. I knew I’d hear from her sooner or later, anyway.
And I did. The next day.
Hi said the first text.
Hi! I texted back.
I’m so depressed
My heart sank.
George came by that evening.
“Wondering about my scores?” I said when I opened the door to him. “You could have just texted me.”
“This may come as a shock, but not everything’s about you,” he said calmly. “I’m here to help your mom organize her office.”
“So you’re not even curious about what I got?”
“She already told me.”
“Damn it!” I said. “She ruins everything. I was going to tell you I did horribly just to make you feel guilty.”
“Why would that make me feel guilty?”
“Because you were my tutor. My doing badly totally reflects on you.”
“You didn’t do badly,” he pointed out.
“But if I had, it would have been your fault.”
“So I get to take credit for your doing well?”
“No. That was because I’m smart.”
He rolled his eyes. “This may be the stupidest conversation I’ve ever had with you, and that’s saying a lot. Where’s your mother?”
I wasn’t sure, so I led him into the kitchen, where I hit the intercom on the wall monitor and blasted a message through the entire house that he had arrived.
“Thanks,” he said when I had done that and Mom had called down a “Be right there!” He leaned against the counter. “I’m a little scared even to ask, but how did Heather do? Do you know?”
“Yeah.”
He studied my expression. “Uh-oh.”
“Not as well as I’d hoped,” I admitted.
“So—”
I cut him off. “She’ll take it again and do better. And even if she doesn’t, I’ve already looked online and there are plenty of people who got into Elton College with similar scores. Well, not plenty. But some.”
“A lot of people are extraordinary in ways that have nothing to do with test taking,” George said. “But I’m not sure—”
“Don’t.” I put my hand up to stop him from finishing his sentence. “You don’t know Heather the way I do. People love her. She’ll probably have the best teacher recommendations in the world. And she’s really well-rounded.” And Luke will call and make them take her. “The scores are only one small part of this whole thing. I promise you, she and I will end up at our first-choice college together.”
“Make sure you’re not assuming it’s her first choice just because it’s yours.”
“I’m not,” I said, and he just shook his head and went back out into the hallway.
I got a text a little while later from Aaron asking if I wanted to run out for boba. I said sure, and he offered to pick me up.
I buzzed him through the gate about twenty minutes later. When I opened the front door, he pulled up in a Porsche convertible, which he parked behind George’s Toyota. He got out and bounded up to the front door with his usual show of energy and enthusiasm. “Hello!” he cried out, and hugged me tightly. “It’s been way too long. Why have you been denying me the inspirational sight of your beauty?”
“I’m pretty sure you’re the one who’s been too busy to get together.” We’d tried making plans a few times, but they kept falling through.
“I blame you. And those rat bastard SATs.”
“At least they’re over.”
“And at least you did well.”
“You too, right?” I didn’t know the exact numbers, but he’d said he wouldn’t have to retake them.
Mom called down from upstairs, “Who’s that, Ellie?”
Aaron and I moved deeper into the foyer and tilted our heads back so we could see her; she was leaning over the banister, George a few feet behind her, in the shadows.
“Aaron’s here,” I said. “We’re going out to grab some boba.”
“Boba?” Mom repeated. “Okay.” She was wearing yoga pants and a zippered hoodie and had her hair in a ponytail, so either she’d been exercising before George came or was planning to after he left. “You sure you don’t want to stay here? We could order something in.”
“I want to get out of the house.”
“You’re not going to be drinking, are you?”
“We just said we’re going out for tea,” I said. “We either have to drink it or shoot it into our veins.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Do your parents do this to you when you’re leaving?” I asked Aaron.
“Only if I flunk the urine test.”