I felt a tension I hadn’t been aware I’d been carrying leave my shoulders. Until Cole had said that, I’d been so anxious and scared about what was going on with me. The fact that he thought it was interesting and cool made me feel so much better about what most people thought was pure make-believe.
“Mom?” I said, putting the phone back to my ear. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. And, just so you know, I’m bringing a friend….”
“ARE YOU WAITING FOR A FRIEND?” I heard a voice say.
I stood away from the locker I’d been leaning against while I flipped through Seventeen magazine, and smiled at Mrs. Wishborne, one of the school secretaries who must’ve come in on a Saturday to get some extra work done.
“My boyfriend,” I said, motioning to the closed door of the classroom.
She looked to the door and nodded, then carried on down the hall.
Spence was inside taking his SATs. This would be his third attempt at the test. Jamie’s, too. Both of them had taken the test once last year, then again early this year, and neither had done very well. Spence had a hard time with tests in general, especially multiple choice. He was a decent enough student overall, but when it came to big exams like finals, the ACTs, and SATs he’d get so anxious that sometimes he’d bomb.
Jamie was an entirely different story. He was a very smart kid who just didn’t apply himself. He’d shown up at the SAT in September half-asleep and never finished it.
I’d been working with Spence on the practice tests for the last three weeks, and I’d also offered to help Jamie study, but he’d only shown up at the first session, and I had no doubt he’d bomb on this try, too.
Still, I had high hopes for Spence. He’d been doing well enough on the practice tests for me to keep my fingers crossed about his chances of getting into UCLA. His application had already been sent in, and he’d talked to the coach, who was very interested in Spence joining the team, but even he’d warned him about maintaining his grades and doing well on this last attempt at the SATs. He’d told Spence outright that UCLA didn’t make an academic allowance for incoming athletes. Spence would have to get in on his own merits before the coach could offer him a place on the team and, hopefully, some money.
That was another hurdle we were going to have to overcome. The coach had said that most of his scholarship budget had already been assigned to other incoming freshmen, and the best he could offer Spence if he got in was a partial scholarship for tuition only. We’d have to figure out how to get the money for room, board, and books on our own.
There was a scholarship fund from the Bennett foundation, and I’d helped Spence fill out the application, but he still had to interview with Mrs. Bennett and impress her, and I wasn’t sure anyone could impress Mrs. Bennett. A good SAT score could only help his cause with her, but I didn’t know that she’d be sympathetic to the star of the football team with the B average, no matter how great his financial need.
But we weren’t entirely out of options yet. There was hope.
I began to pace the hallway, nervous about so much riding on Spence’s performance today, when the door to the classroom opened and out came several students. From the pack, both Jamie and Spence appeared, and one look at their faces told me they thought they’d done well.
“Hey, Ambi,” Spence said, stopping in front of me to give me a quick kiss.
“How’d it go?” I asked, trying to keep the anxious tone out of my voice.
“It was good,” he said.
“Really?”
He took up my hand and started to lead me down the hallway. “Yeah. Those extra practice tests helped. I got through the whole test this time, at least.”
I let out a relieved sigh. “Oh, thank God!” Then I turned to Jamie. “How’d you do?”
“Good,” he said.
I eyed him curiously. Jamie was the kind of guy that had everything handed to him in life. He was good-looking enough to be a model, his parents spoiled him rotten, giving him a new car for his birthday, and he mostly floated smugly through school, charming his teachers into granting him better grades than he deserved.
Maybe it was because I was so in love with Spence, but I found Jamie to be lazy, callous, and often arrogant. The only reason he wasn’t an A student was because he didn’t apply himself. Ever. But I also knew that his parents put tremendous pressure on him to excel, which was why I had a small measure of sympathy for him.
As we walked down the hallway, however, I noticed the wicked smile he wore, and a look passed between him and Spence that sent a warning bell through my mind.
“What?” I asked Jamie.
“Nothing,” he replied a little too quickly. “I did good. Spence did good. Everything’s good.”
I looked from Spence to Jamie, but their expressions had become very neutral all of a sudden. “Something’s going on,” I said.
Spence wrapped his arm across my shoulders and pulled me close to offer me another kiss. “Nothing’s going on, babe,” he said. “You guys hungry?”
I stopped in my tracks, pulling away from him. “Tell me,” I demanded.