Megan McDonald finished her senior year at Emerson Bay High with an impressive résumé. She captained her cheer team since sophomore year and took them to the state championship three times. A leader on the debate team, she played varsity basketball, and was ranked first in her class in grade point average. She spent part of the previous summer in South Africa assisting at a makeshift hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, a bullet point for her medical school application in the coming years. Her greatest achievement, however, was her effort in spearheading a mentoring program during the summer after sophomore year that, in total, included 80 percent of the incoming freshman class, and was created to help arriving first-year girls make the transition from middle school to high school.
Her determination to make the program perfect earned a write-up in the local paper. Teachers and administrators praised the mentoring program and the environment it created for freshman girls. Parents sent letters describing how well adjusted their daughters were during such a big changeover year. The superintendent spread the word about the program’s success, and neighboring high schools reached out to Megan for advice on creating their own summer platforms. Soon, an overachieving young man from a high school in New York called to ask for Megan’s help in creating a similar program for boys. All the attention led to an article in Events magazine featuring Megan McDonald and how she was taking the anxiety out of high school for not only the incoming class at Emerson Bay, but—as her program became widely adopted—for thousands of kids around the country.
She walked now from the high school where she had graduated valedictorian three months earlier. With her was Stacey Morgan, an upcoming junior who would take over the mentoring program this summer when Megan headed off to college.
“We’ve got another week to finish things up,” Megan said as they walked across the parking lot. “I know you’re stressed, but you’re going to be fine. You’ll likely do a better job than me, people like you more.”
“Ha! Not true,” Stacey said. “The younger girls idolize you.”
“They’ll feel the same way about you. You’ve just got to put it out there, you know? You’re the leader of this event. Everyone during the weekend has to see it and feel it. If you do that, everyone will look up to you. Even the seniors. You’re going to do great.”
“Thanks.”
They stopped at Megan’s Jeep. “I’ll miss you next year, you know that?”
“Yeah,” Stacey said. “Me too. But you’ll be making new friends and joining a sorority and you’ll be on your own.”
“Maybe,” Megan said. “I’ll only be in Raleigh. I’ll be back on weekends and we’ll hang out.”
“Promise?”
“Promise. You going to the beach party on Saturday?” Megan asked.
“Yeah. I think everyone’s going. Isn’t that when Nicole Cutty puked in the fire last year?”
Megan laughed. “Nicole’s an idiot. She chugs five beers to impress . . . who? I don’t know. Then tries to douse the fire with her vomit.”
“She was such a slut the other night, I don’t understand her.”
“Nicole? I don’t know. I’m trying to stay out of her way. She wants drama and I just wish no one would give it to her.”
Stacey smiled. “Will Matt be at the beach party? I heard you guys hooked up last weekend.”
“No!” Megan said. “We kissed in the bay, that’s the end of it.”
“I thought you guys were together last year?”
“Sort of.”
Stacey waited.
“It’s complicated. He was kind-of-sort-of dating this girl from Chapel Hill, but not really. And at one point, he was hanging out with Nicole. I don’t know. I could never get the full story. So things are brewing but not, you know . . .”
“Fermenting?”
“Gross. I’ve got to run. I’m meeting my dad for lunch. I’ll see you Saturday night.”
Megan climbed into her Jeep and drove across town. As her father had grown increasingly depressed about Megan’s upcoming college career, she was making the effort this summer to spend more time with him. It was hard to see him this way. The pride she saw in his eyes was unmistakable, and Megan knew he was excited for her. But she also felt her father’s fear. Sadness came over him in the last few months since Megan had decided on Duke. The campus was just three hours away, but hours were not what upset her father. It was the idea that college was the first step in losing his daughter. Megan had never been deceptive in her desire to get out of Emerson Bay and live in a big city. Fascinated by Boston and New York since she was a little girl, Megan had been vocal about those cities being her first choices for medical school after college. Her interests might change, but for the moment she was enamored of the idea of neonatology, and St. Luke’s in New York had one of the best programs in the country.
She pulled into the lot of Gateways, an Emerson Bay staple that served good salads and gourmet burgers. Parked out front was her father’s cruiser, SHERIFF stenciled across the side. Megan knew he was already inside chatting up the waitresses and bartenders and earning a free lunch from the owner. Her father had a certain charisma that made people comfortable. Some officers wielded their authority as a source of intimidation. Her father was never that way, which was likely why he was so successful as sheriff. Everyone in town knew him, most liked him, and the majority voted for him.
She entered the diner and she saw the newspaper spread across the bar, a cup of coffee steaming next to it and the red-topped stool empty. As soon as she sat down, the waitress approached. “Hi, hon. Your pop’s in the bathroom. What can I get you?”
“Diet Coke, thanks.”
Megan scanned the paper. The sports page was open. She turned to the front page and skimmed the headlines. As Megan read, she heard the familiar jingle-jangle of her father’s keys and holster as he walked up behind her. When conjuring a persona of their fathers, most girls pictured their dads’ faces, hair color, or smiles. But Megan’s dad had always been the swashbuckling sheriff of Montgomery County. She pictured him in his uniform more than she ever did “street” clothes—keys jingling and leather holster squeaking.
There was a part of her that was sad to leave for college. Not nervous. She’d flown alone to Africa and found her way to a desert village where she worked alongside strangers in a country where she didn’t speak the language. All the nervousness of her life had been spent on the Doctors Without Borders trip last summer. But there was a small ache of sadness when she thought of being away from her parents, and specifically her father, whom she’d worked her entire life to please.
“Hi, Daddy,” Megan said when he kissed the back of her head.