“Sure he is,” I said, while Tucker was doing anything and everything to keep the peace in order to get his win.
“Hey,” he said. “Speaking of blowing off steam, I was thinking after we win this thing, we have a big party. A rager. We haven’t had one in a while.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said absently, my mind still in the piano room. A Juilliard audition right there in my hands, and instead I was going to be here, with Rhett Calloway sitting behind me, rowing a little stick…
“Cool,” Tucker was saying, “but the party can’t really be at my house ’cause my parents are in town. In fact, everybody’s parents are in town.”
“Yeah. And?”
“Well…your parents arenotin town. In fact, your parents are clear across the Atlantic. What about having it at Atlas Hall?”
I nodded, thinking. “Yeah, I could do that. I could totally do that.”
The school wouldn’t care. I was a goddamn Mercer. I was Big Five. I could do whatever the fuck I wanted.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll hire somebody and get it rolling.”
“Fuck yeah!” Tucker said. “We’re going to win this thing, and then we’re going to celebrate in style.”
“One hundred percent.”
Because screw Ezra Wolfe. He didn’t get to decide my life for me. No one did but me.
And Harper…?
But Coach Daniels and the assistant coach were heading toward us to start practice.
I turned to Rhett. “Hey, if you’re a good boy, Calloway, I might let you come to my party.”
Chapter 32Harper
At my desk in my room, I placed the turbidity and pH test stripsin the water samples that had been filtrated with either sand, gravel, cheesecloth, or charcoal layers, and then noted the results. I noted the best reduction in sediment and the drinkable pH, then moved on to bacteria testing. A tired grin spread over my lips.
“Thank God.” My results were as I predicted. Drinkable water…which wasn’t bad considering I’d had to budget like a madwoman for the materials.
I hastily wrote up my results and set them on my desk. I’d leave the formal write-up for next week and start rehearsing my presentation for next Thursday.
My phone chimed with a text from Tessa.
Check your mail???
I frowned.No. Why?
Um hello???
A photo popped up of a college acceptance letter from NYU.
“Oh, shit.”
In all my Mom drama, I’d started to think I couldn’t do any college without the NoSci. Not a poor Bend kid like me who’d need the gross GDP of a small nation in student loans to pay for any of it.
Congrats!!!I typed.I’m not surprised.
Thanks but Go. Mail. Now.
I headed downstairs, my stomach queasy. Mom was on the couch napping. Or passed out. Hard to tell these days. Dash was watching cartoons.
“Hey, buddy,” I said. “Did you hear the mailman?”
