“But what makes you sparkle?” asked Tina, the dark-haired woman who could play a porcelain doll and ended all her sentences like questions even when they weren’t. “What makes you just incandescently happy?”
“Incandescent,”Rose said. “I love that word.”
“It made you happy?” Nico pressed. He’d gone to an arts academy from sixth grade on and performed aerial acrobatics with some of the top circus performers in the world. Rose had never heard of any of them, but it didn’t make her any less impressed.
“Yes,” Rose said, realizing he’d supplied her answer. “It did.”
“You’re in good company,” Nico said, blowing a smoke ring that reminded Rose of the caterpillar from the movieAlice in Wonderland. She and her father had watched it over and over until he’d finally pretended the VHS player had swallowed the tape whole, not a scrap to be found. “A really good word just about makes me come.”
“Oh my God, you’re disgusting.” Tina slapped him lightly on the wrist.
“Andyouhaven’t had enough to drink.” He tipped her drink back, and light pink liquid drizzled down her cheeks.
A buzz then a hush then a quiet fell over the room, and a woman with fiery red hair leaped onto a sturdy-looking coffee table. “If I could get everyone’s attention!” she said, though every eye was already locked on her. “All of you dazzling, beautiful people.” She smiled, and Rose was certain she’d never seen sucha perfect mouth of teeth. They were incandescent, really. Poppy materialized at her side and squeezed Rose’s hand.
“My name is Wanda, and I am just thrilled to see you all here tonight. It’s the best turnout we’ve had in years, and I can’t help but think that, well, maybe I had a little something to do with it.” A few in the crowd whooped, and others chuckled. “It’s a small and grueling major,” she continued. “Everyone in this room knows that in their bones to some extent. Small, because New York and LA have a stranglehold on theater and film, so why wouldn’t you hitch your wagon to one of those cities from the jump? Vermont seems to be about the least logical option—more cows than people and all that. And yet, here you are.” Nico blew another long puff of smoke and clapped, triggering a smattering of applause. Wanda’s face lit up, a dimple forming in the corner of her mouth that made her look like she was keeper of a grand secret. “You’re here because you had a feeling. You felt the same pull to be here that I did, a feeling as acute as it is inexplicable. You knew, somewhere in your being, that here you would become who you were meant to be.”
Rose took a breath and held it. Because while she was just an interloper at this gathering, Wanda had described exactly the certainty Rose had experienced the morning she opened her acceptance letter; the same knowing she’d had since she was a girl swimming in her father’s sweatshirt.
“But even though we’re in the middle of nowhere—or maybe especially because we’re in the middle of nowhere—you need to prove you have more than a feeling. You need to prove you have a magnetism that transcends this place, that could turn heads in New York, or LA, or any of the many bastions of regional theater across the country.” Another good word,bastions, Rose thought.Wanda pronounced it with the slightest hint of British accent, which Rose imagined was a holdover from something glamorous like a semester abroad or a foreign nanny.
“On with it!” someone yelled from the back of the room.
“I’m going to ask something of you all tonight,” Wanda said, waving them off, though clearly moving forward with a bit less mystery and a bit more intention. “And in taking part in this initiation, you’ll be part of a long line of theater majors who have learned to say yes to seemingly ridiculous asks.” Poppy leaned further into Rose, trying to communicate with her body just how much she did not want to do it alone. “It’s the first Saturday night of the semester. The campus is buzzing, and there’s a party in every house and a pregame in every dorm. Your ask is simple. Meet someone you’ve never seen or spoken to before.” Wanda paused for effect, white teeth glistening. “And convince them to jump into the pond behind the performing arts center with you.”
Rose considered it. She’d thought the initiation would be painful, or involve drinking so much she’d risk an ambulance ride. But this was harmless. And she knew something inside her was beginning to shift because she wondered, for a moment, whether it could even befun.
“This is kind of lame,” Poppy whispered at a volume Rose hoped was only audible to her.
Wanda responded, making her think it hadn’t been. “We’re trying really hard here to toe the line between initiation and hazing. I’m sure you all know that hazing could shut down our student-run club and endanger the major, but I would be remiss not to tell you that bonus points will be awarded for those who manage to convince their new acquaintance to switch clothes prior to, or after, jumping. And I would hate for you not to know thatwe have an incredible little law in Vermont where nudity is completely legal as long as you’re in motion, if you’re the type who prefers dry clothes to wet.”
There was the chaos Poppy had promised, if subdued with qualifiers and veiled language. Wanda smiled and stepped down from the table as though floating. “You have until midnight, chickens. We’ll be waiting at the pond. And we’re judgmental bitches, so come to it with some style.”
Poppy squeezed Rose’s arm so tight she felt it might pop. “Plea—” she began, but Wanda’s speech had her spinning; wheels that had once been straight and true now flirting with a sharp right turn.
“I’m coming.”
“Nudity is completely legal?” Rose muttered under her breath.
“As long as you don’t stop moving.” Poppy was two steps behind her, struggling to keep up in her heels. In the center of the quad even the bright streetlamps could not pollute the night sky, and Rose relished the brightness of the stars. “It’s just up there!” Poppy pointed a long finger toward the woods. Most people knew there was a party at Adirondack House that weekend, and those who didn’t would soon. Rumor had it the seniors had gotten their hands on six kegs, and even then they weren’t sure it would be enough for the influx of students eager to celebrate the end of summer and the start of something new. It seemed an easy, rational place to find willing participants. Rose looped Poppy’s arm around her elbow and all but carried her up the steep hill, trusting the pulsing music to lead her in the right direction.
“So have you changed your mind yet?” Poppy asked.
Rose feigned ignorance. “About?”
“You’re good at saying yes. I’ll leave it at that.” Thefor nowwas implied.
Adirondack House came into view, looking exactly the way the website had advertised, white trim gleaming. Originally designed as the expansion to a farmhouse, the building had hosted the first women to attend the college in the not-so-distant past, of which, given its size, there had clearly been painfully few. People spilled out the front porch, leaned out windows, laid out on the grass wrapped comfortably in alcohol blankets. Rose didn’t recognize a soul.
Until two fingers tapped her shoulder.
“Jess?” the man asked.
Rose twirled. “Landon,” she said, testing his name out to make sure it was the one she was looking for. He was taller than she remembered, with a rumpled look that only seemed to half suit him.
“Rose,” he said in reply, as though he had been waiting to say her name all night. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I saw you two walking up the hill. I promise that you still look nothing like my sister.”
Poppy locked eyes with Rose, then shrugged. “If you want to waste time with him, be my guest.” Her heels clicked loudly up the creaky wood steps and she swung the screen door open.
