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Mara shook her head and smiled.
The drive back into the city was quick, Eliza speeding around all the other cars with a dainty honk and a giggle. They made it to Washington Square Park by midafternoon, and Eliza parked the car by the curb in front of a building with a big purple NYU flag on the front steps. Jacqui looked out the window and took in the
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scene, near bursting with happiness. There were so many eager eighteen-year-olds, most with their parents in tow, carrying their purple NYU orientation packets and wearing their NYU Class of ' 11 T-shirts. Sure, they looked a bit like wide-eyed tourists, but she was one of them. And even if her parents couldn't come from Brazil to help her get settled in, she had two people who loved her to see her off, right here in this very car.
As her eyes scanned the crowd of bobbing heads, she suddenly recognized a very familiar head of blond hair. "Pete!" she yelled excitedly, not stopping to think for a second.
Mara and Eliza exchanged smirks in the rearview mirror.
"Is this the famous Pete Rockwood from Indiana?" Mara asked.
"Pete Rockwood? That sounds familiar. . . . Wait a minute--is this the guy who called the store from his dentist's office?" Eliza pushed her sunglasses up on her head to get a better look at him. "Talk about regulation hottie--this one is off the charts!"
But Jacqui was getting out of the car so fast she couldn't hear them. She didn't even bother to open the door, instead leaping over the side of the convertible. She ran up to Pete, who was standing under the grand arch in Washington Square Park, surrounded by cardboard boxes and suitcases.
"What are you doing here?" she said breathlessly as she approached him, not pausing for the usual civilities.
He put down one of the suitcases he was carrying, looking the slightest bit embarrassed. "I'm a freshman here, actually," he said
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sheepishly. "Remember when we met? I was in New York because I was wait-listed and had a follow-up interview. I was too embarrassed to admit I hadn't gotten in."
Jacqui nodded. That sounded familiar. When she was deferred for a year, she'd done the exact same thing.
"And besides, I didn't want you to think I was just telling you to go to NYU because I would be here." He shrugged. "Although that might have been part of it," he added with a small smile.
"So it's just fate." Jacqui nodded, smiling.
"Just fate," Pete agreed. "But what about you? Shouldn't you be in Paris?"
She shrugged. "Paris will always be there. I'll see it some other time. Isn't that what spring break is for?" She raised an eyebrow and flipped her dark locks over her shoulder.
Pete grinned at her, his dimples forming irresistibly in either cheek. "So, uh . . . need some help moving into your dorm? If it's not too forward
of me to see your room on our first date," he added quickly. His shy but eager smile said everything, and Jacqui felt that familiar tingle up her spine.
"You bet." She grinned right back. "But just a second--I've got to say goodbye to my girls."
Jacqui ran back to the car, her glossy black hair flowing behind her, grinning widely, her face aglow. The three girls hugged one last time.
"So you're not going to be in New York this year," Eliza said sadly to Mara.
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"Neither are you," Jacqui reminded Eliza.
"Princeton isn't too far away," Eliza assured her. "I'll come visit."
"And I'll write long e-mails, I promise," Mara said. "And you can always read my blog," she added with a grin.
After one last hug Eliza pulled the car away from the curb. She and Mara waved to Jacqui and Pete until they were mere specks in the distance, two figures standing hopefully beside each other underneath the looming arch of Washington Square Park.
Eliza steered the car uptown, the late-afternoon light streaming through the windshield. Another summer was over, and they would all be separated once again. But good friends were never too far away in spirit.
Mara turned on the car radio. They sang along to the Natasha Bedingfield song, the one they knew all the words to, and felt a little better.
