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Honestly, I was grateful for all of them. I hadn’t spoken to Mom since she left, and I didn’t want to. As he’d stated, Archie’s dad had his assistant send me their new address and the details on the fancy new car he’d purchased.
They’d even enclosed attached photos of the car and what would be my room.
I deleted the email. Then undeleted it.
When I deleted it a third time, Archie had forwarded it to himself and then said, “Now delete it. I have a copy for the attorney, and you don’t need to stare at it.”
His mom was back in town, too.
Fun. I would just avoid his place for a while, and he was spending a lot of time at mine. The guys had actually asked me if I wanted them to empty out the furniture in Mom’s room.
It had only been a week.
There was still a chance she would come back. Were she and Archie’s dad really gonna keep this going?
One of our tests was in lit and it was another essay, so I dragged my mind to the present and focused on it. By the time our hour was up, my brain was mush.
“Food,” Coop said. “Caffeine. Maybe a sledgehammer to hit myself with.”
Chuckling, I slid my backpack on. “It might feel good after that.”
“Agreed.”
“You two are hilarious,” Ms. Fajardo called, and we both grinned at her. “But may I borrow you for a minute, Frankie?”
Coop followed me up there as the room emptied of kids heading to lunch.
“Frankie, Coop,” Ms. Fajardo told him lightly. “You can wait for her in the hall.”
“It’s okay,” I told him and her for that matter. “I don’t mind if he hears.”
“Well, then you can tell him after. Off with you, Mister.”
With a roll of his eyes, Coop rubbed my arm. “I’ll be outside the door, and I’ll text the guys. Pizza for lunch?”
“Works for me.” At the moment, I’d eat just about anything. Hamburgers included. I was starving. I’d worked late last night ‘cause of a rush and the fact that I had Saturday off. I needed to figure out a way to work in more hours.
As soon as the door closed, Ms. Fajardo beckoned me over to her desk. “All right, I’ll make this quick, but…I have an opportunity I think you would be perfect for…”
“Me?”
“Yes,” she said, and then turned her monitor so I could read the screen. The website for Compass Reach was on the screen. “Do you know about this program?”
“Never heard of it.”
“For the last twenty-five years, they’ve been providing first generation, college-bound high school students with an intensive experience that focuses on skill development and personal growth with the goal of preparing them for college, career and civic life. Students don’t apply, they’re nominated. I spoke to Madame and to Ms. Costgrove…”
“Ms. Costgrove?” She’d been my humanities teacher for two years.
“Yes, we all agreed you were the best candidate and the one most likely to benefit, so we all nominated you and Mr. Fulton, the assistant principal sponsored the nomination.”
“Wow…thank you.” I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this. “When do we find out?”
“Well, they’ll notify us of the exact grant right before winter break, but you’re a finalist, so you’re in.”
Wait. What?
“If you accept, you’re increasing your workload. You’ll have interactive seminars all through the spring, one day a week. We’ll work it out so you will be technically studying off-campus on those days. Once the spring is over, you’ll qualify for one of their paid summer internships at a law firm or a non-profit or even a government agency.”
