CHAPTER 7
Julie crossed her legs and tried to get comfortable in the hard auditorium seat. It just wasn’t going to happen. The seats had obviously been designed to maximize physical discomfort and prevent students from falling asleep during lectures. Effective, if not cruel. She’d survived a rather tedious breakfast reception during which students had quietly stood around awkwardly nodding and smiling at each other while they waited for orientation to begin. This welcome lecture had to be better. The tiered seats faced a lectern where a few people were struggling to get a Whitney orientation video to work.
“Sorry,” Julie apologized to the girl in the next seat as she accidently elbowed her while attempting to get her notepad from her bag.
“No problem. We’re like goddamn anchovies in these chairs, huh?” The girl smiled at Julie. “I’m Dana. I don’t know anybody here, and I’m hoping you’re a normal person and will be nice to me. Unlike the man on the T this morning who humped my leg. Although he seemed to think he was being nice.”
“I’m Julie from Ohio, and I promise not to hump your leg.”
“Thank God!” Dana said, looking upward and clapping her hands. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
The guy on Julie’s left leaned in to Dana. “I, on the other hand, might hump your leg. Apologies in advance. I really can’t control it. So sorry.”
Julie laughed. “Since you’ve given fair warning, maybe she’ll excuse you.”
He held his hand out. “I’m Jamie. I grew up in Milford, west of Boston.”
Julie and Dana each shook his hand. Dana’s shiny, jet-black hair was cut in a perfectly sharp bob, and her hair barely moved as she nodded to Jamie. “Milford boy, you’re much cuter than perverted T guy, so I just might let you hump my leg. For a small fee.”
“I’ll remember that,” Jamie said, his dimples appearing as he grinned. He flopped back into his seat, adjusted his baseball hat, and rubbed the stubble on his cheek. He definitely looked as if he had rolled out of bed about five minutes ago. “What dorms are you in? I’m in Thompson.”
“Actually, I’m living off campus in an apartment,” Dana said. “Julie, where are you?”
“Nowhere, actually. Well, somewhere obviously. I’m staying with some family friends until I can find a place. Do you guys know of anything?”
“Ugh,” Jamie groaned. “Family friends? Sounds awful.”
Julie shook her head. “No, it’s not so bad. They’re really nice.”
“I can ask around for you,” Dana said. “The dorms are totally packed, I know that.”
“Yeah, and the housing market around here is the pits. I’ll check the campus for signs, though. See if there are any roommate ads for you,” Jamie offered.
“That would be great. Thank you.” Julie gave Jamie and Dana her cell number and programmed theirs into her phone. “Look. They got the video working.” She glanced down at her program. “A thirty-minute campus tour video, followed by a lecture from the head librarian on how to use the online catalogue system. Fun.”
Jamie slumped down further in his seat. “Wake me when it’s over.”
Dana leaned over. “I’ll hump your leg to signal the torture has ended.”
Jamie shut his eyes and smiled. “Nice.”
College orientation was about what Julie had expected it to be: boring, monotonous, and loaded with speeches that touted professors’ accomplishments and promised fascinating classes. They were divided into smaller groups and given a more personal, non-video tour of the school, and that had been fun. Julie did her best to memorize where department buildings were so that she wouldn’t have to walk around school with the embarrassing campus map in front of her face. One might as well carry a sign that said FRESHMAN.
Afterward, Julie took the T to Harvard Square and walked along the Charles River to get back to the Watkinses’ house. It was a bit longer route, as Matt had said, but it was worth it to enjoy the scene. This would be a great place to study. She could take a blanket and sit on the grass, bring a snack, bury herself in a textbook. Who knew if she’d end up living anywhere near here, though?
She let herself into the house with the key Matt had given her. The lock on the front door was a nuisance, and it took a few minutes to get it open. She went into the kitchen to grab a drink. The fridge was positively packed with takeout cartons, and Julie had a suspicion that no one was ever going to eat the leftovers. Her phone rang, and she fumbled in her bag to find it.
She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Julie? Hey, it’s Matthew. How was school?”
“Jam-packed with stimulating information. Where are you? How’d you get my number? Don’t you have to get Celeste soon?”
“That’s why I’m calling. Is there any chance you could pick her up? I’m really sorry. One of my professors is insisting on meeting with me about the research I’m helping him with. I’m sure I could get him to reschedule, but it would look better if I didn’t.”
Julie moved a container of Thai food and took out a bottle of sparkling water. “Sure, I guess so. Is it far from here?”
“Only ten minutes or so. This meeting is important, otherwise I wouldn’t ask. You can take the car. The keys are hanging on the wall by the phone base. There should be paper there too. I’ll give you directions. It’s easy. I promise.”
“You sure your parents won’t mind if I drive their car?”
“Not at all. They rarely use it anyway.”
Julie examined the large white pegboard on the wall. It screamed obsessive-compulsive. Hooks and small compartments held everything from pens and thumbtacks to business cards and the much-used takeout menus. She located the car keys and grabbed a sticky note and a pen. “OK, go.”
Matt gave her directions. “If you leave in ten minutes, that should give you plenty of time. Just pull the car into the drive-thru pickup in front of the school, and Celeste will be out there.” He paused. “And there’s one more thing.”
“I should bring Flat Finn?” she guessed.
Matt was silent for a moment. “Yes. The back seat is down, and there’s a blanket in there so you can cover it up.”
“You mean him.”
“What?”
“I can cover him up. Be respectful. How’d you like it if Flat Finn referred to you as an it, huh?”
“If Flat Finn referred to me as anything, I’d have a whole new respect for him. So far he’s refused to call me anything. It’s a little rude, if you ask me.”
“I’ll talk to him about it. See if I can soften him up a bit.”
“Excellent,” Matt said. “Thanks for getting Celeste. I think she’ll be OK with you being there. She seems to like you. Tell her that I’ll call her after my meeting.”
“She’ll be fine.”
“She’s rather regimented. Changes in her schedule and unexpected people—”
“She’ll be fine,” Julie repeated. “I promise.”
“You can’t promise anything—”
“Good-bye, Matthew. Have fun at your meeting.” Julie hung up before he could protest. For crying out loud, she was perfectly capable of picking up someone at school—with or without a cardboard boy in the back seat.
She ran upstairs and changed into a breezy knee-length tank dress and pinned her hair up. A quick touch-up to her makeup, which had begun to smear in the heat, and she headed out the front door to get Celeste. She stopped on the front steps and spun around.
Flat Finn stood poised expectantly in the living room. Julie approached the figure. God, this was messed up. “Come on, dude. We’re off to get your pal. Now, normally people are not allowed to ride in the way-back, so keep your head down, and maybe we won’t get arrested.”
She lifted up the cutout boy and tucked his waist under her arm. Figuring out how to open the front door without smashing Flat Finn was a bit of a challenge, and she had to set him on the front porch while she locked the door. She lifted the trunk open, got Flat Finn into the car, and covered him with the large blue blanket that was waiting there to conceal Celeste’s secret.
The old Volvo was blistering hot, and Julie wondered why a family that clearly had money would not bother to maintain what could be a perfectly running car. Granted, it was a Volvo and would probably run forever no matter what. And they only had one car, too, which seemed odd, since two busy professionals and a student could certainly get use out of two vehicles. Apparently people with money did funny things sometimes.
She was pleased to note that Flat Finn had not left the gas tank empty. “Thank you, FF. I appreciate the consideration.”
Julie found Celeste’s school easily. She pulled into the arched driveway and idled behind a Lexus sedan. Students were just beginning to pour out of the front doors, and Julie scanned groups of girls, looking for Celeste. The middle-school students milled around in easily identifiable cliques, and Julie remembered exactly how it felt to be thirteen. It was such a strange age, that screwed-up, early-teen time when you vacillate between desperately wanting to be a full-fledged adult and still feeling like a little kid. The torture of trying to figure out how to dress and get your eyeliner exactly as they do in music videos, which singers were cool and which singers you shouldn’t be caught dead listening to, what to do to get boys to like you, and what to do if they did. Ugh. Thank God Julie was done with that.
A girl in a miniskirt and a ponytail stepped aside, and Julie saw Celeste. Julie dropped her head to the steering wheel, hitting her head lightly a few times. Why was Celeste wearing a pastel plaid shirt and pale-blue pleated pants? Julie lifted her head and sighed, wanting nothing more than to leap from the car and yank the dorky backpack off the girl’s shoulders. This kid stood out for all the wrong reasons. Like it or not, other kids cared about how you looked, and Celeste looked…Wrong. Gorgeous underneath the horrible clothing and totally unstyled hair, but still wrong.
But worse than how she looked was the undeniable fact that she was alone and quite obviously invisible to her peers. Julie cringed as a boy passed by Celeste, failing to notice or care that he bumped into her elbow as he joined up with a cluster of trendy, T-shirt-wearing guys.
Julie beeped the horn and waved, finally getting Celeste’s attention. Celeste scanned the cars and then headed toward the Volvo. She stopped by the passenger door, her eyes wide and her face expressionless.
“Hey, kiddo. Hop in,” Julie said warmly.
Celeste stood still, waiting a moment before she spoke. “Why are you here?” There was a noticeable shake in her voice that Julie couldn’t miss.
“Matt asked me to pick you up today. He is really sorry. I guess he had something important to do at school. Celeste? It’s OK. Flat Finn is with me. He helped get me here, because Matt’s directions were dreadful.”
Celeste opened the door and slipped into the seat. “Oh. This is fine.” She turned to Julie. “This really is fine.”
“Good.” Julie pulled the car out to the main road. “So what should we do?”
“What do you mean do? We go home after school.”
“Let’s do something. Come on!”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” Julie turned up the radio and tapped her fingers on the wheel. “I don’t even know what street I’m on right now. Maybe we’ll get lost and spend the next few hours trying to navigate our way home. We’ll listen to old-school Kelly Clarkson power songs and sing until we lose our voices.”
“That is not a good plan.” Celeste turned and peered into the back of the car. She inhaled deeply, then slowly let the air escape from her lips. “I always just go home.”
Julie took a left turn onto another main road and drove for a few minutes. “Aha!” She pulled the car into the parking lot of a supermarket. “Let’s make dinner tonight. I want to thank your parents for letting me stay at your house. Do you like Italian? I make a mean manicotti.”
“Oh.” Celeste thought for a moment. “That could be acceptable.”
“Acceptable? It’s going to be more than acceptable. Homemade tomato sauce with fresh basil? Ricotta and spinach stuffing? And my secret touch? Cheesy white sauce drizzled over the top. And we can all discuss Italian Gothic architecture or ancient Rome during dinner. I know how you guys like theme nights.”
“Or the Italian Renaissance. Dad likes the Renaissance.”
“You got it.” Julie parked the car and started to get out. But Celeste didn’t move. “Celeste? You coming?”
“Me? No. I should wait in the car. That’s what I do.”
“You don’t go into stores?”
“No.”
“Not ever?”
“No.”
This was unbelievable. Julie tightened her fist around the car keys until they dug painfully into her hand. Somebody had to fix this. She walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk. “Well, that’s too bad because FF and I want your help picking the best tomatoes.” She flung the blanket off Flat Finn and eased him out of the back. “So I don’t want to hear you complaining about the poor quality of the produce we select.” She slammed the trunk shut, pulled a shopping cart out from the stack next to the car, and stuck the cutout brother into the cart, angled so that his entire top half jutted out.
Celeste flew out of the car. “What are you doing?”
“Shopping. What are you doing?”
“Beginning to have a type of anxiety attack that I would prefer to avoid.”
“What else are you doing?”
Celeste pursed her lips together, hiding a smile. “Shopping.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“And do not call him FF. He doesn’t care for abbreviations.”
“Tell him to stop calling me JS and I’ll consider it.”