Nate bypasses his locker to continue down to mine which just happens to have Courtney and Puck making out against it, and if it wasn’t for all the people around us, I’d be worried they’d start making babies here too.
Nate puts a hand up and gives Puck a shove allowing me space to get into my locker. Jesse falls back and chats away with some guys while I spy Brooke out the corner of my eye, jamming her handbag inside her locker.
I finish what I’m doing and close my locker as Nate gets caught up in some ridiculous conversation with Puck, and from the snippets I caught on to, it sounds as though Puck is trying to convince Nate to race his car on Friday night at the races. Though, I doubt that would happen.
I make my way over to Brooke. I haven’t seen her since the New Year’s Eve party a few nights ago and she’s hasn’t been responding to my texts. I wanted to give her a little space to mope but I think I’ve given her plenty now. It’s about time she faces the music. “Hey,” I say, leaning up against the locker beside hers.
“Hey,” she responds without her usual bubbliness as she closes her locker. She leans up against it and rests her head against the cold metal. “Is he here yet?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” I tell her, looking back down the hallway. “I haven’t seen him.”
“Yeah,” she grunts. “Either have I.”
“What do you mean?” I question. “Since the party?”
She presses her lips together and slowly nods her head. “Yeah.”
Shit. That’s not good. I reach out and squeeze her hand. “I’m sure-”
Squealing from down the hallway steals my attention and cuts off what I was about to say as I notice Brylee running down the hall with a slip of paper in her hand and a smile that practically cuts her face in half.
She barges her way through the students and finally breaks through the other end. “Oh, my God, you guys,” she shrieks as Courtney steps over to us with wide eyes. Brylee holds up the paper and waves it around in front of all our faces, but she moves too fast that we can’t actually see what it is. “I got in,” she squeals in excitement.
“Got in where?” I demand as I try to catch the piece of paper still flailing around before us.
“Yale,” she yells, turning the paper around in front of her chest so we can all see it. “I got my acceptance letter.”
“What?” I squeal.
Courtney’s eyes widen as she starts jumping up and down. “Holy shit,” she laughs as she throws her arms around Brylee. “Congratulations.”
Brooke just stares dumbfounded and pinches the letter from her fingers. “Whoa,” she gasps. “You got in.”
“Didn’t you think I would?” Brylee grins back at her.
“Oh, I definitely thought you’d get in, I just didn’t think you’ hear back from them so soon. I mean, this makes it so real.”
“I know,” she agrees. “Senior year is going so fast. We’re already halfway through.”
“So, you’re definitely going?” Courtney asks her as they finally calm down. “Didn’t you apply to Harvard as well?”
“Yeah,” she says. “I’m still waiting to hear from them, but Yale was my top choice. I’ve always pictured myself as a Yale girl.”
“I’m so happy for you,” I tell her, pulling her in and giving her a tight squeeze.
“What’s going on?” Nate asks as he comes over with Puck and Jesse.
“Brylee got into Yale,” Courtney says, stepping back out of the circle to make room for the guys.
“Shit,” Jesse grunts. “Are you serious?”
The smile on her face is confirmation enough and brings on another wave of congratulations. I mean, this is a big deal. The rest of us are just hoping to get into the local college to stay close to home while others, like Nate, aren’t even planning on going. Though I’m not going to lie, when the time comes, I’m going to be applying to Harvard Law, you know, considering I kick butt on the LSAT. Geez, just thinking about it terrifies me right down to the core.
As for Nate though, I’m still working on the whole college thing. He wants to build his own business and he wants to do it now. He doesn’t think he needs to go to college, but I think he should at least go and get a business degree or maybe study something in engineering.
His plans are to breathe life back into old cars, but not just any old cars, the really nice ones. You know, the kind you see at those ostentatious car shows that some billionaire had delivered wrapped in bubble wrap. Yeah, those. He has the skill and the motivation to make it happen, but this isn’t a single man operation. He’s going to need employees and because of that, he should be going to college and doing it right.