Enchanted Ivy Read Online Free Page B

extremely cool-looking and had a dreamy voice and was a student at her dream school. ... "I'll go left," she said.
    "Good choice," he said. A small smile played on his lips. "You should take a tour."
    Her blush spread down her neck. She felt as if the words "high school student" were stamped on her forehead. "I'll be fine," she said. "Uh, thanks."
    "Look for someone walking backward, and that will be the Orange Key Tour."
    She opened her mouth to say no, thanks, she didn't have time for a tour right now, but then the name of the tour sank in: Orange Key Tour.
    He winked at her and then ambled off across the street.
    She stared after him for a moment and then shook herself. Clearly, he--whoever he was--had given her a clue.
    Filled with purpose, Lily headed left, down the street toward campus. She was swept up in a steady stream of alumni that flowed into and out of the clubs. As Grandpa had promised, she saw worse outfits than his blazer: orange jean jackets, black and orange trench coats, orange satin smoking jackets. She crossed the street within a flock of alums dressed in crossing-guard orange Hawaiian shirts.
    Slowing with the crowd, she began to wonder if she was wrong. The tour name could have been a coincidence, not a
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    clue. She could end up wandering around all weekend until her nerves snapped and she resorted to stealing car keys from drunken alums and toting them in a Santa Claus sack to Vineyard on Sunday. ... She climbed a set of steps that led to a brick archway. Above her, the arch was decorated with stone gargoyles. Little carvings of monkeys curled into rosettes. One side of the arch had a frieze carved into the shape of a tiger's head. Four stone monkeys crawled over the tiger's face.
    One of the monkeys turned its stone head and looked at her.
    Lily lost her footing on the steps. She caught herself on the railing, and an alum steadied her elbow. "Are you all right?" he asked.
    "Fine, thanks," she said automatically.
    The alum continued on.
    She was most definitely not fine. Clutching the railing, Lily stared at the monkey gargoyle. It didn't move.
    Of course it didn't move, she told herself. It's stone. She must have imagined it.
    Lily climbed the remaining steps and leaned against a wall inside the archway, out of sight of the gargoyles. A plaque on the wall labeled the building as 1879 Hall.
    Please, don't let me have a brain hiccup.
    She was genetically predisposed to them. She took a half dose of the same medication as Mom to prevent their onset. Until now, it had worked. But until now, she'd never had such
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    an important weekend. Her raised stress levels ... No, she thought. She wasn't going to let Mom's illness beat her. Not here and not now. Lily reached into her pocket and pulled out Mom's medicine vial. She uncorked it and chugged the syrupy silver liquid. It tickled her throat as she swallowed.
    Now she was safe from hallucinations and memory lapses and any behavior that would make a college admissions officer look at her as if she were less welcome than dog poo on an Oriental rug. She had double her usual dose in her. Or was it triple? Grandpa was always so careful with the dosage, and Mom's doses were twice the strength of hers. ...
    Oh, crap, she thought.
    Lily flipped open her cell phone and then stopped. Grandpa would not be happy if he found out she'd panicked five minutes into her test. She should wait to see if any abnormal symptoms developed before she called him.
    Pacing back and forth, she waited for signs of a seizure, heart attack, or frothing at the mouth. But aside from a ringing in her ears (which she decided was a distant radio), she felt fine.
    She needed to calm down. Yes, this was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime, unexpected opportunity--and calling it that was not helping. Lily took a deep breath. She needed to treat this as if it were an outing with Mom. She had to remain calm, stay in control, and try not to do anything stupid.
    Like overdose on antipsychosis