The Leaving Season Read Online Free

friend!” She clapped with glee. “It’ll be amazing!”
    Typically, kickoff parties involved gathering around some body of water—either a lake at the edge of town or someone’s backyard pool. There were the obligatory kegs, very little food, and lots of making out. Nate and I went to his last year, and it was okay. I couldn’t imagine this year’s would be much different.
    The first bell rang. We had three minutes to get to class.
    â€œLet’s do this. Hold it up.” Haley lifted her schedule from her satchel.
    I grabbed mine from my locker and held it up to hers to compare. “Hmm . . . AP English? Is that it?”
    She nodded. “All your classes are for nerds.”
    I elbowed her with a smirk. “Shut up.”
    Haley slammed my locker door closed for me. “Senior year, here we come!”
    I glanced back at the hallway and saw students quickly filling up the wing: football players and cheerleaders in uniform, lost freshmen desperate for a friendly face, sophomores thrilled to no longer be freshmen. I closed my eyes and smelled someone’s breakfast—a fried egg sandwich—sweet coffee in a teacher’s travel mug, and a hint of bleach used to clean a locker.
    I’d write it all down in a letter to Nate later.
    â€œMiddie, come in, please,” Mr. Ziegler said, raising his voice a bit over the ring of the last bell. He’d been my guidance counselor since my freshman year, although I rarely needed to see him. Today, however, we had to talk about my college applications.
    Mr. Z’s cheeks were round and ruddy and he wore glasses perched on the end of his nose. He loved to travel, and his office was filled with souvenirs of his trips from around the world. Every summer he visited a different country, happilycrossing one off his list when he returned.
    He moved aside a pile of Italian language books for me to sit in a chair opposite him. “How’s the new year look?”
    I resisted the urge to tell him it had only been one day, and an easy one at that. I rattled off my classes. “AP English, Spanish, and history, Calc 2, Honors Chem.”
    He nodded, an impressed look on his face. “So, Lewis & Clark, is it?”
    â€œYes, sir. I’ve got a campus tour scheduled for November.”
    â€œFine school. Anyplace else?”
    I hesitated. “No. Not really.”
    He leaned forward and I felt his stare. “Why not?”
    â€œBecause . . .” Nate is going there.
    But I couldn’t say that. It sounded too . . . Mr. Z wouldn’t understand.
    â€œI like it.” I’d only visited the campus once before with Nate. It was nice, a lush environment, not much different from our small town. In fact, it kind of was our small town, with pretty brick buildings, cafés, green lawns, and a decent football stadium. “I follow their dean on Twitter.” I held up my phone as if I needed to remind him what Twitter was.
    He frowned. Maybe he did need to be reminded. “That’s all well and good, Middie. But it’s not a bad idea to have a second choice, or maybe even a third.”
    My pulse quickened. “You don’t think I can get in? Is it my grades?”
    â€œI just want you to consider other options. That’s all.It’s a big world out there.”
    â€œOh. Okay, sure.” But I didn’t need a second choice. I had only one. I picked up my books and started to slide off the chair. “Anything else, Mr. Z?”
    He grinned, appreciating his nickname. “No worries. Go do your thing.” I could just imagine him thinking, Do your thing . . . That’s what the cool kids say, isn’t it? I smiled to myself as I closed the door to his office.
    Hurrying off to my SAT prep class, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. A text. Miss u. Luv u. xo.
    I smiled and felt my cheeks blush. Nate. Somehow he’d gotten a few characters off.
    My fingers dashed over the keys: