The Other Girl: A Midvale Academy Novel Read Online Free Page B

said, knowing full well all I was going to think about over break was Gideon. I couldn’t help but steal another glance. Anyone who has ever had a cute boy wait for her with an expression of total longing knows it is way better than free college.
    “I just don’t know why you care,” I said. “I mean, I am fine. I am clearly going to go to college.”
    She looked away. She was going to let me go. I stood up, testing her.
    Spying me, Gid jumped up and down. The Hat That Changes Everything flapped like little puppy dog ears. I couldn’t wait to just run outside to hug him, and to smell the clean soap scent of his warm neck and shoulder. I cleared my throat ofwhatever fear was left in it, of the small part of me that still didn’t want to defy an adult who was asking me to do something.
    “So am I in trouble?” I said. “Do I have to do anything?”
    “You will get written up,” she said. “The standard information.” I wanted her to roll her eyes to let me know that she thought that stuff was bullshit, but she didn’t. Instead, she picked up that giant pile of papers she’d taken out and put it on my lap.
    “Ow,” I said.
    “Do you have a camera on your phone, Molly?” she said.
    “Yes,” I said, confused.
    “You’re going to take this home with you. It’s just a lot of information, for ATAT. And you’re going to take a photo of yourself getting on the train with it, which is how I will know you’ve taken it with you.”
    I shifted. The thing was giving me a cramp. “Why is it so important to you to see me go to Harvard or whatever instead of Buffalo State, which is, I might add, a very good school?”
    “I care because there is nothing in this world more foolish than seeing a smart girl throw her life away for love.” I kind of expected her to be smirking at me, but she wasn’t. She was totally serious.
    “What would you say if I told you I thought that love was life?” I said. “And that this”—I indicated the giant package of paper in my hand—“was just a bunch of words?”
    She finally smiled. “I would say that you were sixteen,” she said.
    She didn’t get it.
    Whatever. Whenever someone didn’t get it, I felt the cord,that actual connection between Gid and me, even stronger. Right now it tugged me and I ran outside.
     
    I took the stairs two at a time. Gideon was waiting for me. His mind went in a loop, like a crazy polar bear walking in circles at the zoo: Molly’s almost done. I should go. But I want to see her now. She looked hot today. Maybe we can do it in the chapel later? Probably doesn’t fit in with the keeping-a-low-profile plan. Cockweed is such a dick. The chapel—will I ever have sex there?
    Then he thought, Wire, fruit. Wow, it is like wire and fruit. I can’t wait to tell that to Cullen and Nicholas. Wow, and what kind of fruit? Coconut? Too obvious.
    Wire and fruit? He couldn’t wait to tell what to Cullen and Nicolas about wire and fruit? Why would they care about wire and fruit?
    Wire and fruit. Apples? Or more like grapefruits?
    “Oh, Geedeon…ow a-hare you? You look sad. I mean, you steel look cute. But a leetle sad.”
    Twenty feet from the door were my boyfriend and Pilar Benitez-Jones. My boyfriend had made a poetic and accurate assessment: her body was so sinewy and so curvy that it looked like it was made out of wire and fruit. Cleavage strained at the limits of a white button-down shirt. Lustrous hair cascaded down her back, and her black pants were snug in all the right places.
    Pilar saw me. She greeted me, two rows of gleaming white teeth inside a red, sensuous mouth. “Hi, Molly,” she said. The smile deepened to the point of absurdity.
    “Hi, Pilar,” I said, with a smile that was about a ninetieth ofher smile’s wattage. I was pleased when she took a step backward, away from Gideon. She teetered attractively on high-heeled suede boots, but the step was still slightly awkward, a clear relinquishing of turf.
    I positioned myself next to