After Summer Read Online Free Page A

go, you know.”
    “I want to go!” Taryn cried. “What could be better than keggers and dumb jocks?”
    “Ha-ha,” Kelsi said. “I used to agree with you, you know. But Tim is different.”
    Before Tim, Kelsi had had a lot of preconceived notionsabout guys who looked the way Tim looked. Good-looking jocks with easy smiles and their polo shirt collars flipped up had made her gag. Tim had changed all that, though, with his Heath Ledger-ish cuteness and that confident swagger of his. Not to mention his knee-weakening kisses.
    “If you say so.” Taryn’s voice was noncommittal. “I just think you deserve a guy who you can hang out with in an intellectual sense, you know?”
    “Tim is that guy,” Kelsi assured her. “You’ll see when you get to know him better.” Taryn had only met Tim briefly, during the few times he’d stopped by their room to pick up Kelsi.
    Kelsi wasn’t surprised that Taryn was concerned with her intellectual health—they were both amazed daily by how exciting college was in that sense. The classes were awesome, and the other women totally smart and inspiring. Kelsi loved being a part of Smith’s history. She liked imagining all the women who had walked the campus paths before her, possibly thinking about the same poems or theories as she was, in the same crisp fall weather. Some of the girls in her high school class—and Ella, of course—had made fun of Kelsi for choosing one of the few all-female colleges left, but Kelsi had known since visiting Smith in her junior year that it was the place for her. The lack of boys at Smith was hardly noticeable, anyway, since Kelsi spent so much of her time ten miles away at U Mass with her gorgeous,wonderful boyfriend, who made Kelsi’s head spin a little bit whenever she thought about him.
    “Oh. My. God.” Taryn gasped. “Is this for real?”
    Kelsi jolted back into reality and realized they had just pulled up to the frat house.
    The blue-and-white building, emblazoned with three Greek letters, sat elevated on the side of a steep hill. A winding staircase leading up to the house was clogged with students trying to enter a foam pit, erected on the front lawn using various tarps and an enormous machine that expelled an endless river of sudsy bubbles. A DJ on the porch scratched a Beastie Boys record, while girls in mini-togas shook their stuff on top of the oversize speakers.
    “I guess,” Kelsi said slowly. This was certainly a very typical-looking frat party for someone she believed was a very atypical pledge. “It’s their first party of the year,” Kelsi explained. “Tim said they have to prove themselves to all the other fraternities, or something.” As Taryn’s cell buzzed and she answered, Kelsi watched as a posse of frat boys, naked except for bathrobes and boxer shorts, handed out Jell-O shots and sprayed whipped cream into a line of open mouths.
    “Shit!” Taryn said, flipping her cell phone closed. “I have to go pick up Bennett at Amherst. A local gallery had some extra space for their opening tomorrow, so they’ve agreed to show a few of his huge-ass paintings. But he’s got to get them over there and hung up tonight.”
    “That’s great!” Kelsi said, trying to muster up some genuine excitement. But she secretly wanted an ally with whom to navigate this extremely foreign locale.
    “Please, I wish I was staying with you,” Taryn said with a laugh. “Look at this party. It’s like the real live version of Animal House !”
    “Next time,” Kelsi promised. “Good luck with your brother.” She leaned over to kiss Taryn on the cheek, and then climbed out of the car.
    “Give me a buzz if you can’t get a ride back to campus!” Taryn shouted as she drove off. “And take plenty of pictures!”
    Once Taryn pulled away, and Kelsi was alone, her smile slipped a little bit. It was one thing to talk up the frat scene to Taryn. On her own, Kelsi could admit to herself that shouting, drunken foolishness wasn’t at all