The Graduation Read Online Free Page B

application for Stan-ford. Maybe after a couple of years at a local junior college, he said. Junior college—it would be like going to summer camp after expecting to climb Mount Everest. Her father had been so disappointed in her. Sara was heading to Princeton.
    She had found a boy she sort of liked—good old Bill. But he wasn’t a real boyfriend. They’d only been out three times. She didn’t love him and she seriously doubted he loved her. She was beginning to doubt there really was such a thing as love. Sex, yeah—she was as horny as anybody else. But where were the couples who cared more for each other than for themselves? She couldn’t find them. All she saw around her were boys and girls struggling to boost their egos at the expense of those they supposedly adored. She despised it, particularly since she wanted to do the same thing.
    The year died when Alice died. I should have written it off right then and quit.
    “I love this material,” Jessica said to Bill, feeling the upper sleeve of his red shirt. “It feels like silk.”
    “It is,” he replied. “My mother bought it for me.”
    “For a graduation present?” she asked.
    He nodded. “Yeah, and I got a car. A Corvette.”
    “I hope to God it matches your shirt,” Sara said. Sara had just given them each a copy of the new yearbook. Jessica had no desire to open it; she knew all too well what most of her photographs looked like. The yearbook club had been very disappointed in her. Had they not been so desperately short of football and basketball pictures, they probably would have trashed all her “preglasses material.” She didn’t care, she told herself, but it did bother her. So, maybe, she really did care. Letting go of Bill’s shirt, she pushed her glasses back on her nose. She was never going to get used to wearing them. She hoped the sun burned out soon and everyone could walk around blind with her in the dark.
    “It’s black,” Bill said seriously. “It goes with everything.”
    Sara winked at Jessica and patted her hair. “My color coordinator says I absolutely should never be seen in a black car.”
    “That’s too bad,” Bill said.
    “Our parents are sending us to Hawaii next week for our graduation presents,” Jessica said, wanting to stop Sara before she got started. Because Polly was now off-limits, Sara got her kicks out of ridiculing Bill. Jessica hated that he never even knew it was happening. “Isn’t that neat?”
    “They’ve got great surfing there,” Bill said.
    “It’s the waves,” Sara said confidentially. “Some-thing to do with the waves.”
    “Yeah, that has a lot to do with it,” Bill agreed.
    “Bill, could you do me a favor?” Jessica said, clearing her throat and looking pointedly at Sara. “Could you get me a book from my locker?”
    “Sure. Did you want one in particular?”
    No, any old book will do. Just make sure it has pages, a cover, words in it—the usual.
    In reality, she didn’t care what book he got. She just wanted to talk to Sara alone.
    “My political science book,” she said.
    “We handed those in to Mr. Bark yesterday,” Sara said. “Get her something else. Get her a brush.”
    “Do you want a brush?” Bill asked, and now even he was beginning to wonder.
    But Jessica kept a straight face. “Yeah, I’d appreciate it,” she said.
    When Bill was gone, Sara said, “He’s lucky he’s so good-looking or we’d have to have him stuffed.”
    “Leave him alone, he’s all right.”
    “Oh, I think he’s great. I love him. I can see why you love him.”
    “Right, my feelings go real deep.”
    Sara laughed. “Hope it goes plenty deep tonight.” She leaned close, her excitement barely concealed. “You know how I told you the captain wanted the passenger suites on the ship kept locked and off-limits? Well, last night I had a long talk with him and arranged for the use of a couple of adjacent rooms. I’ve got the keys. Isn’t that great? Everything’s set.”
    Jessica