Chapter 19: Ivy Day

The decisions came out on a Thursday in March, at seven in the evening.

I spent the hour before them at the library table where I used to tutor Tate and Hallie.

I hadn't sat there since January.

Tonight I took the chair that faced the door.

My mom sat across from me with a pizza box open on the table, which the librarian had agreed to ignore.

Eliot sat on my left, close enough that our elbows touched.

A junior from my old chemistry class sat at the end of the table with a worksheet.

I had promised on Monday to help him until the portal opened.

"Mole conversions," he said. "I hate them."

"Everybody hates them. Start with the grams."

He started with the grams.

It was easier than I expected to correct a stranger's math while my own life sat in a browser tab.

At six thirty, my mom put her slice down and cleared her throat.

"I have a speech," she said.

"Please don't," I said.

"It's short."

"Mom."

"I worked nights for nine years so you could get a scholarship," she said. "And somebody stole it."

"Then you found the proof, and you made a gym full of people read it."

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