Chapter 8: Admit Weekend

Three weeks later I stood in the arrivals hall at San Francisco airport with a duffel and a name tag that said ALDRIDGE ADMIT.

Aunt Jo had bought the ticket the day I asked.

She had slid the card across her kitchen table without a word and said, "That's your money. Spend it on what it's for."

The first thing I noticed was a tall boy holding a cardboard sign.

It said DELANEY H.

It was upside down.

He saw me looking and turned it over, apologetic, and the letters were now right side up and slightly smudged.

"Sorry. I've been standing here forty minutes. I think the sign went to my head."

"You're my host?"

"Flynn." He held out a hand, wiped it on his jeans, and held it out again.

"Sophomore. Mechanical engineering, which means I'm tired."

"Welcome to California. It's not always this sunny."

"It's cloudy."

"That's what I mean."

He took my duffel before I could stop him.

He was twenty, with sandy brown hair that needed a cut and a faded green sweatshirt with a hole in one cuff.

His face looked like it was always about to say something funny and thought better of it.

He walked me to the shuttle, and told me the whole schedule in a flat voice.

"Tonight there's a welcome dinner with name tags and a slideshow."

"Tomorrow there's a panel called Finding Your Community. I'd skip it. I'm taking you for real tacos."

"Is that on the official schedule?"

"It's on mine."

On campus, the long drive was lined with palm trees.

The buildings were the color of warm sand, and everywhere there were bikes.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Thought I Failed—Until I Turned Down Harvard from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.