After the scores dropped, I texted my homeroom teacher with my nemdis.
She responded immediately with “OMG CONGRATULATIONS!!!” followed by a GIF of Oprah freaking out, then offered to treat me to tarbeks a
month
Luried to decline, but she insisted, saying that on the school’s highest humanities scorer. e’d be getting serious region at the next staff meeting.
She also mentioned I might have the highest humanities SAT score in Minnesota this year.
No one from any of the prep schools had reported anything close to a 1500 yet.
I didn’t share any of this with my parents. They seemed to have decided I’d scored around 1100 without bothering to ask
It had been three hours since scores were released, and they still hadn’t asked what my actual score wat
All their energy was laser focused on Rosalia
She was ugly crying about wanting the College Board to recheck her test.
The weather app showed thunderstorms rolling in–typical Minnesota summer and had some stuff drying on the building’s roof deck
I grabbed a light rain jacket and headed up to the top floor.
Our apartment building was one of those older brick complexes with a narrow stairwell leading to the roof access. When you pushed through the heavy metal door, you’d find yourself on a flat gravel roof where residents set up lawn chairs and lung laundry on shared clotheslines
The July night was sticky with that thick pre–storm humidity. As I navigated between someone’s sheets flapping in the breeze. I instantly spotted Jan
He was wearing a black North Face jacket, his tall frame cutting a sharp silhouette against the darkening sky, shoulders broad and straight. He was leaning against the safety railing, with Rosalia standing directly in front of him.
Rosalia was full on sobbing her voice doing that baby talk thing: “Jax I just. I totally bombed the test. I don’t know what happened bicrup.”
fruze mid–step.
Logically, I should have turned around and left.
I stood there ke some pathetic addict, rooted to the spot, secretly hoping Jax would say something dismissive and crush her.
But of course,
he wasn’t that kind of guy.
“Hey, it’s cool. 1080 is still decem. You can always transfer later,” his casual voice carried across the space
Rosalia sniffled dramatically. “But Jax, this meass I won’t get to go to UCLA with you”
Jax didn’t respond. The sky suddenly released a few warning droplets
Ibarked one away from my eyelashes.
“It’s starting to rain.” Jax said, then smoothly pulled off his jacket and draped it over Rosa’s head
Royalia looked at him like he’d just offered her a kidney. She rose up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck
Their faces drew closer, lips just a breath apart
I quickly turned away, hesitated for two seconds, then slipped back through the door
It absolutely poured that night
When I dragged myself up to the rood early the next morning, all the potted plants were practically drowning, and my stuffed by had soaked up sa much water that the clothespin had given up the fight
It was lying pathetically on the ground, hall buried in mud, looking like roadkill.
I carried the mud caked bunny back downstairs and spent almost an hour in the bathroom sink trying to resurrecti
Around nine, I had my backpack ready and was heading out when Rotalia emerged from her room in a tennis style pleated skirt, her face gesting with that “I’ve got a date” energy.
Our eyes met, and Iver smile vanished instantly. “Where are you off to?”
I said flatly. “Tutoring
Rosalia didn’t bother with a response. Instead, she practically skipped into our parents‘ bedroom. “Mom! Kate my outfit!”
“Oh sweetie, you look absolutely perfect,” I heard Mom gush through the half–open door.
Rosalia’s voice went up an octave. “Jaxhought it for me at the mall yesterday.”
I didn’t stick around for the rest of the fashion show and quietly slipped out the front door.
