Chapter 18

I lie. I call Kasey from our car and tell her that we have a ride to the airport.

Calvin takes the phone from me and speaks to her. “Thank you for everything. I mean it. It was a great visit, and I can’t wait to come back next year.”

He’s beaming when he hangs up the phone.

“Laying it on kind of thick, aren’t you?” I say, smiling at Calvin. “They’ve already made you an offer. You don’t need to keep impressing them.”

“Just trying to get on their good side now,” Calvin says. “Don’t want to start off the season next year on the wrong foot.”

We drive along the coast. The sun sets over the ocean.

“Oahu is out there somewhere,” I say.

“I’m going to miss it,” Calvin says. “My mom thinks next summer she’ll get transferred to San Diego, which means they’d move back to the mainland and it would be easier for my parents to come to our games.”

I realize that if that happens, I’d no longer have a home in Oahu. I’ve lived there longer than any other place. It’s been my only real home. My dad’s ashes were spread there in the bay. Regent High is there. Coach Kainoa is there.

I watch the sun sink into the sea.

We drive up the rest of the coast in the dark and arrive at Branford a little after ten. Even at night, the campus looks amazing—just like I remember it. The buildings are all lit up—glowing against the foothills that rise up behind the campus. A couple of students are walking out of the library as we pass, talking and laughing. I can’t help but smile to myself.

Our driver takes us to the athletic office where the assistant coach I talked to at the last-chance camp meets us and takes us to a hotel he booked for us.

“Wait until to you see the place in the morning,” I tell Calvin as we open the door to our room. “It’s a huge campus. And the stadium . . .”

“I’m so tired,” Calvin says, flopping down on one of the beds and turning on the TV.

I don’t feel tired, not at all. I’m excited, but Calvin falls asleep.