JACOB HEADED TO BLACKWELL, HIS DORM HALL, and I pulled out my BlackBerry. I couldn’t even wait five minutes to talk to Brit.
Be there in 5. You up for The Sweet Shoppe in, like, an hr?”
Brit wrote back right away.
Brit Chan:
Def! But WHAT happened with Jacob? I need details! Dying over here!!
Sasha Silver:
I’ve got to tell you in person, but srsly, you won’t believe it. It was actually something good. Well, better than good.
Brit Chan:
!!! Hurry and get here. We need to talk!!
Sasha Silver:
LOL. I’m at the Orchard stairs. C u in sec.
I stepped around students in the hallway, eager to get to my room. But the Halloween decorations caught my attention. Brit was probably going crazy in our room waiting for me, but I couldn’t help it. And she understood. Halloween was both of our favorite holiday.
Even though I saw Orchard a zillion times a week, the decorations that Stephanie, the dorm monitor, and a few of the student council members had put up always made me slow down.
The glass doorway had an intricate spiderweb drawn on it with shimmery white paint. A silver spider sat in the middle of the web. I pulled open the door and all down the hallway, ghosts, bats, and spiders hung on invisible fishing line from the ceiling.
Just before the common room, a giant black cat with an arched tail and fur ruffled up its back was on the wall. Its green eyes were an eerie shade—a mix between green and yellow—and they seemed to follow me down the hallway.
Since Halloween was only days away, almost everyone’s door was decorated. Some students had placed plastic pumpkins outside of their door on end tables. Other students had decorated their doors with black and orange crepe paper. More and more decorations were added every day.
And, just before I reached our room, I looked at the long espresso-colored end table that was always decorated for the appropriate season or holiday. The end table had a beaded pumpkin placemat in the middle and a black bowl with candy off to the side. I always swiped a Kit Kat for me and a pack of SweeTarts for Brit whenever I walked by. I loved the tall candles at the end of each table. The black candles, covered in silver spiderweb paint, were separated by a dozen orange votives in glass holders. I couldn’t wait for all of the candles to be lit on Halloween night.
I stopped staring at everything, remembered that Brit was waiting, and slid my key into our door. Just as I started to turn the knob, our whiteboard caught my attention. In bubble letters, Brit had written HAPPY HALLOWEEN! at the top in orange and black dry-erase markers. Under that, over a dozen people had written notes to us.
Boo! Xoxo ~Kristen
Have a “spooktacular” (I know it’s cheesy!) Halloween, Sasha and Brit! ~Steph
Trick or Treat! <3, Devon
People had written notes on Paige’s and my whiteboard before, but never anything like this. And never so fast!
I read a few more of the comments and looked at some of the holiday-centered doodles before I opened the door. Brit almost knocked me over the second I walked in. She grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the edge of my bed.
“What happened ?” she asked. “It feels like you took hours to get here! Did they get into a fight? Was everything okay?”
“You won’t believe this,” I said. “Jacob went to Eric to apologize.”
“What?! Seriously?”
“I know! I almost thought I’d heard Jacob wrong when he told me.”
“So, Jacob apologized to Eric for kissing you at your birthday party?”
I nodded. “Yep. And they decided the past wasn’t worth fighting about anymore.”
“No. Way.” Brit leaned back on her elbows. “Wow. That’s huge, Sash. Guys never do that.”
“I know. I kept waiting for Jacob to say that something had gone wrong with their conversation, but he didn’t. And guess what?”
“There can’t be more.” Brit said up straight, her long hair flipping over her shoulders.
“Oh, but there is. And it’s big. Eric told Jacob he was having problems with math this semester. He said he’d heard Jacob was good in math and wondered if he’d tutor him for a little while. Otherwise, if Eric’s grade dropped any lower, he’d be on academic probation.”
“Did Jacob say yes?”
“He did. He thought it was a good way to show that they could put old feelings behind them instead of just talk about it.”
Brit clasped her hands together. “That’s so great! You must be ridiculously excited to have them not fighting anymore.”
I flopped back against my bed. “You have no idea. It would have been more than enough if Jacob had apologized to Eric, but tutoring him is just amazing. He really is showing me that he meant what he said about making things work out between them.”
“I’m really, really happy for you,” Brit said. “We should get ice cream or something.”
I laughed. “It’s funny you said that. Jacob invited both of us to The Sweet Shoppe in about an hour, if you’re up for it. He wants to meet you and get to know my roomie.”
Brit smiled. “I’d love to! That sounds like so much fun.”
We kept chatting, there never being a moment of silence between us, while we took our showers, did makeup, and got dressed superfast.
I’d chosen black skinny jeans, a supersoft pink shirt with a charcoal hoodie, and a pair of silver ballet flats.
Brit, always chic, had paired flared jeans with tall boots and a white cable-knit sweater.
“Accessories and then we’re out of here,” I said.
Brit held up the light pink Caboodles box that we used to store our jewelry.
I grabbed a pair of skinny black hoops and Brit chose a pair of faux diamond hearts. We finished and left Orchard, heading for The Sweet Shoppe.
When we got there, Jacob was already waiting with a table for three. He stood, smiling at us. I waved at him, smiling.
“Hey, guys,” Jacob said.
I looked at Brit. “Brit, this is Jacob Schwartz. I’m so glad you guys can finally meet.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Jacob said to Brit, smiling at her.
“You too,” Brit said. “Thanks for inviting me.”
We all sat down and the waitress came over to see what we wanted to drink.
“Go ahead,” Jacob said.
“I’d like a root beer float, please,” I said.
“That sounds so good. I’ll have one, too,” Brit said.
“Make that three,” Jacob said.
The waitress nodded at us and left our table.
“Sasha told me you’re on the YENT,” Jacob said. “It’s cool that you’re roommates and you ride together. Do you like Canterwood so far?”
I loved that Jacob was asking Brit about riding. He didn’t know anything about it except for what I’d told him about Charm and riding when we’d first met. Jacob had spent a few hours in the stable when we’d filmed a documentary for Mr. Ramirez’s film class last year.
There was an immediate smile on Brit’s face. “I love it! I almost passed out when I got accepted. I ran from the mailbox to my kitchen and screamed to my parents that I’d made it.”
Jacob laughed, but not in a mean way. “I almost did the same thing. Well, I probably would have if my parents hadn’t been at the neighbor’s barbeque.”
We all laughed.
The waitress came with our root beer floats and set them on the pale blue table. “I’ll be back in a while to see if you want anything else,” she said.
We thanked her and dug long spoons into the tasty vanilla ice cream.
“What’re you interested in?” Brit asked Jacob. “Sasha told me that you play football and like video games.”
Jacob reached under the table and squeezed my hand as if surprised that I’d talked to my roommate about him.
“Football’s fun,” Jacob said. “I’m not great at it, but I like working out. I’m at the media center, though, every second I get a chance. I love playing games—Nintendo’s my favorite.”
I took a sip of root beer and glanced over, seeing four seventh graders sitting two tables in front of us. One blond girl facing me was wearing something that looked so familiar … it was Brit’s tan jacket with beautiful clear buttons.
I shook my head, annoyed at myself for thinking the girl was trying to emulate Brit. That was just coincidence.
But then … I saw two girls get up and walk to the counter. They had the boots I’d bought in Manhattan when I’d stayed with Heather during fall break. Were they … copying me? Copying us?
Oh my God, I said to myself. You’re ridiculous. Maybe someone would copy Brit, but definitely not you. I went back to joining in the conversation between Brit and Jacob.
And easy chatter among us didn’t cease through root beer floats or fudge brownies. Brit had this ability to make everyone like her and I couldn’t have been happier that my new friend and my boyfriend liked each other.