Sometimes Courtney says, Don’t be superstitious. There’s no such thing as luck. Other times, she says you make your own luck, but Sam isn’t sure. Mostly she feels that other people’s luck can crush you.
She is at Halle’s house and everyone is eating dinner when Lucy turns to Halle and says, “Aren’t you going to tell Sam?”
Instantly, Sam knows it’s bad. It’s the kind of news that’s supposed to be good, but actually, it’s terrible.
Even Halle knows it’s terrible for Sam. She mumbles, “I’m going to Andover in September.” That’s the school for gifted kids where Eric goes. The reason is Halle is bored in class.
I’m bored, Sam thinks. My school is boring. She tells her mom that all the time, and Courtney just says suck it up. Also, boring is good.
That night, lying in the trundle next to Halle’s bed, Sam asks, “Do you really want to go?”
Halle says sort of yes, sort of no, because she’s going to miss Sam—but it’s not far. You can take a bus home.
Sam says, “Then why don’t you just stay home and take the bus every day?”
“It’s not that close, but you can take the bus home for weekends. I’ll still see you.”
Sam knows how it will be. At first Halle will come home on Fridays, but then she’ll make new friends and she’ll just stay. Eric hardly ever comes home. The whole point of Andover is they keep the kids so busy. Halle says they have all these classes you can’t take in regular school. Latin and Greek and number theory, and they have a theater and their own lake.
Sam says, “Aren’t you forgetting climbing?”
But no. Andover has climbing.
When Sam hears that, she knows she will never see Halle again. Halle will start climbing on her school team, and Sam won’t climb at all, because who will drive her? She can never get to all the practices and competitions without Jim and Lucy.
Courtney says, I’ll find a way to drive you. We’ll find a way!
Mitchell is different. He just listens to Sam’s news and shakes his head.
She says, “I know.”
They go to Cherry Hill Creamery and sit together on a picnic bench and lick their ice cream. Mint chip for Sam, strawberry for her dad.
“Does it help?” he asks.
At first she doesn’t answer, because she doesn’t want to be rude after he treated her. Then after a while, she says, “No.”
“That’s a good sign,” he tells her. She looks at him in disbelief, but he says, “That means your friendship’s real.”
In the baking summer, Sam takes Noah to the Y, where she helps Kevin coach the little kids. You have to be sixteen to be a real day-camp counselor and Sam is fourteen, so Kevin pays her under the table. Under the table means fifty dollars. She finally gets her period, and her mom says, Oh, you’re growing up, and that’s exciting! But Sam isn’t excited at all, just soggy.
It would be exciting to fly to California and then pack up for boarding school. It would be exciting to travel instead of just visiting Grandma D. in Amherst.
“Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst,” her dad tells her at the Garden Center.
“Who?”
“She was a genius, and she didn’t even leave the house.”
“I’m not that kind of person.”
“Not a genius?”
“Not the kind of person who stays inside the house.”
“Me either,” her dad admits. “That’s why I used to move around so much—but I’m a different person now.”
“What are you?”
Mitchell thinks about the question as he snips dead flowers off the plants. “A student,” he says, finally.
“Student?” It’s a weird answer, because he knows so many different things. Music. Illusions. Card tricks. Juggling. Unicycling. Poetry. “What are you studying?”
“Oh, you know. Living without magic. Not finding quarters in your ear. Shit!” He finds a quarter. “Staying here.”
Right before Halle leaves for school, she comes to Sam’s apartment. She stands there with Lucy and Courtney, and she offers Sam a present, which is a framed picture of the two of them. They are wearing their team shirts and the frame says FRIENDS FOREVER.
Sam just looks at it. After a while she remembers to say thank you, and then everybody hugs one another, especially the moms.
After Halle leaves, Sam stuffs the picture in her closet. Then she sits inside her tent.
Courtney kneels at the mesh window and says, “It’s not like Halle’s going to the moon.”
Sam says, “I know.”
“It’s not like you won’t see her again.”
Sam says nothing, and Courtney sits there, until Sam says, “Mom.”
“What?”
“I feel like an animal in the zoo.”
“But you can come out,” her mom says.
Sam doesn’t answer. She just waits until finally, her mom takes the hint and leaves.
But the next day, Courtney says, “Okay, enough! You’re going to high school too.”
Courtney takes Sam to the Northshore Mall and makes her walk into every store. Some have shirts with CALIFORNIA on them; one shirt even has HAWAII, but it’s pink, so no.
Sam won’t buy anything with words, and she won’t wear tight clothes. Also, she won’t let her mom do anything about her hair, even though it’s in her eyes and almost to her shoulders.
“Come on,” says Jen. “Let’s cut it so we can see your pretty face.”
Jen and Courtney think hair and makeup and cute shirts will make a difference. They think a haircut changes you—but haircuts are like magic. They only work if you believe in them.