Here is what else I did in the three days between my appointment with Dr. Prasad and the day Mr. Trent Hickman came to Boulder.
I had Ms. Trepky read over my Cecilia Payne Letter of Awesome one last time. I had the first two sections written and ready to go. Now I just needed to complete the project part and write that part of the letter. Then I’d be set for the grand prize.
I went over my master plan. Some things were easy, like what I wanted to say to Mr. Trent Hickman and studying the map of campus and the building where he would be. I was still scared, but I knew what to do. I had my supplies ready. Some other things weren’t so easy. Campus was only about a fifteen- or twenty-minute bike ride away, which I could manage okay if I was careful and had a big coat, but Mr. Trent Hickman was coming on a Friday—a school day—and right smack dab in the middle of school. I didn’t know how to work my way around that one.
I felt baby Cecilia kick four more times.
I helped my mom make a wedding cake for a client. By helped I mostly mean watched. Mom had all sorts of tricks for doing these fancy designs using only her right hand. It was like watching a painter.
I passed one note with Talia in class. I thought about what to say a lot before I wrote it down. I wrote: How is your poem coming? She wrote back: Killing it. It’s going to be bomb. I gave her a thumbs-up, and she gave me a thumbs-up back.
Mom and I didn’t talk much about NLD. I wasn’t surprised. I kind of thought Mom didn’t want to talk about it. Not because she was scared or uncomfortable or anything, but I think she was worried that if she told me too much, it would feel like reading my horoscope. Like she would be telling me all the things I couldn’t do.
For the same reason, I didn’t look up NLD on the internet, either. At least not yet. I wanted to talk to Mr. Trent Hickman first. In case the internet told me that talking to people like him was something I shouldn’t be able to do.
Finally, the last thing to work out was my travel plan. I still wanted the contest and the money and everything to be a surprise, but I was going to have to tell my mom something. I thought through a thousand different options, but the only way to do it without Mom’s help was lying or sneaking out, and there was no way that was going to happen.
So on the night before The Day, I asked my mom about it.
Mom was smoothing my moon-and-stars quilt across my legs like she did every night.
“Mom?” I said.
“Yeah?”
“I have to ask you something weird, okay? But I’m serious about it. And … and it’s sort of a secret. Like, a surprise. Part of it is, anyway.”
“Do I need to be worried about something?”
“No, no,” I said. “Nothing like that. It’s about that sort-of-secret project I’ve been working on in Ms. Trepky’s class. Now I … I really, really, really, really need to ride my bike to the university tomorrow. Like, in the morning. I know it’s a school day, but it’s really important. And I don’t have any tests tomorrow or anything and I already know what the homework will be for the weekend and—”
“Why do you need to go to the university? Getting your doctorate already?”
“I’m serious,” I said.
“I know.”
“I don’t want to spoil the surprise too much, but this editor guy is coming to campus tomorrow and for the project it would be super, super awesome if I could talk to him.”
Mom put her hand where my knees stuck up under the quilt. “Sweetheart, I get that this is important to you, but campus is a long way away by bike. And I don’t like the idea of you walking around a college campus all by yourself.”
“I already have it planned,” I said. “I have a map, I’ll have my phone, and I won’t talk to anybody except to give this editor guy the thing I have for him, and—”
“Sweetheart, it’s—”
“Mom, please. It’s—it’s the most important thing I’ve ever done. I have to do this.”
Mom patted my knees and sighed. She kept patting and sighing and I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to jinx it if she was thinking herself to a yes.
“Okay,” Mom said finally. “How about this. You are already doing really well in school so I’m okay if you take the day off tomorrow. But I will drive you to campus. Hold on, just listen. I know it’s a secret, but I will drive you to campus in the morning and then I’ll walk you to whatever building you need to go to, and I’ll stay nearby. And you have to call or text me every half hour. Is that a deal?”
I bounced up out of the quilt and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “Deal!” I said.
It was going to happen. I was going to talk to Mr. Trent Hickman whether he liked it or not.
“Libby, I want you to understand that I’m letting you do this because you have earned my trust, okay?”
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders again so hard she made a sound like a deflating basketball and then laughed. “You’re the best mom in the whole world!” I said.
This was actually happening. Like for real.
Like tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
I felt the Scared Me raring up for the biggest, wailingest scream of her life.
Like Ms. Trepky said, Scared Me could fuss as much as she liked. I was doing it anyway.