The Book Thief 》Hemmings A.U

48.00

     "I'VE GOT THE MAIL!" My dad hollers, wearing a grin so wide I'm afraid he might break his mouth. The door shuts behind him and once I see the onslaught of mail in his grasp, I shriek and cover my face; not wanting to get visual confirmation by accidentally looking at the envelopes. "Bills, bills, a magazine subscription --thought we cancelled that Jenna-- an annoying card from the dentist telling us to pay him a visit, another bill, Kendall envelope, spam mail, and the rest are either useless or unwanted things --A.K.A. bills-- for us to open later  and envelopes for Kendall." He blurts, sounding just as nervous as I was feeling. 

     We had been waiting for this day forever, all of us, together. My parents had officially been back together for two weeks now and the only way I could be happier was if my dad was holding an acceptance into Brown University in his hands. The contest ended a week ago and I thought that I would immediately get responses but of course, that wasn't the case.

     Sure, it was understandable that they needed time to accurately judge every submission, but that didn't mean that I was any less impatient.

        "We did cancel it, Kevin, that's the going away present!" My mother yells back, giddy with excitement as I hear her run into the room.

           "Huh, how nice of them." He comments, and after a couple of seconds, he laughs. "Kendall, you know you need to uncover your face to read your mail, right?" 

           "Yeah, I know dad." I mumble into my hands, not at all caring if I was coherent or not. The mail is here. My future is here. I waited days and weeks and months and years to know whether or not I would be going to my dream school and now the answer is here. Contest over. My college applications were either accepted or denied, and my letter should be in there, too. The letter that said whether or not I won. "I'm just scared." I say quietly, my words muffled.

             "Honey, everything is as paperless as possible. When you get accepted now, they have the paperwork online for you to print out just in case you choose to go another direction. It saves them time and money to not ship things people might not even use, so, it's paperless for them and not necessarily for you. You get an acceptance or denial via letter, and further instructions upon acceptance via email." My mother explains, voice soft. "I looked it up." She says after a second, sounding proud of her involvement in my future.

           "Okay so if I open my eyes and I don't see any packets that doesn't mean that I was denied?" 

          "Not necessarily. I mean, there is one packet here-" Please let the packet be from Brown, please let the packet be from Brown, please, please, please, for the love of everything good, let the packet be from Brown. 

            "I need to go to the beach; Lucy, Luke, and I promised that we would open ours together. I'll let you know what the turn out is as soon as I get home." My voice is rushed and jittery and I can feel my heart pounding in my chest, fear coursing through my veins.

          "Please do let us know because we need notice if you're going to be living in the basement for the rest of your life."

          "Dad, that's not even funny!" I hiss, frowning as I follow the sound of his voice and with my eyes still closed, take the mail out of his hands and hold it tightly against my chest.

           "I'm kidding. We all know you're getting into Brown and hightailing it out of here as soon as you can." He tries again, trying to make up for his comment earlier. I shake my head and roll my eyes, pushing open the door with one hand and clutching the mail with the other. Halfway out of the house, my parents wish me luck and I ditch my flip flops on the porch, knowing I can make it to the beach faster without them.