Varsity Boy and The Prep

17

Finals came and went like the year had itself and soon, Jessa had waved goodbye to me and exited the dorm to allow Gabrielle and I some time. We were in the last couple of days of our junior year so she was helping me to pack up my dorm.

"Sure looks better with Jessa's side vacated." Gabrielle commented.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to my oak desk, beginning to remove papers and pushpins from my corkboard. "I really hope that you two will get along, someday."

"Not as long as I live." she said, leafing through my clothes. She'd been telling me how preppy I dressed, and how we needed to go shopping to get some more designer things. Gabrielle was such an LA girl. I was going to miss her.

Once everything was gone from my corkboard, I snapped shut the plastic container which I put them in. There was only my bed left to strip, and I needed the sheets for two more nights. Gabrielle had finished packing my clothes up. I looked at her. "So, where are you going this summer?" I asked.

Gabrielle grinned. "Mom got me a guest spot on some TV show and I'll be shooting that for a week. We're going to visit you in Michigan, of course. And, some big fancy, expensive vacation that has yet to be worked out. What about you?"

I tried to think of one thing I'd planned. We were going to Bali for a few weeks in July, but that wasn't really big news. I was planning on spending a lot of time with Ace and my old friends, and facetime with my ones from Towerpointe. "Well," I said, "I'm gonna study for the SAT retakes. And request a single dorm."

"Oh, shut up!" Gabrielle said, standing up. "That is total bs. I know you'll be travelling in luxury, as always, and going to town parades with your little group of people in Mich. You'll get some new Sperrys to wear with blousey shirts and skirts, and you'll go swimming at that country club you were telling me about. That is what you're going to do this summer, am I right?"

I held back a laugh as Gabrielle displayed an overly proud face. This was exactly what had happened last year and the year before that, when she'd first met me. It was some kind of a tradition for us to share summer plans but for some reason, she'd always liked to guess mine, even if they were wrong. Gabrielle always said she was going to visit me in Michigan, but neither of us ever had the time so we stuck to calling and texting and tweeting each other nonstop. As for the boys, Carson was easy to keep up with as he only lived about two hours away, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Theo was travelling back to France for the summer so communications would be limited, but Asher promised he would update me on Theo's well being from his home in Carlsbad. All was well and as usual, I said, "You are completely right, Gabbie." There was a knock on the door. I exchanged a look with Gabrielle and got up to answer it. When I opened the door, our house counselor, May, was standing.

"What's up?" I said, hoping I wasn't in trouble this late in the year.

She sighed. "Emerson, since you were a first year, we've been keeping an eye on you and your accomplishments. Somehow, you managed to impress us every year. So, on behalf of Towerpointe Preparatory and it's house counselors, I'd like to offer you the position of dorm proctor for next year. You'd be with the first year lowers."

I was silent for a minute before reaching my arms out and hugging May. "Of course!" I said. "Of course, I'd love to!"

May smiled and then proceeded to walk out of my dorm. When I looked back to Gabrielle, she was laughing.

"What?"

"Oh," she said, "I was just thinking about how proctors get single dorms and now that you have a single-"

"Ew! Don't you even imagine that, you sick minded weirdo."

I threw one of my pillows at her.

She threw one back.

The war proceeded with pillows flying through the air and both of us laughing until our stomachs hurt and our eyes were dried out. Once we were done, Gabrielle and I both looked at the clock and decided to skip assembly.