Little White Lies

Chapter 31

"What did you think?" Dad asks with a sip of his water. We're sitting at Burgers and Brew just a couple of miles from U.C. Davis after our morning tour of the campus.

"It's pretty impressive," Andy answers after a moment of hesitation. "The art scene here is unreal."

"I could definitely see you there," I tell him as I take his hand under the table.

Andy gives my hand a light squeeze, "Lots to think about, I guess."

"I was thinking maybe we could explore some of the places the guide was telling us about. He mentioned the arboretum and that art museum," Dad suggests. "Christine won't be home until a little after six, so we have plenty of time."

"That sounds like fun," I offer when Andy doesn't say anything. "I thought the Honey Bee Haven sounded really cool too; unless you would rather skip it. Bugs and what not," I grin over at Andy but find him off in his own world, I nudge his leg.

"What?" he asks with a tiny start.

"The Honey Bee Haven," I say.

"Yeah that did sound neat. And those aren't THE kind of bugs and you know it," he sticks his tongue out at me.

Andy is pretty quiet all throughout lunch, I can't imagine all of the pressure that he must be feeling. His mom didn't say much while we were FaceTiming her during the tour. Even I have to admit that of the colleges I've seen with Andy, this one seems like the best fit for him. He's talked about wanting to be anywhere but home, but in reality I can see he wasn't really thinking quite this far when he said "anywhere". But, I've been doing my research too and I've learned a lot about the schools he's been looking at. University of California is considered one of the "Public Ivy League", none of the other schools even come close to the art scene here, and they've offered him the best deal. This is where he should be, even if I don't like how far away it is.

After we have lunch we're off to the arboretum, which is unbelievably cool. A hundred acres of trees and gardens including plants from all over the world. We stroll through a section with plants from Australia and New Zealand, then through redwoods to a garden of California native plants, over to an East Asia garden. After that we head to see the Honey Bee Haven, which I'm personally the most excited about, I love bees; Dad decides to stay in the car to catch up on some phone calls while Andy and I explore.

"Look," I say holding up my phone, "it says they have they have five species of bees. What's a sunflower bee?"

"A bee with a very limited diet, I'm guessing," Andy jokes, pulling out his cell phone too. "Oh no, actually they do mostly pollinate sunflowers and some fruits and veggies," he says reading from something he's just found on Google.

"Bees are so fascinating," I smile as we stroll around the garden. "They are just the most amazing little creatures. Did you know that a bee isn't born knowing how to make honey? The older bees in the hive teach the younger ones."

"Really? I figured they just knew," Andy answers.

"I always loved the idea that even though physics would suggest that a bee shouldn't be able to fly, because her wings are too small to support her weight, bees just say screw that, and fly anyway," I grin as a bee soars past me.

"You know they figured that out right? They flap their wings front to back not up and down," Andy says.

"I did actually know that, but that's not my point. It's just a cool idea, that this little insect figured out a way to make the impossible happen. I don't know, I guess it gives me hope that anything is possible," I say as we walk towards a large mosaic bee and sit down on the mosaic bench below her.