Keeping Secrets (13 page)

“Did you take the books out that she stuck in there? You know she'll get carsick if she tries to read.”

“I snuck them out,” said Nikki. “Don't worry. And I packed the maps. Really, Mom, I think we're all ready. And remember, this is just a two-hour car ride. It's not like we have to pack for a big, long trip. It's eight-thirty. By ten-thirty we'll be at Leavitt.”

“Lord, I hope so. You marked the route on the map, right?”

Nikki nodded. “And Tobias printed out the directions on his computer.
And
,” she rushed on before her mother could say anything else, “I put them on the front seat. I'll be the navigator so you don't have to worry about anything but driving.”

Mrs. Sherman drew in a slow breath. “Okay. Where's Mae?”

“I made her go to the bathroom again even though she said she didn't have to. I took Paw-Paw out, too.”

“And Min Read is going to drive Flora over this afternoon to walk him?”

“Yup. Okay. Here's Mae. Let's go.”

Mae jumped down the porch steps, two books falling from inside her jacket as she did so.

“Books,” said Nikki harshly. “Put them back, Mae.”

“Oh, ding-dong,” said Mae, but she retreated into the house.

“Lock the door behind you!” Nikki called as her sister returned empty-handed.

Nikki, Mae, and their mother slid into the car, three doors slammed, and the Shermans' road trip was under way.

“Let's sing ‘Ninety-nine Bottles of Pop on the Wall,'” called Mae from the back as Mrs. Sherman steered down the driveway.

“No!” yelped Nikki and her mother. Then Nikki added, “We have to concentrate. Look, Mom got you a new coloring book. Why don't you make some pictures for Tobias? He can put them up in his dorm room.”

“What's a dorm room?”

“It's where kids sleep when they go to college,” said Nikki knowledgeably.

“Are they bedrooms?”

“Yes.”

“Then why don't they just call them bedrooms?”

“Mae, really, I have to help Mom here. Open your coloring book.”

 

Two hours later, with Mae fast asleep and Nikki bent over one of the maps, Mrs. Sherman called out, “There's a sign for Leavitt College!”

“See? Tobias's directions were perfect!” exclaimed Nikki. “Oh, this is so exciting. Just two miles. We're almost there.”

“Now, what did Tobias say to do when we reach … Beacon? Is that the name of the town?”

“Yeah.” Nikki consulted a note from Tobias. “Okay, um, we're supposed to turn left at the first traffic light, park anywhere on High Street, and then look for Coffee Joe's. It'll be next to a bookstore. That's where we're going to meet him. At Coffee Joe's, I mean, not the bookstore.”

“Goodness, my heart's pounding,” said Mrs. Sherman. “I can't believe we've come this far.”

“Without any mistakes,” said Nikki.

“You'd better wake up Mae,” added her mother, peering into the rearview mirror. “She's going to need Crabby Time to recover from her nap.”

As Mae grumbled in the backseat, squinting into the sunlight, Nikki took a careful look at Beacon. The edges of town were unimpressive — strip malls and gas stations and fast-food restaurants. Then her mother made a right-hand turn, drove to the traffic light, and turned left, and suddenly Nikki found herself looking down a stretch of road that could have been Main Street.

“Ooh,” said Mae, perking up. “A toy store.”

“This is just like Camden Falls!” exclaimed Nikki.

“It's lovely,” said her mother.

“Look, there's a parking space and it's right in front of Lighthouse Books — and there's Coffee Joe's, just like Tobias said!”

A smile spread across Mrs. Sherman's face. “We did it,” she whispered.

“Yay, Mommy,” said Mae.

Nikki eased out of the car, stretching her legs, and found herself face-to-face with her brother. “Tobias!” she exclaimed.

“Hey there, little sister.” Tobias wrapped Nikki in a bear hug.

“Tobias! Tobias! Look what I made for you!” Mae scrambled out of the backseat with a fistful of pages from her coloring book. “You can hang them in your boardroom!”

Tobias looked confused, and Nikki whispered to him, “She means your dorm room.”

“Oh. Thanks!” he said. He leaned down to peer through the window into the front seat. “Hi, Mom,” he said. “You made it.”

She smiled at him. “Thanks to Nikki.”

“Let's go to Coffee Joe's before we head back to campus,” said Tobias.

“Great. I could use a cup of coffee,” said Mrs. Sherman, heaving a sigh as she extricated herself from the car.

Mae let out a sigh of her own. “Me, too,” she said. And added, “Man, I'm beat.”

“You slept almost the whole way!” cried Nikki.

“And since when do you drink coffee?” added Tobias. “Or say, ‘Man, I'm beat'?”

“Since I got to college.” Mae marched through the door of Coffee Joe's, stepped up to the counter, and said, “One coffee, please.”

Joe leaned across the counter and peered down at Mae. Then he glanced at Nikki, Tobias, and Mrs. Sherman, who had hurried in after her.

“Sorry,” said Mrs. Sherman. “That will be two coffees, one milk, and … what do you want, Nikki?”

“Iced tea, please.”

“Hey! Is that milk for
me
?” squawked Mae.

“Yes, and settle down, please,” said her mother.

Nikki sat on a stool and took a good look around Coffee Joe's. Plastered on the walls were fliers advertising poetry readings, concerts, recitals, and plays. “Tobias, you could do something different every single night in Beacon,” she said. “Look — there's going to be a performance of
Our Town
. We read that in school. It was the best play ever. And a group called Split the Bill is going to play right here at Coffee Joe's. Who's Split the Bill?”

“Two women who sing and play the guitar,” Tobias replied. “They're really good.”

“This is
so
cool.” Nikki sipped her iced tea. “I love college.”

“And you haven't even seen Leavitt yet,” said Tobias.

When they finally did — when they had finished their drinks, made sure their car was locked, and walked along the road that led up the hill toward campus — Nikki drew in her breath. She knew, even before she had let the breath out, that she would never, ever forget this view of Leavitt College. The old brick buildings seemed to rise up out of green lawns like a fleet of ships appearing on the horizon.

“Here's the main entrance,” said Tobias as they walked through a set of ornate iron gates. “These gates were built in eighteen seventy-four, the year the first part of the campus was finished. That big building just ahead is the Jeffers Science Center. Over there is Neilson Hall. That's where all the English classes are held. That new building is the student center. Across the lawn is the main library, and right behind it is the music library. The performing arts —”

“Wait!” interrupted Nikki. “That huge building is the
library
? And there's another library, too?”

“There are three other libraries,” said Tobias proudly.

“How can there be so many
books
?” wondered Mae, who had seen only the library at Camden Falls Elementary and the tiny public library on Main Street.

“Do you want to look inside?” asked Tobias.

“Are we allowed?” whispered Nikki.

“Of course.”

After Nikki and Mae and Mrs. Sherman had gawked at the shelves and shelves and floors and floors of books, Mae, once again growing giddy with excitement, said, “Now can we see your boardroom, Tobias, please?”

So Tobias walked his family past the performing arts center and the student center to a group of six buildings, each four stories high, that formed a U around an expanse of lawn. He strode purposefully to a building on the left, led the way to a door on the second floor, swung the door open, and said, “Home, sweet home.”

Nikki looked in at the messiest suite of rooms she had ever seen. Clothing was tossed everywhere, including, in one case, on a lamp shade. (“Fire hazard,” she announced, whipping the shirt off the shade and folding it neatly over the back of a chair.) She and her mother and Mae had to pick their way from one room to another, sidestepping books, empty pizza boxes, computer cords, paper plates, and crumpled napkins.

“Don't you boys eat at a table?” asked Mrs. Sherman.

But Nikki decided the rooms were wonderful, the happy result of life lived far from the eyes of parents.

Tobias looked at his watch. “If we go to the student center now, we can meet my roommates and their families,” he said. “We thought it would be nice if we all ate lunch together.”

Nikki saw concern cross her mother's face and knew Tobias saw it, too. She took her mother's hand. “It'll be fun,” she assured her. “And if it's not, we'll leave.”

But it was fun. Nikki liked Bruce and David, her brother's roommates. She liked their parents, too. So what if the moms were wearing tailored pantsuits while her own mother wore a skirt that Nikki suddenly realized was just a bit too short — and makeup that had been lathered on a bit too thickly? When talk turned to ski trips and to Bruce's parents' summerhouse on Martha's Vineyard, Mrs. Sherman merely refilled her coffee cup. And everyone was indulgent of Mae, who insisted on being called Goldie and went around the table telling fortunes.

When lunch was over, Nikki asked to continue the tour of campus and was enthralled when Tobias took her and Mae and their mother to a greenhouse, a real theatre, playing fields, and even a small art museum.

“This,” said Nikki as her family walked back to town later that afternoon, “has been one of the best days ever. I'm going to come to Leavitt after high school, just like you, Tobias. I'll do anything to get here. I'll make straight A's, I'll get a scholarship, whatever it takes.”

“Listen,” said Tobias, “if I could get in, then you'll get in for sure.”

“That,” said Nikki, “is my new goal. I'm not going to lose sight of it.”

And she never did.

Vincent Barnes tucked his copy of
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
under his arm and left the Teachers' Room.

“See you tomorrow,” called Mr. Krauss, one of the math teachers.

“Have a good evening,” Mr. Barnes replied. He whistled as he walked through the halls of Central. He was beginning to feel a part of the school and a part of Camden Falls, his new community.

This afternoon it was time for another meeting of the seventh-grade book club, and Mr. Barnes was looking forward to it. The students in the club had held one meeting to determine how the book club should run, a second meeting at which they had chosen their first book (
Bud, Not Buddy
, by Christopher Paul Curtis), and a third meeting at which they had talked about
Bud, Not Buddy
and chosen
Zachary Beaver
, by Kimberly Willis Holt, as their next selection.

“Hi, Mr. Barnes!”

“Hey, Mr. Barnes, how's Shortbread?”

“Mr. Barnes, I couldn't find the book in the library until yesterday, so I had to read the whole thing in one night!”

Mr. Barnes looked at the group of kids crowded outside the door to his classroom. They were full of smiles and energy and ideas, his most motivated students.

He grinned at them. “Nikki, you read that whole book in one night? No wonder you have bags under your eyes.”

“What? I don't have bags under my eyes! Do I, Olivia? Well, anyway, it was worth it. That was the best book ever.”

“That's what you said about
Bud, Not Buddy
,” said Mr. Barnes, holding the door open.

“Mr. Barnes?”

Vincent Barnes turned around at the sound of the shy voice behind him. “Hi, Flora.” He glanced at the unfamiliar girl standing next to her.

“Mr. Barnes, this is Willow Hamilton,” said Flora. “Is it all right if she comes to the meeting? She just moved here and she wants to join the book club. Olivia and Nikki and I have been telling her about it.”

“It's fine with me.” Mr. Barnes smiled at Willow. “Did you have a chance to read the book?”

Willow nodded. “I'd read it once before, but I reread it over the weekend, anyway.”

“Excellent.”

Mr. Barnes ushered Flora and Willow into the classroom and then sat at his desk. He paged through
Zachary Beaver
while the rest of the students trickled into the room. Snatches of conversation reached him.

“She gave us a pop quiz! It was completely unfair.”

“Karen said that
Janey
said that Oliver wants to go out with Pam, but she doesn't want to go out with him.”

“Olivia! Sit over here!” That was Jacob. Mr. Barnes knew it without looking up.