So Into You [The Jane Austen Academy Series #2] (3 page)

"The intention to raise a family. We meditated on the matter and realized we couldn’t just
open
a studio in the country of our future child; we had to understand the country, the people, so we would know our child’s roots. We knew we had to visit."

"So . , , did you visit?" Ellie asked, exasperated, to move the conversation forward.

"Twice! We realized the full practice of our intention must be met. We had to move to Guatemala."

The buzz in Ellie’s ears deadened to silence, a deep silence that seemed like cotton in her head. "Did you say you and Dad are moving to Guatemala?"

"No, of course not."

Ellie choked in relief. She must be losing it. She could have sworn she heard her mother say—

"We’re
all
moving to Guatemala. Together."

* * *

Ellie walked. Out of her bedroom. Past Emma and Lizzie, who opened the door to Lizzie’s room the second they heard her come out. Down the hall. Out the main gate.

Lizzie and Emma followed. Ellie explained what her mother had said. Or at least she thought she did. Words left her lips. Her mouth moved. But she barely heard her voice.

The path from main campus curved past the gymnasium and into the woods, which grew dense as the trees drew closer and closer together, their branches tangling overhead. Burnt orange and red leaves crunched beneath her flip-flops.

If she walked fast enough, if she could make the wind rush in her ears, then she could pretend she was riding inside the barrel of a wave crashing toward shore. Her mother said it took years and years of yoga and meditation practice to find true peace, but Ellie knew it only took a few minutes to paddle out into the ocean to find it.

But there was no ocean here.

"Do they even need yoga in Guatemala?" Emma asked in complete seriousness.

Ellie expected Lizzie to snap that nobody needed yoga, but Lizzie paced forward with her hands stuffed in her front pockets, her brow furrowed and her gaze on the mossy ground.

"What about you?" Emma said. "They already have
you
. Don’t they have to think about what’s best for you?"

Lizzie glanced sideways at Ellie, her expression contemplative, but Ellie had no room in her thoughts to ask Lizzie what was on her mind.

"When do you have to move with them?" Emma was saying when Ellie tuned back in.

She brushed away a branch so she wouldn’t walk into it. "When they arrive next Friday for Parents’ Weekend to arrange the transfer—I’ll leave with them. I should start packing."

"Not if I hide your clothes," Emma said.

"Emma, please," Ellie sighed.

"Why would they even want to raise a baby in Guatemala? Isn’t that irresponsible?"

"Millions of babies are raised in Guatemala every day," Lizzie said.

"You know what I mean." Emma sidestepped a log.

"No, I don’t," Lizzie said.

Normally Ellie would interrupt, would play mediator, but she felt too tense, too taut. If she opened her mouth, she would say something sharp and awful and so un-Ellie-like.

"It must be easy for
you
to accept this, Lizzie," Emma said with scorn.

"It’s not easy!"

"You’ve already had Ellie for two years, so maybe you’re fine with her missing the Halloween Masquerade Dance and the Winter Ball—all with boys this time! With me!"

"I’m not fine!" Lizzie let out a frustrated cry. "But she’ll be with her
family
. Don’t you get that?"

"I get that she’s leaving and it’s not fair."

"Nothing is fair this year!" Lizzie spun around and stalked back toward the school.

Ellie watched Lizzie go with a heavy sigh. She felt a hint of bitterness—how had her tragedy blown up to be about Lizzie? But one of the things she loved most about Lizzie was her sense of justice, of right and wrong, and how much it moved her when the balance swung to the wrong side. Ellie ran after her. She could hear Emma trying to keep up with short, stilted steps.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, falling into step beside Lizzie.

"No . . . yeah. You know." Lizzie glanced up at her. "It’s kind of an adventure, right? Moving to Guatemala. A new sister."

Ellie felt a flutter in her stomach. "It kind of is."

"How many people get to put that on their college applications?"

"Not many."

Lizzie’s lip puckered the way it often did when she was thinking. "Do they offer SATs in Guatemala?"

The flutter of excitement gave way to a tight ball of anxiety. Ellie didn’t know a thing about Guatemala—or South America. "I guess I’ll find out."

They waited at the main entrance for Emma, whom they could hear swearing through the trees. They heard the din of chatter from the Twilight Picnic, which was due to end as dusk approached with plum and pink streaks in the sky.

"We have to do something amazing this weekend," Lizzie said. "Maybe we should borrow a car. Road trip."

"Emma wouldn’t mind driving. Her parents rent her a car while she’s here."

"Oh . . . I meant . . ." Lizzie looked away.

Ellie realized Lizzie had meant just the two of them.

She wanted to spend time with Lizzie. She wanted to soak up every possible minute she could with her best friend. She couldn’t imagine that any friends she made in Guatemala would be as interesting or driven or dynamic.

But there was also Emma . . .

Emma huffed her way to them and came to a stop with her hands on her hips. "You guys—not cool. My legs are half as long as yours—a third, in your case, Ellie."

"Sorry, we just got to talking," Ellie said. "We were thinking of taking a road trip this weekend."

Emma’s lips parted in horror. "A road trip? We can’t road trip. We need to figure out how you can stay."

"There’s nothing to figure out," Lizzie said with an exasperated wave of her hands. "Her parents won’t pay her tuition! What choice do we have? None! No choice at all. Ellie is going to leave. The new owners are going to change the name of the school. Everything is going to change and we have to accept it."

Lizzie stalked inside, letting the heavy entry door slam behind her. Emma pulled on Ellie’s arm to stay her. "She needs to cool off."

"She needs us," Ellie said.

"Eventually. But you have other things to worry about besides Lizzie."

Chapter Two

Ellie pulled the covers to her chin and flopped back on her pillow. She stared at the ceiling, where Emma had taped glow-in-the-dark stickers and tattoos of hearts and stars and her favorite bands. "My last Friday night staring at this ceiling. Next Friday, I’ll be on a plane to Guatemala."

Emma threw her pillow at Ellie from across the room.

Ellie ducked and the pillow landed with a soft
oomph
against her shoulder. She clutched it close to her chest. "Don’t get mad at me. I’m not the one who made the decision."

"You’ve accepted it, which is kind of worse."

"What am I supposed to do? Tell my parents they can’t adopt a baby or move and have to pay for a fancy boarding school? You have to accept the path the universe sets, Emma." Her mother’s words stuck in her throat.

"The universe can suck it. Tell them your grades will suffer. Or you’ll get depressed! Tell them they can’t uproot you."

"Roots need to be replanted from time to time." Another heavy saying from her mom, and even though it made sense, it didn’t mean she liked it any better than the rest of them. Sometimes making sense sucked.

Emma let out a muffled scream of frustration, leapt from the bed, and pulled Ellie out of the room and into the empty, quiet hall.

"It’s past curfew! What are you doing?" Ellie whispered.

"I’m showing you everything you’re going to miss—and leave behind."

In their bare feet and pajamas—Ellie’s being an old T-shirt and boxer shorts while Emma wore a creamy designer slip—the two girls ran with soft footsteps down the long wing of the girls’ residence dorms, taking extra care to be quiet as they passed the hall monitor’s door.

Emma turned left at the academic corridor.

"Are you crazy? We’re half naked!" Ellie said.

"That’s as much as you wear any day." Emma pointed to Ellie’s T-shirt and boxers.

"Fair point, but
you
are definitely less dressed."

"It will make it more exciting when we’re caught."

"Wait . . . what do you mean,
when
we’re caught?"

Emma giggled and scurried past the science and math classrooms. A few doors and windows were open so a cool night breeze blew into the hall, sending goose bumps up Ellie’s arms and down her neck.

A sliver of moonlight illuminated the hall, but she would have known it in complete darkness. She knew the grounds more intimately than her parents’ house in Santa Cruz. Jasta was her home. More surely than anywhere else—more than some random hut in Guatemala.

Emma turned again. To the entrance to the boys’ dormitory.

"Are you crazy?" Ellie asked between gritted teeth.

Emma beamed a smile and turned the doorknob.

The door opened on a hush of air. Ellie had lived in this hall two years ago, back when Jasta was an all-girls’ school and they had private rooms. She preferred their view of the woods to the other side’s view of the courtyard. Now that it had been taken over by boys, it was exotic—foreign territory. It smelled like boy—like shower gel. It felt darker, warmer as she and Emma made their way down the corridor.

Emma stopped and rested her hand on a doorknob.

Then she threw the door open to the darkened room.

* * *

The door crashed into the wall. The lumps in the two beds roused as the blankets rustled around them.

Down the hall, another door opened.

Emma pushed Ellie inside and shut the door behind them.

Ellie’s pulse pounded in every vein. "This is your plan? To get me kicked out before I have to leave?"

Emma pressed a finger to Ellie’s lips.

A boy sat up in one of the beds—tousled brown hair, big, questioning brown eyes, and a confused, endearing look that squeezed Ellie’s heart.

Edward’s lips quirked up. He laid a hand over his own heart and said, "I must be dreaming."

"You’re not," Emma said.

Footsteps echoed down the hall and there was a knock several doors down.

"They’re checking the rooms," Ellie squealed.

Edward blinked. "Wait, I’m not dreaming?"

Emma leaned over and pinched him. He slapped her hand and shrugged off his covers.

Ellie noticed he was wearing a T-shirt and boxers—just like her. She glanced over to his roommate’s bed but the figure turned and pushed his head further into the pillow.

Edward reached back to his desk, grabbed a pen, and chucked it at his roommate’s head.

"What the—" Josh spun around and rubbed his head, then, seeing the girls, he sat up.

Ellie looked away as she realized Josh was shirtless, but Emma only leaned in.

It flashed through Ellie’s mind that she was living the teen dream—staring at a shirtless Josh Wickham in the flesh instead of just on the big screen. But even without his face blown up across a movie theater, those infamous dark blue eyes were just as intense beneath his black hair streaked with blond.

"I didn’t get the memo about the party," Josh said. Ellie rolled her eyes—how could Josh wake up with the same flirtatious attitude he always had?

A knock came on the neighboring door.

"We need you to hide us," Emma said.

Josh lifted up his blanket and patted the empty side of the bed. "By all means."

"Can we be serious?" Ellie said. "We’re all about to get expelled!"

"Not all of us," Josh said. "I’m a victim in all this—a willing victim, of course."

"Come on, Josh," Edward said. "Be cool."

Josh gestured around the room. "Pick your poison."

A hand rapped hard against the door.

Ellie gasped as Emma pulled her into the wardrobe, pushing shirts aside. They crouched low, pressed their ear to the wardrobe door, and listened.

"Can I help you?" Josh asked.

"There was a loud noise," a third voice said, "Like a banging door."

"Sorry, that was me. I had to take a whizz and when I got back, well, I don’t know my own strength sometimes. You know how it is. I have to work out for my job."

Ellie admitted Josh was showing off those acting skills he put to use on television dramas and the big screen. She could picture him with those magazine-famous good looks. Still, he didn’t make her feel anything like Edward did. One look at Edward made her feel like every love song on the radio made sense.