So Into You [The Jane Austen Academy Series #2] (9 page)

He blinked angrily, clearly upset. "I wish you didn’t have to work there."

"Yeah, me, too. But money is money." She wondered what had happened to his usual happy-go-lucky air. "Is something wrong?"

"No . . . yes. I mean . . ." He shook his head. "This isn’t right. I wish I could make it better for you."

"No one deserves a private boarding school education," she said with a wry smile. "I’m lucky I even get to stay."

He only grew more upset, pacing a tight circle and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Edward, I’m glad you’re here but . . . is there a reason . . . ?"

"Will you be at the parents’ dinner tonight?"

"No—my parents aren’t here." She was working the kitchen, not that she wanted to tell him that.

"Oh . . . good. I wanted to let you know that I’m going home with my parents tonight after the dinner. To stay the weekend. When I come back on Sunday, well . . . I was hoping we could talk. About things."

Her heart quickened. Did he mean talk about them? As a couple? "Yeah, sure. Sunday. Of course." She grinned—was this it? Was he finally going to ask her out? She didn’t know why they had to wait until Sunday—maybe he wanted his parents to meet her? It was old-fashioned and wonderful.

"Sunday then," Edward said. He took her hands again and squeezed them tight. Ellie felt like her heart was being squeezed, too.

Standing by the Dumpster with food in her hair and aches in her shoulders, she’d never been happier.

* * *

A tray of food was thrust into Ellie’s hands the moment she skipped into the kitchen for dinner service. "What’s this?" she asked with a grin.

"Table service," the head cook said. "Special for the parents’ dinner."

"What do I do with it?"

"Place it in front of someone who wants to eat."

"Sounds perfect," Ellie said.

The cook nearly glared at her. "Is something wrong? Why are you smiling?"

"No reason," Ellie said.

The cook sighed, turned her around, and sent her through the door to the dining hall.

Ellie burst into the main cafeteria and clutched the tray to her chest, unable to keep the skip out of her step.

Her gaze slowly swept the room—the cafeteria had been converted with white linens covering the tables and a banner welcoming parents running from one end of the wall to the other.

She saw Lizzie sitting at a table with Dante, Georgiana, and their stodgy parents, who were dressed in dark suits. She also spotted the back of Edward’s head, his hands moving animatedly as he talked to two people—his parents? They seemed younger than her parents somehow and wore polos and khakis.

"Ellie!"

Ellie glanced to her right—Fanny was there with her mom. She waved Ellie over.

"My mom hasn’t eaten all day," Fanny said, pointing to the tray of food. "Would you mind serving us first?"

"Not at all!" Ellie balanced the tray against one forearm and pulled off the plates of steak and green beans to set in front of Fanny. "You’re not vegetarian, are you?"

"Not even close," Fanny asked. "We eat everything!"

"Even the parts some people don’t like to eat," her mother said, laughing. She turned to Fanny. "Is Ellie one of your friends?"

Fanny hesitated, her eyes shifting to Ellie.

"Yes," Ellie answered quickly. "Fanny and I are in the same calculus class."

"You must be very good at math, then," her mother said.

"I’m not bad," Ellie admitted.

She wondered if Fanny had told her mother about her taking away the achievement award for Fall, but neither of them mentioned anything.

"I have to get back or people will starve," Ellie joked. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sato."

"You too, Ellie."

"Yeah, bye, Ellie," Fanny said.

Ellie walked back into the kitchen, feeling lighter than before. Somehow, everything seemed to be falling into place. She and Fanny weren’t mortal enemies, as she’d worried. She and Edward had a date for Sunday. Lizzie was probably patching things up with Dante’s parents right now. And Emma was on her way to the Teen Movie Awards with Josh.

Her parents were halfway to Guatemala, securing the yoga practice of their dreams. Maybe they’d even be able to help out with tuition by the time Thanksgiving rolled around.

Sure, she was bone-tired, but everything was going to work out.

The universe was finally lining up for her.

The head cook refilled her tray with more plates and Ellie headed back into the cafeteria. She worked quickly, setting down trays and meeting everyone’s parents, slowly working her way toward Edward’s back.

When she returned for the tray of food for him and his parents, she asked for extra fresh ground pepper on the salad. She approached him and his parents from behind, chewing a hole in her cheek.

"I swear," he said, "the school is sponsored by costume designers or something. Every dance, every school event, involves dressing up."

"It sounds like fun," his mother said.

"More fun than I had at school," his father said. "We didn’t have time to dance—or meet girls—at the military academy."

"Yeah, my friend Rick transferred in from a military academy and says it’s different."

Edward’s mom caught her eye then and smiled. "Oh, food is here."

"Hello, Mrs. Ferris," Ellie said, setting a plate in front of her.

Edward spun around. "Ellie. What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming."

"Have we met?" Mrs. Ferris asked.

"I’m not here with my parents," Ellie explained. "But I’m serving." She smiled at his parents. "I’m Ellie."

"Ellie’s best friend is dating my friend Dante," Edward explained.

Ellie knit her brow at him as she placed a plate in front of his dad—what a strange thing to point out to his parents.

"Is that Elizabeth?" his mother asked.

"She goes by Lizzie," Ellie said.

"Well, she’d have to," Mr. Ferris said. "Edward. Elizabeth. Ellie—there are too many of you with E’s."

"My roommate’s name is Emma—Edward calls us the Blonde-E’s—or Blondies."

"A nickname," the girl sitting next to his mother said. "How cute."

Ellie hadn’t noticed the girl there before. She was slight and pale, with choppy dark hair that had a dyed streak of blue that matched her eyes.

"You must be Edward’s sister," Ellie said, reaching for the last plate on her tray.

The girl laughed. "No, I’m Lucy—his girlfriend."

The plate crashed to the floor. Edward sprang up, his parents, too—and the next thing Ellie knew, she was apologizing and gathering shards of glass in her hands. One nicked her palm and a bead of blood squeezed out.

She was sure Edward, Lucy, and Edward’s parents were talking to her—telling her not to worry about it—but she couldn’t hear them over that ringing in her ears.

* * *

The next time Ellie looked up at her surroundings, she was sitting on a foam hospital-style bed, and the school nurse was taping a Band-Aid strip to her palm.

"Just a small cut," she was saying. "You don’t even really need the Band-Aid, but it’s a cute one. See—fish!"

Ellie glanced down at the colorful purple and blue scales.

The nurse dipped her head. "Are you all right or do you want to wait here a moment?"

"Can I stay for a few minutes?"

"Of course. Lie back. I’ll send a note with the runner that says you need the rest of the day off work. Okay?"

"Thanks," Ellie mumbled. The nurse pulled a curtain across the bed and stepped back into the front office. Ellie fell back on the hospital bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Edward had a girlfriend.

Lucy. With dark hair and a dyed blue streak and perfect teeth.

A girlfriend he probably actually kissed. Lots. And well.

She was such an idiot. She’d been running after a guy with a girlfriend. Throwing herself at him. No wonder he’d looked so uncomfortable. She covered her face with her hands and groaned.

"Ellie!"

Ellie popped up at the sound of Lizzie’s voice at the same moment Lizzie yanked aside the privacy curtain. "Are you hurt?"

"No."

Lizzie grabbed her hand and looked at the Band-Aid. "Oh, this looks tiny."

"It
is
tiny."

"But the nurse’s proctor said you were out for the rest of the day."

"Just a precaution."

"Kind of overkill." Lizzie dropped Ellie’s hand. "I have real pain, Ellie. Dante’s parents
hate
me."

Ellie tried not to bristle as Lizzie brushed her problems aside. "I’m sure they can’t hate you."

"They can." Lizzie sat on the bed next to her. "They know."

"Who told them?"

"Who do you think?"

Ellie gave it a second’s thought. "Bergie?"

"Obviously. Oh, they pretended they didn’t know. In front of Dante and Georgiana they were all,
Nice to meet you, Lizzie. What are your interests, Lizzie? Oh, you want to go to Georgetown, Lizzie? How interesting, so does Dante.
" Lizzie mimicked them with sarcasm and spite. "Then the second Georgiana is out of the picture and Dante walks away for two seconds, they say they’re not interested in hearing from me about the school; that the reason they hired Headmistress Berg was to ensure continuity of management so they wouldn’t have to come forward publicly as the owners because we’d have someone else to talk to."

"It seems reasonable," Ellie said. "I mean, they have a board of directors for a reason."

"It’s not at all reasonable," Lizzie cried, throwing up her arms. "Why even buy a school if you can’t be bothered to run it? So then they say they’re
so pleased
that Dante’s
made a new friend
but they hope I
know what’s good for my friends
. It was so
mafioso
—like they were threatening me."

"I doubt Dante’s family was
really
threatening you."

"They were saying something between the lines, trust me. A reporter always knows these things. I was going to give them a fair shot to go public and come clean, but they’ve left me with no choice."

"No choice but to what?" Ellie asked warily.

"I can’t accept the path the universe sets for me, Ellie. I just can’t—it goes against everything I believe about being a reporter. Everything I believe about being a human being."

"But what can you do?"

"If Dante’s parents want privacy, then we have to threaten them with their worst nightmare—publicity."

"But you quit the
Gazette
."

"No—not that publicity." Lizzie’s eyes sparkled. "
Real
publicity."

* * *

Ellie made her weary way back to her room. She looked forward to peace and quiet and the place all to herself since Emma was in Los Angeles.

To curl up in bed and finally cry herself to sleep thinking about how embarrassed she was over Edward.

Worse yet, she couldn’t even share how embarrassed she felt, because it had been so stupid of her to assume that he liked her. He’d never
said
he liked her. He’d never made her any indications or promises. He’d pulled away every time they’d gotten close.

He’d been thinking of Lucy every time. He’d probably been embarrassed for Ellie—embarrassed that she was so obvious and he didn’t know how to make her go away.

Oh, she hated herself! She hated that she was so silly and ridiculous.

How could she have imagined it?

She pulled at her hair as she hurried down the hall. How could she erase this ache, this utter humiliation? How could she wring the feeling out of her body so she never felt this way again?

Maybe Lizzie’s determination to pull Jasta into a publicity stunt was just the thing to distract her from heartbreak.

Besides, Lizzie needed Ellie to calm her down. Lizzie was half-convinced they should duct tape themselves naked to the flagpole.

She’d resolved to come up with something less drastic.

Ellie decided to throw herself into work, the academic scholarships, and Lizzie’s plans. Anything to keep from thinking about Edward.

She finally reached her door and, with a deep breath, stepped inside.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she noticed a small lump in Emma’s bed.

"Hello?" she said as she crossed the room.

She saw Emma, curled in a ball, bawling.

Hot and heavy tears streamed down her face.

"Emma, what’s wrong? What are you doing here? I thought you were in LA."