Positive attitude, my mom’s voice warns in my head, and it has the effect of making me stand up straighter and paste a smile on my face. She didn’t like the idea of me coming here at all, but when she finally relented, she told me that if I did go, I’d better do it with a positive attitude. And I know she isn’t here to watch me, but she isn’t wrong, either.

You look cute, I tell myself as I walk up the steps, my thumb gliding over the top of the Emotional Support Deck in my pocket. You look cute, and your outfit is cute, and you already made a couple of friends, maybe, and your dorm-room situation will get straightened out—it has to. Everything is fine. You are fine.

I pull open the door and head straight for the sign-in desk, where a girl with a round face and a big smile asks my name and then hunts for my badge. “It’s not in here,” she says, her lips drooping into a frown as she riffles through the envelope. “You said your last name is ‘Riley’?”

Deep sigh. “Check the boys’ folder.”

She does, and lo and behold. “That’s so weird,” she says with a furrow of her eyebrows as she hands me my name tag and watches me plaster it to my shirt. “How— Oh, you must be Rumson Girl.”

I grimace. “Please, my friends call me Rummy.”

The only familiar face in the room when I arrive belongs to Matt Haley, and he’s thoroughly occupied by a pair of gorgeous girls who look at him like they plan to give that rope ladder a workout tonight. Clearly, I won’t be interrupting, so I take myself over to the drinks table instead and pour myself a Sprite.

“You’re Evie, right?”

I nearly spit out my drink at the sound of that familiar accent, but I manage to choke down the bubbles and only halfway resemble a gaping fish as I turn around to face Farmboy, a.k.a. (per his name sticker) Lucas Burke. “Right. Wow, it’s nice to hear my name and not ‘Rumson Girl,’ so thank you for that.”

The regrets at mentioning my stupid nickname and predicament settle in immediately, but Lucas just laughs. “It’s a pretty name,” he says, clearly determined to make me melt into the floor. “But ‘Rumson Girl’ is cute too. You’re a celebrity on your very first day.”

“Not exactly what I want to be famous for.” Although there is something nice about the fact that Lucas has heard of me.

“There are worse things.” He pours himself a cup of Coke, and we clink “glasses.” “You’ve got your own room, right?”