But she hadn’t. It was real and I didn’t quite know what to do with that.

The obvious solution was to study harder. And I did. And my grades improved to a respectable B-, which was still a gut punch, but I also recognized that I wasn’t in a small pond anymore. I was in Lake Huron and I had better learn how to swim against the waves or I was going to drown.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t drown. But I didn’t thrive, either. And maybe that would’ve been enough for me had I found some sort of accomplishment elsewhere, in sports or Debate Club or any form of extracurricular activity, but I was average there, too. However, there was one place where I wasn’t average: socializing. When it came to making friends and fitting in, I would give myself a D+.

Sure, I’d gone to Bronwyn’s Halloween party, but she’d invited everyone, including Arthur. That didn’t mean either one of us were part of the Cool Kids Club.

Hardly.

I was of the Studies Too Hard All the Time variety and Arthur was . . . well, Arthur. He never fit into any particular category. In a way we were both social satellites, launched from opposite parts of the world, him from London and me from Oklahoma, landing in the same improbable orbit.

A movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

I glanced out the window to see Arthur look up toward Charity House. My dorm room was on the second floor, so I couldn’t be sure what he was seeing. Was I visible? Probably not. It was a new moon and there weren’t many lights by the pond. Still, a part of me wondered . . .

Arthur turned and walked away from the pond.

And another part of me couldn’t help thinking this was probably the last time I would ever see Arthur Chakrabarti Watercress, the odd boy from the school where I had bombed. Because I was growing certain that when I got home, I would convince my parents to let me stay in Oklahoma. And while there might be a chance I would encounter Arthur when I returned to Barrington to retrieve my stuff, I knew it was unlikely.

I’m not sure why that struck me right in that moment, why I kept my eyes glued to the blue knit cap and green puffy jacket as they were absorbed by the evening shadows before disappearing around the corner.

But I did. I watched him go. Certain I would never see him again.

Turns out, I could not have been more wrong.

One

DECEMBER 19TH

“You owe me a Christmas!”