I busy myself writing two letters, one atop the other in case Ernie gets curious. (Which he does, in seconds, his entire being leaning toward my side of the room.) The first is to Leeza, just a kind of bonding thing.

hey sis, thanks for making my first day suck less, sorry about Chaz.

I can’t figure out how to sign off. Do they use “TTYL” yet? Or is that a text thing? My god, I would kill to just text someone right now.

The other is to Chaz. It’s simple, a little flirty (who doesn’t like to be flirted with?) but not too much.

Sorry I called you flawless. Don’t hate me cuz I’m honest. Tomorrow I’ll behave.

I’m pretty sure I don’t need to sign it.

To say that I fold this does not accurately describe what happens. I went to Arts Camp eight summers in a row. I could do origami while juggling and texting. He’s getting a tiny heart, with impossibly rounded edges, the note hidden inside something like the fifth tuck. Leeza gets a big showy llama, mostly because it needs to be large enough to hide his, and so that Ernie thinks I just wrote to her, a fact I announce loudly.

“Going to the mailbox to drop my note to Leeza—want me to take yours?”

Ernie’s face lights up like I have offered to do his homework for a month. “Sure!” His appreciation is so genuine, I feel a little guilty that I really only volunteered so he wouldn’t ask to take mine. Note to self: Be nice to Ernie—the kid is starved for it. Plus, you know, having an ally could be useful.

The dorm lobby right now is like a locker room with everyone’s clothes on—guys talking, some of them doing that push-each-other bro thing that has to go directly back to early primates, a couple more clustered around another hand-held game. (Wait till they grow up and discover smartphones.) I see the outbox, filling rapidly with paper (dorm mail clearly predates concern with saving trees), and the empty inbox next to it. My little plan has a problem. Drop the mystery man note to Chaz in that box, and it will sit there alone, a beacon blinking: Look at me! Look at me! It will be obvious to anyone it originated within the building.

Before I have solved my dilemma, I hear a voice. “You’re the new guy, huh? Smart move coming so late—no time to hate the place.”