As I Am Read Free Page B

snacks while everyone else gets reacquainted. I turn around quickly to find Cal Harper standing there, smiling at me. “How are you?” he says as he initiates a hug. I hug him back in reflex but am taken off-guard by his strong arms. I have to lift up onto my toes to put my arms around his neck.
    “I’m great,” I stutter , thinking back to my conversation with Addison about her surety that the stars had somehow aligned and Cal Harper was now curiously into me. “How were finals? I haven’t heard from you since we both had to go into the study cave.”
    “Yeah, sorry about that. I meant to email you before I left campus, but things were nuts and by the time I got home my mom had a hundred things she wanted to do with me before I left for here. Finals were a bitch, but they were good. Hard to believe I’m headed into my senior year. Even harder to believe I’m actually going to graduate in four years!” he laughs and his smile is like heaven on earth. I’m not surprised at all that he’s finishing his degree in four years. Cal is majoring in engineering at Notre Dame and has been at the top of his class since his freshman year. He’s so brilliant he’s working with some of the leading minds in making wind turbines more efficient under turbulent conditions. He also got a full-ride football scholarship. He puts whatever some people consider “the total package” to shame.
    “Oh, it’s ok ay. I was busy with finals, too, and you know … I figured you were, you know, busy.” I wish Addy had never said anything to me about Cal supposedly being into me. I can barely put together a coherent statement around him now.
    “Well, I was thinking I could make it up to you,” he says, shifting his body and resting his hand behind me on the counter. “Maybe we could make up for those lost emails tonight after the bonfire.”
    “Um, sure,” I tell him nervously.
    “Great! Well, I’m going to go say hi to everyone.” He backs himself toward the doorway into the common area. “Don’t stay in here too long, ok ay?”
    “Ok ay.” Two syllables are all I can muster. Cal never acted that way around me last year, so Addy must be right. This is insane.
    “Hey! You coming? The new counselors are here!” Addy says, poking her head into the kitchen. “I hope there’s a super-hot upper classman newbie they can put in with us!”
    Addison grabs my hand and drags me out onto the front porch of The Lodge. It’s customary for the second-year counselors to get here and settled first so we can greet the first-year counselors. I remember pulling up and seeing all the second-year counselors standing on the porch, yelling and cheering for us. It made all the unknown things about Lake Hollis seem a little less intimidating.
    Gateway Cabin is smaller but still sleeps sixteen. With two bunk beds in each of the four rooms, it’s crowded. Eighteen college students file out of the same van Jim drove us down in plus another one. This confirms that the two empty beds in The Lodge will be filled. By whom remains to be seen.
    One by one nine guys and nine girls throw their backpacks over their shoulders and drag their duffle bags or suitcases behind them as we yell and cheer at their arrival. Most of them are smiling and yelling and cheering with us. Some of them aren’t sure what to make of our antics, but all of them seem happy to be here.
    Dave and Pete head down to the van to help the girls get their things to their rooms – and also to find out which window to tap in the middle of the night. Addison, Matthew, Amy , and I have a seat on the porch steps and wait for the dust to clear and see who emerges as Matthew and Addison’s roommates. Carrie and Bridget are rooming with Tina and Erin, leaving Addy without a roommate after she kicked me out of the nest. Matthew is kind of particular about his things, so he thought that the fewer people he shared a room with, the better. So because they love him, and want to continue loving