Early Decision Read Free Page A

college.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhy?” He was incredulous. “ Why? Everyone goes. I mean, my parents . . . my friends, like, everyone at my school goes to college. It’s how you get a job? Plus there are keg parties.”
    Anne was quiet. The traps—sex, booze—she let pass. She was still too close to the kids’ age to speak to them of such things.
    â€œMy parents would kill me if I didn’t go to college,” he added.
    â€œActually,” Anne said, “at this point, they’d kill me if you didn’t go to college.”
    Hunter looked her square in the face for the first time, and permitted her to look back. His eyes, she saw, were green. Then he laughed.
    â€œOkay, yeah, you’re right about that! Cool.”
    â€œSo, listen, work with me here. Let’s say you could do anything in college. I mean, anything. Go anywhere, study anything, not study anything. What would it be?”
    â€œDoes my essay suck or something?”
    â€œNo, it doesn’t suck. But it is kinda boring. And I think that’s because it bores you to think about college, because it’s like all the other things you have to think about: SATs, summer reading, preseason, all stuff you have to do. Not stuff you want to do.”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œBecause I know you’re not boring. You’re sitting there next to me and I know you’ve got things you’re thinking about, and I’m guessing maybe someone special on this trip to Montana, or—”
    â€œShe couldn’t go,” he said quickly. “She’s a freshman. Well, sophomore now.”
    Aha. Thank heavens for girlfriends. “Did you tell her about it?”
    â€œTotally.”
    â€œAbout the litter and stuff? The Ziploc bags? The fragile ecosystem?”
    He jerked his head back. “No. Dude. Why would I talk about that stuff?”
    â€œThen why write about it?”
    He blinked at her.
    â€œHas she ever been to Montana?” Anne asked quickly. She couldn’t risk losing their thin détente.
    â€œNicole? No. Idaho, once, I think. Sun Valley.”
    â€œMan. Too bad. It’s gorgeous.”
    â€œOh my God! Montana was so insane. They have these rivers—braided rivers. Have you ever seen those? So, it’s a river made by glacier melt, the runoff. When it heats up the water just runs down from under the ice, but it’s not always this steady stream, so as the current gets stronger it moves around, like a snake, sort of, over time. So you’ll be standing in this huge riverbed, it’ll be, like, gravel from here all the way to where you can see, and there are, like, these seven little rivers running through it. And they switch and cross and go back and all, like a braid, is the name. It’s like the best watering spot imaginable for elk and moose, tracks everywhere, and just—these rivers that move around! It’s so amazing. You never see them changing. They just do. Constantly.”
    â€œAnd the mustangs?”
    Here he paused. “What about them?”
    Anne backed off a bit. “I’ve never seen them, is all. Are they big?”
    â€œOh. Like normal horses. But just—they’ve never been ridden. You can’t ride them. They’re totally wild, like horses used to be, you know? No saddle, no ropes. They were just hanging out there in the middle of this crazy field. I shouldn’t even say ‘field’ because it, like, never stopped. There was just this wire along the side of the road and then, like, grass forever. And they were hanging out out there, just chilling in this big circle. Like I wrote—and we tried to feed them, but they weren’t having it. Which is cooler, I think.”
    â€œAre they protected?” Anne asked.
    â€œThe ranger said these ones are.”
    â€œBut in some places they’re not?”
    â€œI don’t know. Do you think? Where else do they have