Tutoring

37

Monday at lunch, everyone, but Emma, is sitting at the table while Noah sits confused as to where she is.

That is, until she slams paper onto the table with a smile and he smiles back.

"Hey."

"Hi. Guess what?"

"What?"

"I applied to Harvard. I just got their letter."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Didn't wanna get either of our hopes up."

"Well, open it." Jacob urges.

She hands it to Noah and he chuckles, starting to tear it open.

"You take too long."

She takes it back and he throws his hands out.

"I had it for two seconds."

"Two seconds too long."

She pulls the paper out of the envelope and squints her eyes as she nervously reads the first few sentences. She sighs and hands it back to Noah as she sets her head in her hands.

"She got in, right?" Izzy asks.

"Yeah." He smiles.

Emma lifts her head and looks at Noah as happy tears fall from her eyes. He laughs and pulls her into a hug. The others smile, happy for her as they celebrate with happy sounds.

-

Later on, an hour after Emma gets home, she's already told Erin and is just sitting in her room. Noah walks in and sits on the couch beside her, not even saying he was coming over.

"Sup, bub?"

"Hi, angel. Y'know how you got into Harvard?"

"Of course."

"Well, I got into Stanford."

"You did?! Oh my god!"

She jumps over to hug him as he laughs. She pulls away and sees something in his eyes that makes her worry.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm gonna be here and you're gonna be all the way across the country."

"Oh."

Noah looks at her with worry and fear as she holds eye-contact.

"Well, it's only a long distance relationship." She fake chuckles. "We'll be okay. Right?"

"I want to be so bad. I'm just scared. What if we fall apart. Talk less and never get to see each other."

"I don't have to go." She shrugs as tears fill her eyes. "Singers don't need to go to college."

"No, you have to go. You were so excited about it, you have to go."

"But, you're right. Something could happen and I don't want that, so why go all the way across the country?"

"Because you've wanted to go for years. Don't let me stop you from that. I'm just... scared."

"I have a plan."

"What's your plan?"

"We're gonna go to college. Get famous. Me from singing and you from football. Then, we're gonna move in and live our lives together. Deal?"

"That's a good plan. Deal."

She nods with a small smile, but that turns to tears as he moves closer and pulls her to his side.

"I love you, angel."

"I love you, too."