Hobson Brown - Upper Class 3 Off Campus

HOBSON BROWN, TAYLOR MATERNE & CAROLINE SAYS

This book is for our teachers.

Contents

The Olivettis drive west, into the sunset that wraps New

She meets Delia Breton the third day shes in La Jolla.

The new Wellington year begins. The school is cracked open

And so the year begins, lurching into motion like a

It happens faster than it ever has for either of

The next day, Delia and Nikki take the roundabout route 69

Parker and Nikki slurp milk shakes in the snack bar

Delia waits at Gregs dorm entrance. The afternoon got cold

Nikki and Gabriel have developed a formal relationship; they walk

The school has sunk into October, like a stone thrown

Nikki and Parker are unzipping their coats as they enter

Saturday morning is gray, lacking any sense of promiseeven though

The night is fun. Nikki gets rum in her and

Winter is creeping like ice crystals over the school. Work 158

Delias already worried about leaving Greg for Thanksgiving break. Maybe

Caseys waiting for Delia at the gate of the airport,

After the fourth episode in a row, Nikki has finally

Nikki and Delia hug and jump around when they see

Delia refuses to wear long johns under her soccer shorts, 214

The train creeps along rusty tracks, taking its sweet time

The train car is overheated. Delias face is flushed, and

About the Authors

Other Books by Hobson Brown, Taylor Materne and Caroline Says Credits

Cover

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Olivettis drive west, into the sunset that wraps New York City in fire. The buildings in the distance gleam with metallic indifference; theyre not affected by the cars crawling like insects on the highways and byways around the metropolis. Nikkis in the backseat, biting her maraschino-cherry-red nails, then remembering not to and folding her hands between her thighs, and then biting them again.

Damn, Im having dj vu, she says to Vic and Sharon in the front seat. Her tone is older and kinder than the tone she would have used this time last year, when she thought of them as the enemy.

Sharon catches her stepdaughters eye in the rearview.

Oh my God, I swear I was just thinking that.

1

Right? Nikki answers.

Almost this time last year, they were in the same vehicle, heading in the same direction. Nikki can almost see another white Escalade out the window, its paint reflecting the same wild sunset, and her own self a year younger in the backseat, feet pressed against tinted glass, singing to Green Day, secretly cowering and crying and fighting what was then an unknown future. She can almost see that girl with fear on her bold face.

How we doing for time? Vic asks Sharon.

Were good, babe, she answers.

But Nikki wont return to Wellington Academy until next week; Nikkis taking a red-eye to the West Coast tonight. Sharon and Victor are bringing her first to Anthonys in Queens to eat spaghetti with meatballs, buf-falo mozzarella with basil and summers last juicy tomatoes, and gnocchi with a Gorgonzola sauce.

They pull into the grimy, glittering lot and slam their doors. Sharon runs her hand down Nikkis hair as they walk, asks how shes doing.

Theyve had an interesting summer, sharing Us magazines by the pool and gossiping about Lindsay and Brit and Brad and Angelina, getting their nails done side by side at Lavor salon in the Bradrock mall. They had a couple doozy fights, one when Sharon shrank Nikkis dress in the wash.

Im not your maid, Sharon had finally screamed. I know that2

now, for fucks sake, Nikki had screamed back, and it was a strange compliment.

Im starving, Nikki says now. Sharon was giving her an opening to talk, but shes too nervous to take it.

Anthony, whos standing at the phone taking a reserva-tion, steps back, giant hand over his heart, when he sees the Olivettis walk into the restaurant. Hes in pinstripes, cheeks red with the sweat of running a restaurant, and his pinkie ring has a chip of sapphire.

Jesus, Mary, he says now. Look how you grown up, Nicole.

Vic beams. Looks like her mother, yeah?

This is what old friends mean, anyway, when they see Nikki, and are so taken with the resemblance. Vics friends, like Anthony, had loved Missy, Nikkis mom. Whenever she came in, in her leather trench coat and gold bracelets, they seated her so the whole restaurant could see her. But a year ago Vic would have avoided a mention of her no matter how much fancy footwork it required.

Nikki smiles at her father. So bizarre that leaving her family last year has brought them all closer together.

Shes never flown alone, and stands nervously in line, gold sandals and white duffel on the conveyor with the string-tied pastry box in which Anthony put her cannoli for the road. Her parents wave, blowing kisses.

3

Love you, princess, her dad calls, and everyone in line turns.

The plane pulls onto a night tarmac. Its an empowering feeling, once theyre amid stars, the wings light winking: Iam on my own. She squishes the pillow against the porthole, and closes her eyes.

Pictures Seth. Every minute suspended over the nations slumbering cities and lakes and hills, she gets closer to him.

Closer to him. She opens her eyes. She hasnt slept.

Theyve only been in the air for a half hour. Nikkis unable to push away the possibility shes been stifling since she bought this goddamn ticket. She reviews phone calls and e-mails, conversations between her and Seth, nuances, or hesitations.

What if this trip is a disaster?

Maybe hell introduce her to some girl whos tolerating Nikkis visit but has been with Seth all summer. Seths family will hate her. Or Seth will stop fooling around with her the first night and say: I was hoping this would feel right afterall this time, but I hate to say it, Nik, its gone. Lets just spend therest of the trip as friends, cool?

Nikki stares at the universe, where planets spin and stars shoot, where the air is thin, too high for birds, too late for warmth, too far from home, and too close to California.

She feels like a doormat for coming back to him.

4

Vanessa asked her twice if she was sure she should visit him, after what occurredimplying that Nikki was accepting bad treatment. The real nucleus of her fear is the viewing roomher code for what happened last December. The last time she kissed Seth. The first time she had sex. The only thing that came close to breaking her heart after losing her motherafter believing that her heart was permanently broken and so could not be broken again.

He fucked up. He knows it, hes written an apology, hes made apologies over the phone, sober, drunk, high. Its a ritual: the Im so sorry, Nik phone call.

Shes explained what hurt most: I thought you were soemotional because it was amazing. And then I realized you wereshaking because you were angry. And the thirty seconds it took meto figure that out, while you were talking, Seth, was as painful aswatching you draw an Exacto knife down my hand. It was justbrutal. Do you understand?

I understand.

Are you sure?

Nikki, I swear to God, Im sorry. I swear to you.

Nikki turns off the light and draws the shade. She has only seen Seth once since he left school. They met in Central Park one Sunday when Seth drove down from his grandfathers house in Maine to see Nikki, and she took a train from Wellingtonthree hours each way. They sat under flowering trees and said nothing, shoulders pressed