Cory had insisted on everyone opening their college letters together at Chubbies, which mildly irritated Shawn. Even though he had great recommendation letters from his bosses at Keller-Marsden, and Jack gave him a legacy connection at Penn, his freshman year had dragged down his GPA. He decided to start with his safety school, Pennbrook.
It was an acceptance letter. Shawn looked up at Cory, who was grinning. He'd gotten into Pennbrook too.
Shawn breathed a sigh of relief. Now he knew he would at least be going to college somewhere.
"Alright, now for Wisconsin…" Cory opened another envelope, and pulled out another acceptance letter.
Angela got in to Northwestern and Topanga got waitlisted at Yale, which left just one set of letters, from the University of Pennsylvania. Hands trembling, Shawn opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.
Dear Shawn,
Congratulations! On behalf of the entire Penn community, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to attend the University of Pennsylvania as a member of the Wharton School Class of 2002…
Shawn's heart leaped in his chest. "Cory!" he said hoarsely, "I got into Wharton!"
"Oh," Cory responded flatly.
"Is something wrong?"
"I…um…didn't get in."
Topanga jumped in to save the moment. "Oh my God, Shawn. We're all so excited for you! Aren't we Cory?"
"Yeah. Way to go, Shawn," Cory said half-heartedly.
Shawn stood up. "I'm going to go tell Jack!"
"I'll drive." Angela volunteered.
They rode back to Philly with Jack's Third Eye Blind CD playing at full volume. Jack pulled out a package from under the passenger seat.
"What's that?" Angela asked.
"Open it when we stop," Shawn responded.
They pulled into the garage and Angela opened the package to find a Reed College t-shirt in her size.
"Crap, that's the wrong one." Shawn opened the glove box and pulled out another package, which contained a Northwestern t-shirt.
"How many of these did you get me?"
"Reed, Iowa, Wellesley, Bucknell, and Pennbrook. But I'm returning the rest." Shawn playfully grabbed the Reed shirt away from Angela.
They went up to the apartment, where Jack and Eric were sitting on the couch. Wordlessly, Shawn handed Jack the acceptance letter. Jack responded by screaming and jumping up to hug Shawn.
Angela sat down next to Eric and watched them celebrate.
"So, how terrible of an idea was it to have everybody open their acceptance letters at the same time?" Eric asked.
"Terrible."
"And who's the disappointed party?"
"That would be your brother, my friend."
"Hoo…boy."
"Yeah."
"So did he get in anywhere?"
"Pennbrook and Wisconsin."
"Well, he did better than I did on my first try."
"What do you think it will take to get him to pick Wisconsin?"
"Play up the cheese. Cory loves cheese."