Chapter 10

I was wrong. Chuck didn't understand. Janelle came home from school a few weeks later, looking very depressed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Chuck broke up with me."

"What? Why?"

"He was waiting for me after one of my classes today. He just walked up and said, 'I'm tired of this. It's over.'" Her voice sounded very weary.

I hugged her. "Oh, Janelle, I'm so sorry!"

"Doesn't matter. I don't really care anymore."

"You don't mean that!"

She looked at me and tried to smile. "Don't say that, Liz. I'm trying hard not to care, because otherwise I'd break down crying all the time. Do me a favor and help me pretend it doesn't matter, OK?"

"Okay," I promised, giving her another hug. What I was thinking, however, was what a jerk Chuck was to dump Janelle so heartlessly just before Valentine's Day. Was he as much of a snob as Janelle had feared he might be, looking down on her because of her bad grades? Or maybe he was frustrated because they weren't allowed to go out these days. If that was the case, he needed to understand that Janelle couldn't afford not to do well in school. He might have a rich family to fall back on, but we didn't. Succeeding in college was Janelle's only chance.

In any case, not caring about other people's struggles proved to me that as nice of a guy as Chuck might have seemed, he and his cousin were actually a lot alike. My initial impressions of Will continued to be confirmed at the previous Sunday's LOFTY Dreams meeting. This was the meeting about good study habits in college, which I had been looking forward to both for my own and Janelle's sake. The evening began with a small group. Will, Mike, Heather and Anna were all absent.

Kathy had been responding to a question Sheila had asked about how much critical thinking we do in school. "At my school, the teachers just want you to read the books, and then in tests or essays, write what the book said. If you do that well, you get an A. I feel like I do so much more thinking at my youth group"—Kathy was president of a Vietnamese youth organization—"but that's not really academic. That's mostly thinking about things like, how do we plan an upcoming party?"

"Maybe you're underestimating how important that experience is, Kathy," Paul said. "Are there ways that you can apply the thinking you do in your youth group to the learning you do in school?"

Suddenly, the door opened, and Will, Mike, Heather and Anna all casually strolled in, about twenty minutes late for our meeting.

"Nice of you to join us," Sheila said sarcastically. "We were just talking about the importance of asking good questions and learning how to think well. Kathy, go on."

Before Kathy could continue, Mike whispered something to Will and they both started laughing.

I made a sound of disgust. "It's bad enough that you were late, now you're treating this like it's a joke."

"Sorry," Mike said.

But Will, despite his claim at the last meeting of being able to apologize, made excuses instead. "I'm not even sure why I need to be here tonight," he said. "I had to take a whole semester class on study and thinking skills in ninth grade. There's nothing I could hear in one evening that I didn't already know."

No wonder he was late. He didn't think it mattered. "I guess you forgot that this program's not supposed to be about you," I said. "I personally need this meeting tonight. But since you don't, at least you could think about ways you can help the rest of us who do."

Will looked for a second as though he were going to argue with me, but then thought better of it. He smiled instead. "All right, I can do that."

"And how will you do that?" Paul asked.

Will continued to grin at me. "Share my expertise, I guess." I sighed and rolled my eyes. Will's arrogance knew no bounds.

As the meeting was ending, Anna approached me. "Trying to get some bonus points?" she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Like you don't know."

I laughed. "Actually, I have no idea what you mean."

Anna gave me an icy glare. "It's not going to work, Liz."

I watched her walk away and wondered what the heck that was all about. She ran up to Will, placed her hand on his arm and said something to him. They both started laughing. Interesting.

Despite the tensions of the February meeting, I was eagerly looking forward to the next one. The Hunsford retreat was coming up, and I was so excited about it, I was counting down the days. The March LOFTY Dreams meeting was an extended one, during which we spent several hours stocking shelves at a food bank, and then went to the university where we talked about the plans for the trip. We would depart on a bus from the main gate at the U.M. campus at seven PM on the first Sunday in April, which coincided with most the start of most of our spring break weeks, and we would return at one PM the following Sunday.

"The students from the previous classes have always said that the retreat is the highlight of the first year of the program," Sheila told us. "This is the time when everyone in the group really gets to know one another and bond."

"It's also a lot of fun," Paul added. "The Hunsford Retreat Center is located about two hours from Meryton, and it's an incredibly beautiful place. It's surrounded by woods, there are hiking trails, a lake with boating, a recreation center with a track, workout rooms, a pool, and squash courts. There is so much to do there."

"And you'll need it, too," Sheila laughed. "Because there's no electronic media there. You're not allowed to bring any electronics either, except cell phones and mp3 players. And your cell phones may or may not work, because the reception is poor. We'll let you check in with your parents on the center's landlines if needed."

"You're kidding," Abner said. "You mean no computers?"

"None," Sheila said.

"No TV either?" Heather added.

"Oh, no, I'll miss 'American Idol'!" Stacy said in a high-pitched voice that sounded a lot like Heather's. Heather glared at her but everyone else laughed, which was good, since it took the stunned looks off our faces.

"Don't worry, you'll survive," Sheila said, smiling.

Paul handed out sheets of paper to us. "These are contracts that you need to sign and have your parents or guardians sign."

"If you remember at the first meeting," Sheila said, "I mentioned that we have to add a few more rules to the program during the retreat because you'll be away from your homes and your parents. Also, there will be both religious and business groups at the retreat center the same time we are, so we need you to behave as responsibly as possible."

I read through the contract. It said that I would agree to participate in all program activities, and refrain from drugs, alcohol, sex, fighting, or the possession of any weapons. Failure to abide by any of these rules would result in termination from the program.

"What's up with the 'no sex' rule?" Mike asked. "You can't tell us that."

"Yeah, some of us are legal adults," Will added.

"I think most of your parents would agree to that one," Sheila answered.

Kathy and I were talking at the end of the meeting when Anna approached me again. It would have felt like déjà vu, except this time Heather was with her.

"Are you looking forward to the retreat, Liz?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, of course," I answered, a little suspicious of the fake-friendly expressions on their faces.

"Lots of chances to get to know the boys, right?" Anna said.

"There'll be lots of chances to get to know everyone," I said slowly.

They both started laughing and then walked away. Kathy looked at me in confusion. "What's wrong with them?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. It's like they have it in for me or something, but I have no idea why."

I happened to look up in time to see Anna walk over to Will and touch his arm again, just like she had at the end of the last meeting, and it hit me. I pointed them out to Kathy.

"Ohhh," she said in understanding. "So Anna likes Will and that was a 'back off my man' type of thing?"

"I guess," I laughed, "but when it comes to Will Darcy, Anna had nothing to worry about from me."