JENNIE
"Will you have to wear plaid all the time?"
Sehun sits on the end of my bed, hands clasped between his knees as he watches me pull things out of my closet. It's mid-August, which means it's very hard to imagine a time when I'll need heavy coats, but the weather app on my phone tells me that if I were in Scotland right now, I'd want to be wrapped in wool. Besides, I won't be back home until December, so my heaviest winter coat gets tossed on the bed with the rest of the things I'm packing.
"The uniforms are plaid," I tell Sehun. "But a dark plaid, so it's not so bad."
Sehun attempts a smile, but his eyes keep returning to my suitcase.
Walking over, I put a hand on his shoulder. "The internet exists," I remind him. "Email, FaceTime, Facebook, probably some other face-based technology they'll invent while I'm over there . . ."
That gets a genuine smile out of him at least, and he runs a hand over his hair. "Face Plate," he suggests. "Faces showing up in your plates so you can eat dinner together."
Giggling, I throw another pair of socks in my bag. "Gross. I don't want to eat off your face."
Sehun smirks. "Then I guess you don't even want me to get into Toilet Time, because that's where technology will really take off."
"Why am I friends with a boy?" I muse to my poster of Finnigan Sparks, tapping my fingers against his space helmet.
"Because you love me," Sehun replies, and I heave a sigh.
"Sadly, I do."
Sehun is not doing great with the whole Me in Scotland Thing, but he's definitely trying at least, hence the moral support while I pack. Gregorstoun's first day is later than Pecos High's, so he's already back in school, while I have a week before I'll start my senior year.
It's a weird thought, graduating somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about finishing my high school experience in another country, but it still felt bizarre, looking at everyone's First Day of School pics on social media last week.
"Have you talked to Yeri?" he asks, and I turn away, shrugging.
"A little."
That wasn't really true. She'd finally responded to my text with a HEY GIRL! Sorry, been CRAZY BUSY! but that was about it. True, she and I have never been as close as me and Sehun (or me and Joy, or Yeri and Joy), but it still stung, and I can't escape the feeling that she might be a little happy to have been right. I've seen more pics of her and Joy hanging out on Instagram and Snapchat over the past two weeks than I have in over a year.
Now that Joy and I aren't friends—or More Than Friends—anymore, it seems like Yeri has taken back Her Rightful Place.
"And have you talked to Joy?" Sehun asks, pulling me from my thoughts, and I point at him.
"You know all Joy talk is still forbidden."
Usually, my Pointy Finger of Justice is enough to dissuade Sehun, but now he just grabs it, pushing my finger out of his face. "We've had a two-week Joy-Free Zone," he says. "I think the statute of limitations is up. Have you talked to her?"
Sighing, I pull my finger out of his grip and flop into the chair at my desk. "No. But why should I? Did you miss the part where she broke my heart?"
"A, that rhymes," Sehun replies, "and B, no, I didn't. I am very Team You in this, trust me, I just . . . don't want you to leave feeling unresolved. You deserve your big country-song moment where you tell her how much she sucks and then commit felony vandalism on her property."
I laugh at that, shaking my head. "Right, because me and confrontation are BFFs."
"You could stand to be a liiiiittttle bit more confrontational, it's true," Sehun says, holding his thumb and forefinger apart. "How you can be so competitive, but still hate arguing—"
"I'm not that competitive," I interrupt, and Sehun makes a rude noise.
"Okay, tell that to my neck. You know that game of Red Rover in fifth grade is why I can't turn my head all the way to the left, right?"
"It's been nearly seven years, Sehun, let it go," I joke, tossing a pair of socks at him. "And why are you so worried about me dealing with Joy anyway? Don't you have your own romantic life to fret over?"
Sehun throws the socks back at me with a snort. "My dating life is fret-free at the moment. I have a date with Kai this Friday, thankyouverymuch."
"Chicken Finger Place Guy?"
Sehun wrinkles his nose. "Y'all have got to stop calling him that."
Laughing, I turn back to my packing. "Sorry, you called him that first, and now it's stuck. I look forward to you one day becoming Mr. Chicken Finger Place Guy."
With a groan, Sehun flops onto his stomach on my bed, sending a few pillows thudding to the floor. "Ninnnniiiiiiiiiiii," he whines. "Why do you have to leave me? What's Scotland got that Texas doesn't? Other than discernible seasons, I guess."
"All kinds of things," I tell him. "Kilts."
"I can wear a kilt."
"Bagpipes."
"I'll learn those."
"Cool geology."
"Texas has so many damn rocks, Ni."
Grinning, I put another sweater in my suitcase. "It's different," I say. "And I'm ready to be somewhere different for a little while."
"Just promise me you're doing this because you really want to go have fun, exciting new experiences," Sehun says, picking at my comforter. "Not because you're running away."
"I am only mildly running away," I tell Sehun, holding up my thumb and forefinger close together like he did earlier. "The teensiest bit of running. Every girl is allowed that."
I can tell Sehun wants to argue with me over that, but in the end, he just sighs and says, "Fine. Then at least use your time wisely by hunting the Loch Ness monster."
"That," I say, giving him finger guns, "I can definitely do."
There's a knock at the door, and my stepmom pokes her head in. "Everything going okay in here?" she asks. Her red hair is pulled back from her face, and she's got Gus balanced on one hip.
Seeing me, he gives a happy shriek and reaches his arms out, so I cross the room to the two of them, taking one of those chubby hands and pressing a smacking kiss to the back. "Going great," I tell Anna. "I've almost finished making a Gus-sized cubby in my luggage."
She smiles, bouncing Gus a little as he continues to babble. "I'm sure he'd love that," she says. "And then I'd get to raise a kid with a Scottish accent, which could be fun."
I laugh and cross back over to the closet, pulling out a sweater. "You promise to smack me if I come back all 'aye' this and 'bonny' that, right?"
Anna nods, shifting Gus to her other side. "Stepmother's honor. Now, do y'all want pizza or Chinese for dinner?"
"Pizza," Sehun and I say in unison, and Anna gives us a thumbs-up, which Gus mimics before they head back out into the hallway.
Sehun gestures to my laptop. "Show me this school again at least," he says. "Let me form a clear picture of the place you're ditching me for."
"Easy enough."
I've got the Gregorstoun website bookmarked, and I bring it up now, feeling that same flutter in my stomach at the sight of those gorgeous brick walls, the breathtaking scenery around it.
Clicking through the pictures, Sehun pauses on one of a bunch of boys dressed in off-white tank tops and long shorts that look like they're made out of canvas. They're all grimacing slightly at the camera, their pale skin red with cold.
"Who are these jokers?" he asks, and I look down at the caption.
"'Class of 2009, participants of the annual Challenge.'"
Sehun looks over at me. "What the heck is the 'annual Challenge'?"
I grin, practically wiggling on the bed. "Omigod, it's the coolest. They basically send you off into the Highlands in teams, and you have to camp out there, then find your way back to the school."
The Challenge was actually one of the reasons I'd picked Gregorstoun over other schools in Scotland. The idea of getting to be out on my own—well, kind of on my own—in the Highlands, wind whipping through my hair, camping out underneath Scottish stars? Yes, please.
Sehun snorts. "A camping challenge does indeed sound very up your alley. Hope those guys aren't attached to having functional limbs."
Pretending to buff my nails on my shirt, I lift my chin in the air. "Gonna kill it, obviously."
Turning back to the laptop, Sehun taps the screen. "Okay, but what if they're not telling the whole truth? What if the Challenge involves being thrown into a Sarlacc Pit to be eaten, hmm? Have you thought about that?"
"It's clearly not, because this fellow here," I say, pointing to one of the taller guys in the back, "is Prince Suho of Scotland, and last time I checked, he was very uneaten. And marrying an American."
"Ohhhh, yeah," Sehun says slowly. "My mom is obsessed with that. Getting up early for the wedding and everything."
I've seen Prince Suho and his fiancée on the covers of a few magazines here and there, and there was some kind of scandal earlier in the summer with the fiancée's sister, but I didn't pay much attention. Royal gossip has never been my thing, and it's not like it's going to affect me anyway. Prince Suho is long gone from Gregorstoun, and his brother, Lucas, isn't going back.
"Nini Kim, going to school where royalty went," Sehun muses, still looking at the pictures, and I shake my head.
"Nini Kim, going to a great school," I correct him.
"Besides," I add, closing out the webpage, "the chances of me meeting royalty are, like, nil."
--
LISA'S OFF TO SCHOOL!
Seen here at Waverly Station in Edinburgh, Her Royal Highness, Princess Lisa of Scotland, boards the train taking her north to Gregorstoun in the Scottish Highlands. Once a males-only institution, this year, Gregorstoun opens its doors to women for the first time in over a century. While Princess Lisa's brothers both attended the school, this year, Lisa will be the only Baird at Gregorstoun, her twin, Lucas, having chosen to finish his schooling closer to home in Edinburgh. Rumors that the princess is being sent to the imposing school to curb some of her wilder impulses are, according to the palace, "completely fabricated."
("School's In for the Royals," from People)