What Was Perfect by Jolie Moore

Author:Jolie Moore [Moore, Jolie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944179496
Publisher: Moore Digital Media Inc

Chapter 15

Fourteen years earlier

While zipping four pencils into a slim Hello Kitty case that I carried ironically, I scanned the score sheet from October’s exam.

Thirteen-seventy.

My mom had thought it was a great score. My college counselor had said the same, all the while listing lots of second-tier liberal arts colleges and top-tier state schools I could consider.

But thirteen-seventy wasn’t good enough for Owen. Next to my score sheet was another fact sheet I’d kept tucked in my desk drawer. It was the newest version of the Owen Freshman Class Profile. The majority of last year’s newly admitted freshmen had scores of at least fourteen hundred.

Today was the last exam of the year, my last chance to increase my score by sixty points, if not more.

Applications for regular decision were due in January, less than a month from now. I’d already been turned down for early admission, so I had to throw my hat in the ring along with tens of thousands of other applicants. The only thing I could change was my score. It was too late to volunteer a thousand hours building a house for the homeless or train to become an Olympic-level athlete. All that was left was what I could do with my brain.

I zipped my pencil case into my purse. Glancing at my watch, I figured there was just enough time to pour some of my mother’s espresso along with a healthy shot of milk into a travel mug for quick energy and hop into my car. Late kids wouldn’t be admitted to the test. That was the number-one rule.

The kitchen was unusually quiet when I stepped in to get the coffee that would fuel me through the long morning. There were no little cups of espresso on the counter. I laid my hand on the side of the copper machine. It was ice cold.

Mrs. Li was in town for her usual holiday shopping spree, so there was no way Mama would be at Mr. Wu’s house before eight o’clock. Mrs. Li didn’t like to be disturbed during her first days home after the super-long flight from Asia. But even then, Mama should have been up making my breakfast.

I looked at my watch again. It was coming up on seven thirty. I didn’t have time to worry about this.

A loud groan came from Mama’s bedroom.

I stood, paralyzed. She wouldn’t have brought Mr. Wu here, would she? That was a breach of an unspoken rule. The time Jake and I had walked in on them had been the last time anything had happened in our guesthouse. Whatever was going on between them, if there was still anything, happened far away from here.

The groan came again, louder this time.

Even from my very limited experience in this area, I didn’t think that last was the groan of a satisfied lover. Sounded a lot more like a dying cow.

I dropped my bag and coffee mug and beat a path back down the hall, but detoured to her room instead of mine.

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