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TINA

Today is going to be a good day

There is little outward evidence of this Ragged, gray clouds skittered in overhead during ot todown in earnest Now, passing cars send up a fine spray of droplets The uhost as soon as I pulled it out, and I haven’t had a chance to duct tape the fabric to the spines yet, because I’m about fourteen minutes away from a class that starts in eleven minutes and twenty-nine seconds

Today hasn’t started particularly well, and my schedule only forecasts worse I have five hours of work this afternoon and several projects due in the next two days Before I can tackle any of that, there’s the pesky issue of three hours of ht

But counterbalancing that undoubtedly depressing list is one bright beacon: I’ my favorite sweater

I know It doesn’t sound like much But here are the facts: My favorite sweater is white cashmere It’s soft and warm I found it in a Salvation Are two and a half years ago, tagged with the ridiculously low price of 379 even though it looked like it had never been worn

I argued withit for twenty minutes On the one hand, it was a mint-condition cashmere sweater for under five bucks On the other hand, it was cashmere And white

And that’s why I’ood day Twenty-nine months after that purchase, I still have that sweater and it’s still unstained And let raceful on her own That’s two and a half years of no dropped coffee cups or sliding spaghetti strands It’s twenty-nineintotime

My life usually feels like a living illustration of Murphy’s Law But when I wear ically doesn’t

So yes, today is going to be a good day I’enerally a superstitious person, but I don’t have to iin to thin as I nal es at the exact moment I co an arrange fast by the time I make it to Dwinelle, where my class is, I’ve made up for lost time All I have to do is cross one last expanse of wet asphalt and painted white lines

The lot is filled with glea around dirty puddles of rainbow-hued water I check et to the building, two to dash up the stairs I’ to make it

Oneat ineering going way too fast for a parking lot cuts by The car sweeps beside me and muddy, oily water sheets up in a wave I don’t have time to move away I barely even have ti me

The wind picks up—or ainstat the car ahead oflot to understand what just happened I’m cold I’m wet And that means…

I look down, and it’s not just my arm that feels cold The whole world see

My sweater

That asshole just splashed muddy water all over ht white sleeve

For a moment, I can’t even believe it It’s not possible

Oh, trusthappens all the time But it’s not supposed to happen to my sweater

Fuck Fuck, fuck

I glare at the car It turns s that the spot is reserved for visitors of the Chancellor’s Office Whoever’s inside, whoever is driving, is already off limits My fists clench, but what a official?

Then the car door opens and the driver gets out He’s tall and thin with sandy-blond hair He reaches back into the car for aand then slams the door

He’s not the Chancellor He’s not even a visitor to the Chancellor’s office And I don’t need to be psychic to know that, because I recognize this driver For one, he’s in my next class

For another, he’s Blake Reynolds Yes, the Blake Reynolds—he of the adorable childhood commercials, of Cyclone Systems fame

Up until now, I have had nothing against Blake Reynolds He sits one aisle over in class Our discussion section started teeks ago, and during that ti class He has a nice smile

When I’hty, and I don’t care about the truth anymore, I’ll tell all the kids ill listen that yes, I knew Blake Reynolds, and you know, he kind of had a thing for me You should have seen me back then I was so cute!

But I’ tohi lot, the memory of his smile turns my stomach Blake’s smile is like a lottery ticket: It’s the smile that a thousand people will use to construct impossible dreams In reality, it’s as indifferent as the weather Good fortune; bad fortune It doesn’t matter He’s never really noticed I’m there

I have nothing against Blake Reynolds, except that he nearly ran me over Except that every ti in the pit of , let alone harboring that soainst Blake, even though he’s apparently been told he can park in the Chancellor’s spot, for God’s sake I have nothing against the fact that the Graduate Student Instructor who leads our section practically fawns over hi on every word he says as if it were chiseled on stone tablets

I have nothing against Blake except that I’ because of hiot oil stain

s on my lucky sweater

Fine I adainst Blake Reynolds

He lopes up to the building as I squeeze water out of ait, and he disappears between the glass doors before I can say anything I follow behind, gri it’s his neck But I don’t have ti, dash up a few flights of stairs, find a bathroom, and rub hopelessly at my sleeve hatever I can find Thirty seconds convincesto solve the problem

I’m two minutes late when I slide into ivessmile as I sit down and brush at my sweater

“Shitty weather, isn’t it?” she whispers

“Seriously”

Beside lances ineodda

I gave him a dirty look, but he’s already looked away