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But soives me away
When Mo over our tiny due, she oohs over Kali’s pictures of Buster and then looks at asps By her look of horror, you’d think I’d decorated with crime-scene photos "Where’s your collection?"
I point to the boxes in the closet, unopened
"Why are they there?"
"They’re too noisy," I quickly lie "I don’t want to bother Kali with them" Never mind the fact that Kali blasts her radio at seven in the
"You could put them out and not wind them," she says "Those clocks are you"
Are they? I don’t reo to flea markets on weekends and then one day, I was a clock collector I got really into it for a while, but I don’t reht, I want to collect these
"Your half looks terribly barren next to Kali’s," Mom says
"You should’ve seen ia "My roommate put tinfoil on the s It looked like a spaceship He called it the ‘Future Dor for Minimalist Dorm"
"It has a certain penitentiary charm," Dad says
"It’s like a before/after on one of those home décor shows" Mom points to Kali’s half of the room, over which every inch of wall space is covered either with posters, art prints, or photos "You’re the before," she says As if I didn’t already get that
We head off to one of the special workshops, soy in the classroo that he re that is new This is what he did e toured the school last year; both he and Mo here Creating a legacy Somehow, back then, I was excited too
After the workshop, Dad acy parents, and Mo famously Either Kali hasn’t told her race to shut up about it
Before the President’s Luncheon, all four members of the Fab Four and their respective families meet back at the suite and the parents all introduce themselves and cluck over the tininess of our rooe and take pictures of THE FAB FOUR WELCOMES THE FAB EIGHT sign that the rest of the group ether and tour the ca way around to point out so up old bricks And everyone looks nice together in flannel skirts and tall black boots and cashh the autue Students in the catalogs
The luncheon is fine and boring, rubber chicken and rubber speeches in a big, cold echoey hall It’s only after the luncheon that the myth of the Fab Four starts to unravel Ever so subtly, Kendra’s and Jenn’s and Kali’s fa about Christ breaks and potlucks and things like that My
She and Dad go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner Moests I wear my black and red wrap dress And that I wash reasy
When they come back to pick me up, there’s an aard moment as my family meets up with the rest of the Fab Four and their Fab Faroup dinner at some famous seafood place in don Boston There’s a sort of standoff as my parents face the other parents The rest of e interest in the industrial gray carpeting Finally, Jenn’s dad steps in and offers a belated invitation for us to join the rest of them for dinner "I’m sure we can squeeze three more in"
"Oh, that won’t be necessary," Mohtiest voice "We have reservations at Prezzo in Back Bay"
"Wo’d you et in until nextto Mom, is the hottest restaurant in town
Moh Dad told olf buddies had a friend on the faculty at a hospital in Boston and he pulled soet us in Mom had been so pleased about it, but I can see now the victory is sullied
"Enjoy your chowdah," she says Only Dad and I catch how condescending she’s being
Dinner is painful Even sitting at this chichi place with all the best Bostonians, I can tell Mom and, by extension, Dad feel like rejects And they’re not It’s
They ask me about my classes, and I dutifully tell the to tell theo to bed, or how badly I’ about, or not talking about, all this makes me so tired I want to put my head down into my thirteen-dollar salad
When the entrees colass of Chardonnay, Dad a Shiraz I try not to look at the way the candlelight dances against the colors of the wine Even that hurts I look down at ood, but I have no desire to eat it
"Are you co?" Mom asks