They Thought I Failed—Until I Turned Down Harvard Chapter 03
A few days later, it was Senior Awards Night at school.
That morning, voices downstairs woke me up.
Still groggy, I got up and looked over the railing.
Ethan was already downstairs in a dress shirt and blazer.
When he saw me, he waved.
“Jenny, Senior Awards Night is tonight. Why haven’t you started getting ready?”
Before I could answer, Olivia walked out of her room.
She was wearing the dress I had spent six months teaching myself to make.
A tiny rabbit and fox were embroidered inside the hem.
I had even picked out a matching tie for Ethan because I wanted us to wear them together on Senior Awards Night.
I had lost count of how many times I pricked my fingers over the details on that dress and tie.
“Olivia, why didn’t you ask me before wearing that?”
Olivia clutched the skirt awkwardly.
“Jenny, I really love this dress… Mom said it looks good on me too.”
“But if you mind, I can take it off and give it back right now.”
Ethan immediately stepped to her side, his face hardening.
“Jenny, you have so many dresses. Olivia only wants to wear this one. Why do you have to make her change?”
Mom came out when she heard us.
“Jenny, do you have to be so petty?”
“I told Olivia she could wear it. It’s one dress. Just wear something else.”
It felt like my throat was full of broken glass.
“I never told her to take it off.”
But no one wanted to hear my explanation.
By the time I changed and came downstairs, they had left me behind again and gone to school without me.
That evening, the school auditorium was packed with students and parents.
At Senior Awards Night, Ethan and Olivia went onstage together as two of the senior student speakers.
Olivia’s dress happened to be the same color as Ethan’s tie.
She wobbled slightly in her heels as she stepped onto the stage, and Ethan immediately reached out to steady her.
A low wave of teasing swept through the audience.
“Ethan and Olivia look so good together.”
“And they’re both going to Harvard. They look straight out of a teen movie.”
“I always thought they were dating.”
I sat quietly in the crowd.
Ethan had never made our relationship public.
So to everyone else, the girl beside him had never been me.
I glanced at the seat reserved beside me for my parents.
Empty.
A friend looked at me, confused.
“Jenny, I thought your parents never missed stuff like this.”
“You’re getting an award tonight too. Why aren’t they here?”
I followed her gaze.
Not far away, my parents were sitting on Olivia’s side.
Mom was holding up her phone, recording her.
Dad was smiling at the stage.
I looked away and gave a small shake of my head.
“They’re not sitting with me.”
It didn’t matter anymore.
After the event, Ms. Bennett called me into her office.
She looked at the enrollment form I had submitted and fell silent for a few seconds.
“Jenny, are you really turning down Harvard?”
“UC San Diego is an excellent school too, of course. But it’s in San Diego. From Boston, that’s practically across the country.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?”
I nodded.
“I’m sure. Thank you, Ms. Bennett.”
The irony was that, since the college decisions came out, she was the only person who had actually asked where I planned to go.
San Diego was more than three thousand miles from Boston.
That was exactly the distance I wanted.