They Thought I Failed—Until I Turned Down Harvard Chapter 06
Ethan’s breath caught.
He lunged forward and snatched the phone.
He stared at the acceptance email, student ID number, and scholarship notice again and again.
Then he pulled out his own phone and opened his Harvard acceptance email, comparing the two back and forth.
He looked at Mom.
His lips moved, but no defense came out.
Because the acceptance email on the screen was clearly mine.
And he really had told everyone that I had failed and planned to take a gap year.
“Mrs. Carter—”
Mom cut him off with a wave and turned away.
On the drive home, she kept calling me.
Ethan crouched in a corner of the banquet hall and sent me message after message.
I knew none of it.
I was still on the plane.
When Mom got home, she rushed through the front door.
She shouted my name through the house.
No matter how loudly she called, no one answered.
Dad came in right behind her.
Then they seemed to realize something at the same time and ran upstairs.
My room looked almost exactly as it always had.
Except for the trash can.
Inside were piles of photo prints and shredded instant photos.
Mom crouched beside it and picked them up piece by piece.
Every family photo from my childhood.
Every picture of Ethan and me since kindergarten.
I had cut them all apart.
Every memory.
Every feeling.
I had thrown them away just like those scraps of paper.
Dad opened my closet.
The gifts I had once treasured were gone.
So were my passport, driver’s license, and birth certificate.
Mom collapsed onto the floor and started pounding her fists against Dad’s chest.
“This is your fault!”
“You’re the one who insisted on bringing Olivia home. You made me lose Jenny!”
The door opened.
Olivia and Ethan stood outside.
Mom turned her face away, embarrassed.
Ethan immediately stepped in front of Olivia.
“Mrs. Carter, Jenny has always been impulsive. She never told us her college decisions, so of course we didn’t know.”
“How is that our fault?”
“Besides, Jenny has taken off on trips without warning before, hasn’t she?”
“You’re overreacting. She probably just went somewhere for a few days.”
Mom and Dad gradually calmed down.
They remembered that they had cut off my spending money.
Even if I wanted to run away, how far could I possibly get?
At most, I would be back in a day or two.
Mom wiped her tears and went over to take Olivia’s hand.
“Olivia, I’m sorry.”
“Mom was just upset. Don’t take it to heart.”
Olivia’s eyes were red.
She didn’t say a word.
That only made them feel even sorrier for her.
Dad pulled a credit card from his wallet and handed it to her.
“Olivia, take this. Consider it my apology.”
“You’ll need plenty of things before school starts. Go buy whatever you need.”
Ethan pulled out a card his parents had given him and held it out to her too.
“Olivia, Jenny’s just throwing a tantrum.”
“Don’t blame yourself. She’ll come back on her own in a few days.”
“Take this for now. Buy whatever you need before school.”
Mom and Dad got busy helping Olivia shop for college.
Before long, they were so busy getting Olivia ready for college that what had happened with me slipped to the back of their minds.
They were certain I couldn’t get far without money.
So they bought a set of back-to-school supplies and left it at home for when I returned.
Mom even bought me a new formal dress, thinking I would stop being angry as soon as I saw it.
After all, I had always been easy to placate.
Then, half a month later, Ms. Bennett sent another congratulatory message.
[Congratulations, Mrs. Carter. A friend of mine from graduate school teaches at UC San Diego. She just sent me the freshman recognition list.]
[Jenny is doing wonderfully. She was selected as a freshman representative, and I heard she has already joined an undergraduate research program.]
Mom and Dad stared at each other.
UC San Diego?
[Ms. Bennett, you mean UC San Diego—the school nearly three thousand miles from Boston?]