Chapter 3

The two of them puzzled over it for a long time. Chloe was off to the side sorting the gift money and said without looking up, "Oh, just spell it out. Just write the sounds, that's fine."

The guy had a sudden lightbulb moment and bent down to write "Chavez" after Warren.

Chloe made a point of adding, "Write it clearly, okay? When people get married someday we've got to return the gift, and we can't have any trouble over it."

Only after the gift ledger was done did Chloe call us over.

"Come on, let's eat!"

At the gazebo beside the athletic field, Maxwell's roommate pulled several big plastic bags out of a rental bike's basket. Inside were all kinds of boxed meals. Chloe pushed one box at each of us.

I glanced down—egg fried noodles. The delivery slip said eight dollars.

She leaned in all secretively and whispered to us, "You guys get special treatment. Everyone else is sharing one box between two people, but you each get your own. Pretty generous, right?"

I followed her gaze, and sure enough, two guys were squatting under a tree sharing one box of fried noodles.

One of them was eating a little too fast, and the other told him to take less so there'd be a couple of bites left over.

Marjorie was quiet for two seconds. "Generous."

"Really generous."

Chloe smiled, satisfied. "Of course. You're my side of the family—how could I ever shortchange you?"

She dug several pairs of disposable chopsticks out of the bag.

"And your chopsticks are all brand new. A few of them are using ones they grabbed from the cafeteria."

Chloe carried her fried noodles over and sat down next to Maxwell, and the two of them fed each other bite by bite.

The afternoon was brutally hot; even the wind on the field felt scorching. If they wanted to bake out there, that was up to them.

I really wasn't in the mood to keep fooling around with her out here, so I made an excuse and slipped off.

I set down the fried noodles and headed back to the dorm.

When I got to the door, I noticed that at some point another red double-happiness cutout had been added to it.

Yesterday Chloe had dragged us into decorating until midnight—blowing up balloons, sticking up double-happiness decorations—and we hadn't slept all night. Then this morning she got us up before dawn to do our makeup. I was so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open, so once I got back I dropped straight into bed.

I don't know how long I'd been asleep when a jumble of noise suddenly came from outside.

"This is the room, right?"

"Yeah, there's still a double-happiness cutout on the door."

"How did it get like this inside?"

I cracked my eyes open, half asleep, and heard the dorm supervisor and some student council people talking outside.

Chloe really had made too big a scene today.

A dozen-plus guys had stood under the women's dorm imitating firecracker pops, two rows of rental bikes were parked at the entrance, and the room was plastered with red balloons and double-happiness decorations. It would've been hard not to draw attention.

When the student council came for the dorm inspection, they found the room a total wreck and took photos right there.

Before long, the resident advisor had heard about it too.

Our room got written up, and all four of us had our parents called to the school.

The moment Chloe heard our parents were being called, her face changed.

"We're all adults. Why do you still have to call our parents? Can't you let me have a little sense of ceremony? Honestly, I think you're just jealous."

The student council wasn't having it. "Are you out of your mind? Go have your ceremony somewhere else. Don't tear up the dorm building."

I was just too tired. After listening for a bit, I rolled over and drifted back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, it was to a sharp, furious shout.

"Chloe Finch!"

My eyes snapped open, my heart pounding.

A woman was shrieking out in the room. I lifted a corner of my bed curtain, took one glance, and lay back down.

It had nothing to do with me anyway.

"What in the world is all this?!"

"The school called me in, and I thought something terrible had happened to you—what are you girls doing in here? Have you lost your minds?!"

Chloe's voice was flustered. "Oh, Mom, keep it down."

"Why should I keep it down? The school called me directly! Your father and I sent you to college so you could study!"

I didn't make a sound, but I'd already pretty much guessed what was going on.

Chloe rushed to explain, "Mom, don't get mad yet. This has nothing to do with me."

Her mother went still. "Nothing to do with you?"

"Right."

Chloe's voice got smaller and smaller. "Isn't the whole thing these days that kids are free to marry whoever they want? We're all adults now. And we do fine in our classes—we only helped out because we share a room and there was no way around it."

Her mother visibly relaxed. "I knew you couldn't do something like that."

Chloe said nothing, so her mother asked again, "Then whose are these double-happiness cutouts?"

"Someone else's."

"Whose?"

The room was silent for a few seconds, and then came Chloe's voice. "Hers."

Before I could even react, she added one more thing.

"The one still sleeping in bed over there."

My eyes flew open. Who was she talking about?