52
RAINBOW ROWELL
So I guess it’s time for me to admit that college is hard—College is hard! Or, at least, time consuming!— and I’m probably not going to be updating Carry On as much as I used to, as much as I’d like to. . . . But I’m not disappearing, I promise. And I’m not giving it up. I already know how this all ends, and I’m not going to rest ’til I get there.
Nick turned around in his desk as soon as class was dismissed. “You’ll be my partner, right?” “Right,” Cath said, noticing a girl in the next aisle glance at them disappointedly. Probably because she wanted to work with Nick. They were each supposed to find a partner and write a story together outside of class, trading paragraphs back and forth. The point of the exercise, Professor Piper said, was to make them extraconscious of plot and voice—and to lead their brains down pathways they’d never find on their own. Nick wanted to meet on campus at Love Library. (That was the actual name; thank you for your donation, Mayor Don Lathrop Love.) Nick worked there a few nights a week, shelving books down in the stacks. Reagan looked suspicious when Cath started packing up her laptop after dinner. “You’re leaving the dorm after dark? Do you have a date?” She said it like it was a joke. The idea of Cath on a date. “I’m meeting someone to study.” “Don’t walk home by yourself if it’s late,” Levi said. He and Reagan had class notes spread all over Reagan’s side of the room. “I walk home by myself all the time,” Reagan snapped at him. “That’s different.” Levi smiled at her warmly. “You don’t rock that Little Red Riding Hood vibe. You’re scary.” Reagan grinned like the Big Bad Wolf. “I don’t think rapists actually care about self-confidence,” Cath said.
053-54290_ch01_6P.indd 52
7/13/13 7:01 AM