Authors: Lauren Kunze,Rina Onur
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Dating & Sex, #Friendship, #Social Issues, #School & Education
The Ivy: Scandal (37 page)
The curtain, suspended from only a thin makeshift rod probably
built that morning, seemed to be collapsing as if a weight had been hurled against it from behind. The rod curved as the curtain continued to drag it downward until finally it snapped. Red velvet splashed down like water tumbling from a glass, still writhing after it hit the stage as if someone—or someone
s
—struggled to escape.
There was a collective gasp from the blanket where Callie, Gregory, Vanessa, Matt, Dana, and Adam sat. OK’s head had just popped out from under the curtain. Another face soon surfaced after him.
“Mimi?” screamed Vanessa, causing a few people to turn in their direction even though most eyes were riveted on the stage.
OK crawled out from under the curtain and then pulled Mimi up after him, taking both of her hands. He continued to hold one of them as he grabbed the microphone from the confused-looking student and said:
“Er—ah—pardon the interruption. I just dropped by to say that Sexy Hansel are a bunch of wankers—and also this.”
The microphone made a loud plunking sound as it hit the stage, and nearly everyone from Wigglesworth entryway C gasped again.
OK and Mimi were kissing.
After a few seconds the crowd burst into applause, even though most of them couldn’t truly have known what they were clapping for. No one, however, cheered louder than the inhabitants of C 24 and C 23, who looked at one another with wide-eyed expressions that all seemed to agree:
Finally
.
Grinning, Mimi picked up the microphone. “
Merci beaucoup et bonne soirée!
” She curtsied, handing the mike back to the still dumbfounded MC.
“How long has this been going on?” Vanessa demanded as she and the others surrounded OK and Mimi upon their return.
“Er…” Mimi and OK exchanged glances.
“Oh, come on!” said Dana to Mimi. “The secret’s out just like that boy said onstage and in more ways than one.”
Mimi smiled at her. “You are right. It is time.”
“Wait—Dana knew?” Vanessa was indignant.
“We both did,” said Adam. “OK and I share a double. Why do you think Dana started letting me stay over so often?”
“I thought,” Vanessa sputtered, “that maybe you’d decided that Third Base was no longer a sin?”
“So those noises we heard coming from OK’s bedroom—that was you?” Callie asked.
“I should hope so,” answered Mimi, narrowing her eyes at OK.
“Of course it was, my
petite baguette
,” he said, mussing up her hair and lavishing her with looks of utter adoration.
“
Non
,” she responded, her grayish blue eyes huge. “
C’est exactement
why I wanted to
garder le secret
!” Backing away, she started slapping his hands.
“Fine,” he grumbled, sticking them in his pockets. “Have it your way. You always do.”
“
Oui
,” said Mimi, smirking.
“So you’ve been seeing Mimi secretly this entire time,” Matt said to OK slowly.
“
Oui-oui-ouuiii
,” said OK,
avec une “fraaanch” accént
. “Ever since that day at the date auction when she realized she could no longer live without the fresh prince of—” He grimaced as Mimi held up a warning finger. “Uh. Yes. No big deal. Whatever. I, like, like her, and stuff,” he amended, trying for an American accent.
Mimi smiled in spite of herself.
“But I don’t get it,” said Callie. “Why did you want to keep it a secret?”
“Really?” said Mimi. “You do not get it?” She nodded at OK, who seemed so brag-happy he was on the verge of doing a jig—or mounting the stage again to “Pull a Matt” by grabbing the microphone and telling the world that he loved Mimi Clément.
“
I
detested it,” OK interjected, “but
she
seemed to enjoy all of the sneaking around. It really turned her o—into a…sneakier…person.”
Mimi rolled her eyes.
“Well, hey, man,” said Gregory gruffly, pulling OK into a half hug, “congratulations. Now, Vanessa,” he said turning to her. “Have you met my friend Matt?”
“Wha—” Vanessa looked from Gregory to Matt.
“No,” said Matt, slowly shaking his head.
“Nuh-uh,” Vanessa cried, shaking hers, too. “
No way
.”
“Not a chance,” Matt countered.
“Don’t even
think
about it, Robinson—”
“I wasn’t!”
“Good, because if—”
“Okay,” said Callie. “We get it.”
“Great,” said OK. “Time to go, then!”
“Huh?”
“We have to leave. Immediately,” he said, starting to fold up the blanket.
“What!” shrieked Vanessa. “Why? Sexy Hansel could show up any minute!”
“Exactly.” OK nodded gravely. “And we cannot be here when it does.”
“Why not?” asked Adam.
“Because when I am on my deathbed,” said OK, “I need to be able to tell all of
our
little princes and princesses”—he looked at Mimi—“that Daddy died never having suffered through a Sexy Hansel show.”
Vanessa gaped.
“They are probably just going to lip-synch and Auto-Tune everything,” Callie said to her, eager to avoid splitting up the group. Everyone else seemed game to leave except Vanessa, who stood her ground, chewing her lip.
“
Wellll
,” Vanessa said eventually, “I guess there is one more thing left on the Birkin List that we still need to do.
“Uh,” said Callie. “How are we going to pee on the John Harvard statue with all these people around?”
“Oh.” Mimi raised her eyebrows. “Some of us already took care of that one after the Pudding party last night.”
“Ugh,” Dana groaned, plugging her ears.
Callie frowned. “Well then…you can’t mean…But Widener isn’t even open today!”
Obviously her hands weren’t enough to stop the references to statue urination and library fornication, because Dana started singing loudly.
Vanessa shook her head. “We decided to take
that
one off the list since there’s still plenty of time to try before we graduate.”
“Well, then,
what
?” asked Callie.
Dana pulled her hands off of her ears. “You want to jump off that bridge, don’t you?”
The banks of the Charles River were lined with people sunning themselves, tossing Frisbees, or jogging the dirt paths along the edge of the grass. The John W. Weeks Bridge jutted out over the calm gray-blue water, connecting Cambridge to Boston. This brick and white stone structure rose less than thirty feet above the river’s surface, making it ideal for jumping.
Laughing and chattering nonstop, the inhabitants of Wigglesworth entryway C mounted the pedestrian footbridge, the grass turning to concrete beneath their feet. Callie paused halfway through their journey to the middle, turning back to stare at the Harvard campus fanning out behind them across the streets of Cambridge.
She’d survived the year. They all had, in spite of their various individual struggles, and she couldn’t ask for better friends—or a better maybe-just-might-be-the-love-of-her-life boyfriend—than
the ones who currently stood examining the bridge’s wide, white stone railing and yelling at her to hurry.
They had all climbed onto the railing by the time Callie caught up, even Dana, who didn’t look nearly as afraid as Vanessa did when she turned, motioning at Callie to join her.
Smiling, Callie hopped up onto the railing in between Gregory and Vanessa and peered down at the tiny ripples in the water below. It felt a little higher from up here than it had looked from the shore, but it definitely seemed manageable—especially in present company.
Gregory took Callie’s hand.
“Ready?” he asked, his blue eyes twinkling in the summer sun.
Callie beamed. “I am.”
And so they jumped.
LAUREN KUNZE
and
RINA ONUR
were roommates and best friends for all four years at Harvard. They graduated in 2008. They started collaborating on this book when they were juniors. They refuse to say how much of it is true.
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Cover illustration © Jonathan Hill/iStock
Lauren Kunze photo © 2010 by Scott Fitzgerrell
Rina Onur photo © 2010 by Gözde Otman
Thank you so much to everyone who has seen this series through to
Scandal
, especially if you’re a fan. I couldn’t have done it without a phenomenal team, including my editors (special shout-outs to Tim, for never tiring of all the *drama*, and to Virginia, for teaching me most of what I know about creative writing while working on that very first draft); my agents (a round of applause for Rosemary!); my family (and their undying support); and my friends—fellow Harvard alums and otherwise—who provided specific soundbites and other endless sources of inspiration (you know who you are!). Whether you’re here to reminisce about your college years or to anticipate them going forward, I hope you all had as much fun with the Ivy series as I did writing it.—L.K.
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE IVY: SCANDAL
Text copyright © 2013 by Lauren Kunze
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kunze, Lauren.
Scandal / Lauren Kunze in collaboration with Rina Onur.
p. cm. — (The Ivy ; v. 4)
“Greenwillow Books”
Summary: Callie thought she had finally worked things out and chosen the right boy but Gregory suddenly disappears with no explanation, while she continues trying to prove herself innocent of authoring the anonymous Crimson blog and leaking sensitive information.
ISBN 978-0-06-196051-2 (hardback)
[1. Harvard University—Fiction. 2. Universities and colleges—Fiction. 3. Conduct of life—Fiction. 4. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 5. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 6. Journalism—Fiction.] I. Onur, Rina. II. Title.
PZ7.K94966Sc 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2012022602
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062190192
13 14 15 16 17 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
Greenwillow Books
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*
The most drastic, damaging haircut in television history. Bad hair day? More like bad career day-turned-month-turned-years-turned…GAME. OVER. And “they” say “we” at the Pudding are superficial!