When the door opens, Kat looks surprised.
“Hi,” she says. “What…?”
“New roommate,” the RA says. “Be nice to each other.”
She walks away, and I stand in front of Kat, confused. She looks unsure, too.
“They told me I’m getting someone new since my roommate decided to study from home instead. I didn’t know the new girl is…you.”
“I didn’t know I’m being moved until right now,” I admit, and then I laugh, shaking my head. “This is crazy. They shouldn’t know about me. I have no idea what’s going on.”
We’re barely inside the room when a man in a button-up shirt and slacks appears at the door.
“Raina Walsh?” he asks.
I freeze. He’s using my real name. He knows who I am.
“That’s you, right?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say in a small voice. Everything is out of control. I don’t know what’s going on.
“This is for you.” He hands me a thick manila envelope. The label on it has my name printed in capitals.
“What is this?” I ask.
“Your papers,” he says and leaves before I can ask him what the papers are for.
I stare at Kat.
“What are you waiting for?”
“What if these papers are…bad?”
Kat shakes her head. “They can’t bite you. Better that you find out what’s going on and get it over with. You can’t deal with what you don’t know.”
She’s right, but it’s easier said than done. Her life is perfect. Everything is aboveboard. She’s had a crappy childhood with no money at all, but she’s never had to keep running. She’s right, though.
I tear open the envelope and take out the papers. I frown, trying to figure out if the words really mean what I think they mean.
“What is it?” Kat asks, coming to me. She looks over my shoulder.
“Raina…what is this?” She grabs the papers from me and starts paging through. “These are enrollment papers.” She keeps paging.
“With my name on them?” I’m confused. Nothing makes sense. Everything should be falling apart because that’s what my life is like. Nothing good lasts forever. It’s usually a façade. But somehow, things aren’t falling apart. They’re…fallingtogether.
Kat looks up at me, her eyes glittering.
“This is real,” she says. “You’re officially a student here!” She frowns. “Your grades are going to need some help, you know, catching up and whatever. But you can do that. I know you can.” She shakes her head finally. “I don’t get it; who would have done something like this?”
“I don’t know,” I say. But that’s not true. I know exactly who did it. There’s only one person whocanpull off something like this, one person who knows what my situation is.
One person who owes me something.
My stomach twists and I feel sick.
“I have to go,” I say.
“Where?” Kat asks.