I squeeze my eyes shut at the thought of all his crew, basically my adopted family. “All right.Sure.”
“Good. We love you,kid.”
“Love you too, Dad. And tell Sophie I miss her.” My throat works as I hangup.
Before I can push my door in, the door next to mineopens.
“That sounded strained.” Elle leans against the doorjamb, nodding at my phone. “Yourparents?”
“My dad,” I admit. “I need a way to show him coming to Vanier was the rightdecision.”
As I say the words, a lightbulb goesoff.
There’s no sign of Rae as I go to my computer and print somethingoff.
“Fall showcase?” Elle scoffs when I stick the poster over mybed.
“I’m going to get in. No,” I decide, “I’m going toclose.”
Her brows hit her hairline. “You have any idea how you’re going to execute thiscoup?”
“Not yet,” I admit. “But I’ll figure it out. I didn’t come all this way fornothing.”
I glance at Rae’s bed, the shelf over the headboard. “Wait, weren’t there more of thosedolls?”
Elle crosses the room, inspecting the shelf. “You’re right. There was one with hair just like yours. She asked to borrow my scissorstoo…”
I stare her down. “Okay, you’re shittingme.”
With the exception of Leo’s last night, when Rae disappeared and was still gone when Elle and I returned to the dorms, I’ve barely seenher.
“I don’t think she’s planning to voodoo you in yoursleep.”
“Ugh. I’m not so sure.” I drop onto my bed and clutch the stuffed Flounder Haley got me afterThe Little Mermaid. It’s a bittersweet reminder ofhome.
Elle’s face appears over mine. “You’ve never had someone not like youbefore?”
“Yes, but…” I’d always figured it was because I was Jax Jamieson’s daughter and I didn’t meet what they expected of me. “Not someone who shares my towelrack.”
Elle laughs, dropping down onto the bed next tome.
“What’s so funny?” Idemand.
“You think people liking you or not is about you? It’s about them. Let me guess—you have a lot ofdamage.”
“A lifetime’s worth in eighteen years,” Iconfirm.
She nods. “Now imagine everyone in this entire place is walking around with the same damage.” My brows shoot up, but she holds up a hand. “For every scar you’ve got, every mean girl story, every ‘daddy hates me’ and ‘I’m not enough’ and ‘it should’ve been different’”—my chest tightens at how scarily accurate she is—“they have one too. So does Rae. I promiseyou.”
I turn that over. “You seem reasonablyunscathed.”
Elle smiles, pointing to her face. “It’s the brows. You keep your eyebrow game on point, the world thinks you have your shittogether.”
I huff out a breath as I stroke Flounder’s blue-and-yellow fur, thinking of Oakwood. “I’m not the best at making newfriends.”
“Because you’re into voodootoo?”
I throw the fish at her head, and she catches it,laughing.