“We’ll move in with him. He’s very well-established in his community, and his house is much bigger than ours. So it wouldn’t really make sense to have him move in with us.”
Something squeezed tight in my chest, compressing my lungs. “Wait… his community?” I said, brows shooting up. “Are you saying he doesn’t live in Oakland?”
“No. He went to school with your father, remember? In Crown Point. He still lives there. He owns the hotel there along with a few other businesses, so it really wouldn’t make sense for him to move up here, would it?” Mom said. She was speaking rapidly now, obviously hoping that we could glide right over the uncomfortable parts of this conversation if she managed to spill the information fast enough.
“Now I get why you looked so worried before,” I muttered. “I thought you meant we were moving a few blocks over. Notthis.”
Crown Point was a small city on California’s Central Coast, about two hours south of Oakland. I’d never been there, but I knew all about it. Everyone did.
It was a bastion of West Coast wealth and privilege which regularly placed at the top in the annual Bloomberg wealth rankings. People generally only moved there if they were pulling in at least three hundred grand a year at their job.
Not my kind of scene at all.
“I know it’s a big deal. You’re about to start your senior year, and you’re all settled in at your current school. But Crown Point Academy is one of the best schools in the country, and George has offered to pay your tuition. He also managed to secure a spot there for you. That’s not easy for most people. We’re just fortunate that he has so many connections in the town. It’s a really great place, you know,” Mom said. She was babbling again, obviously hoping I’d roll over if she blurted out enough facts about how amazing Crown Point was compared to our home city.
I swallowed the anxious lump that was forming in my throat and looked down at my plate. “You remember how hard it was for me last time I changed schools. To do all that again in my senior year…” I paused and shook my head. “I really don’t know if I can be the new kid again. Can’t you wait until I’ve finished?”
“Kinsey, I know things were bad for you last time we moved. But that was eighth grade! Kids that age can be vicious little shits. You’re all settled in now that you’re older, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, and now you’re trying to uproot me from that,” I replied, glumly stirring my pasta. I looked up at her again. “Seriously, can’t we just wait until I graduate?”
Mom’s lips curled into a sympathetic half-smile. “I really want to make this as easy as possible for you, but that’s not something I can do. George and I don’t want to wait a whole year. We’re ready now, and we’re tired of the distance between us.”
“It’s only a two-hour drive,” I muttered.
“That means it’ll be easy for you to come back and visit all your friends.” Mom reached over and patted my hand. “Plus you’ll make a lot of new friends in Crown Point. People always love you.”
I jerked my hand away. “Mom! I’m not just worried about starting at a new school. It’s… it’s everything!”
“I’m listening, okay?” she said. “Tell me every little thing you’re worried about, and we’ll figure out a solution. I really want to make this as easy as possible for you. I know it’s a lot.”
I leaned back in my seat, hands twisting in my lap. “Okay, first off—what about your job? Or my job?”
“George is good friends with some people who own a chain of drugstores. They have three locations in Crown Point, and all of them are currently looking for new senior pharmacists, so I’ll have my pick.” She lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. “As for your job… well, it’s great that you took the initiative to earn yourself some money, but itisyour senior year coming up. I think it would be good for you to focus on studying without having to worry about working on top of it.”
“But I likeworking at the movie theater! And I can study during the quiet periods. I do it all the time. I take my books and read when there are no customers.”
Mom’s brows furrowed. “Well, I’m sorry, but I really think it would be best for your studies if you stop working altogether, because CPA is extremely competitive.”
“That’s another thing, isn’t it?” I said, heat rising in my chest and neck. “Everyone knows CPA is one of the best schools in the country. The kids who go there have the very best private tutors to help them because they have super-rich parents who can afford it. Either that or they’re genius scholarship kids. How am I supposed to compete with all of them?”
“You’re smart, Kinsey. You’ll manage.”
I sniffed and blinked rapidly, trying to stave off the tears that were suddenly welling in my eyes. “But I’m not smart. Not really. Not like those kids.”
“At the end of your last school year, your guidance counselor said you were on track to graduate as salutatorian if you kept things up this year. So youaresmart, Kinsey.”
I rubbed my forehead and sucked down a deep breath to quell the rising panic in my chest. Mom was only half-right. I performed well academically, but I wasn’t naturally gifted like some people. I had to study my ass off in order to get good grades.
I’d managed to figure out a system that worked for me at my current school, but if I had to start over at Crown Point Academy, I’d lose that familiar structure. With all the super-smart scholarship kids there, along with those who were wealthy enough to afford tutors, I could forget all about being salutatorian. I probably wouldn’t even make it into the top fifty in the class ranking.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Mom said, lifting a hand. “You’re worried that if you can’t compete with all the smart kids at CPA, it’ll affect your college apps and you’ll lose your chance at getting into a good school. But that won’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“George has connections at every Ivy League university, and all the other highly-ranked ones as well. He’ll be able to help you out.”
“So your answer to my concern is basically nepotism?”