“No,” Lane says. “We’re here to see you off. You leave tomorrow, right?”
“Yes, but I’ll only be gone for a week. I’ll be back.”
“If you don’t fall in love with a hot Icelandic guy,” Franklin says. “Or girl.”
“Right,” I say, rolling my eyes. “I can’t really chat though. I have to pack.”
“That’s okay. We can support you while you’re packing,” Nicole says, and the entire group of them follows me into my room.
My bedroom is plenty big enough for one person but not seven. Eddy joins us too. They keep the path from my small closet, dresser, and bed clear as they cram into the rest of the room to watch me. Not awkward at all.
“But seriously, are you going to fall in love with a foreign hottie?” Franklin asks.
“How can he predict that?” Wulfe asks.
“I’m not going to have time to fall in love,” I assure them. “We’re going to be busy. This isn’t a leisure trip.”
“But you’re still going to have free time, aren’t you?”
I shrug one shoulder as I begin piling clothing into my suitcase. We’ve received several emails over the last four months with details about the trip, suggestions on what to pack, and lots of other things. They’ve been great to read.
One of the things they noted is that I should stick to a single medium suitcase to be checked on the plane and a backpack for a personal item. We’ll be provided with something that we’ll be bringing with us as a carry-on, though I have no idea what that means.
Though it’s nearly spring in Iceland, I’m told the weather might as well still be winter. I’m supposed to pack for cold weather. The problem is that cold-weather clothing is far bigger and thicker than warm-weather clothing. Stuffing a week’s worth of warm clothes into a suitcase requires skills I’m not sure I have. So for now, I stack everything on top to make sure Isatisfy the list of required items. I’ll worry about stuffing them into the suitcase once I’m sure I have everything necessary.
“Yes,” I answer eventually. “There’s some free time scheduled in.” I don’t mention the assignment from Coach, though I think I’ll be using my free time to write that paper. He didn’t tell me how long it needs to be. “There’s also some exploring we’ll be doing together.”
“That’s so cool,” Nicole says with a sigh. “I’m jealous.”
Lane gets up with a huff and pushes my clothes to the side. I watch him for a minute as he begins tightly folding all my stuff and fitting it perfectly into the suitcase. After a minute, I say, “You’re going to need to send me a diagram so I can fit it all in on the way home.”
He snorts.
“Do you get to hang out with the students at the other school?” Horace asks.
“Yeah. They’re not on Spring Break that week, so they’ll all be there. We get to see a real week at their school. That should be cool. To see what they do differently.”
“Do they have a football team?” Wulfe asks.
I shrug. “Dunno. I think they have some sports, but I don’t know what they are.”
“This isAmericanfootball,” Franklin says. “There’s a chance that they only have soccer.”
His words make me flinch, making me question again why I was chosen. Why have a football player when they don’t even have that sport?
After talking to Coach, I decided that there’s one thing I need to keep reminding myself of—they chose me. They saw something in my Coach-written application and chose me. That means that no matter what I do, I need to make sure I don’t let them down. I need to live up to the expectations that someone better suited for this position would be able to achieve easily.
For now, I need to forget the idea that choosing me is a mistake and prove to them they chose the right person. Then again, they don’t doubt that they chose the right person. I doubt that. So maybe I need to prove to myself that they did.
I’m used to struggling to prove myself wrong. No matter how many times I think a class is over my head, I hunker down, get extra help with studying, and prove to myself that I can make it through the class.
I’ll just have to approach this the same way. Maybe I don’t feel like I’m the best candidate for a student ambassador. That means I’m just going to have to prove myself wrong. Prove the people who supported my application and chose me right.
That shouldn’t be too difficult, right? It’s something I do all the time. Just because this is a completely different set of circumstances doesn’t mean I’m going to fail. As with most things in my life, failure isn’t an option.
I take a breath and force all the negative thoughts and voices from my head. There’s no time for that. Tomorrow begins early, and I need to make them proud.
CHAPTER 6
