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“Goddamn orphans,” Sean mumbled. “We’re going to be here all night.”
Rory clicked to the next spread and pointed to another singular word at the end of a paragraph, the “orphan” that stood out like a sore thumb. She heard the entire staff groan, a few soft mumbles of disbelief. Rory glanced at the clock above the computer lab door—9:37. It had been the longest day of her life, and seeing how they were only three quarters of the way through approving the yearbook spreads, it was far from over. They hadn’t even reached the senior section yet.
She sighed, looking over at Penelope, who had her face in her hands. “Okay, how about this. Given that the way the text looks on each page seems to be an issue, we’ll divide pages to each staff editor to fix right now, and we”—she pointed to Penelope, Vanessa, and Sean—“can approve the rest of the spreads for the book.”
She heard staff editors sigh with relief, a few thank gods murmured among them as Penelope assigned pages for each editor to fix. As the team dispersed, Rory joined the other leaders around Penelope’s computer.
“Before we dive in, just want to triple check that we’re all good for prom night,” Penelope said. “Sean, I reserved a ticket for you so you don’t have to pay since you’re technically working all night. Just find me when you check in.”
Sean’s cheeks went pink. “Any chance we can make that two tickets?”
Penelope raised a brow, causing Vanessa to giggle to herself.
“I—well,” he said, stuttering slightly under Penelope’s razor-sharp gaze. “I have someone who offered to help me and I—”
“The senior pages are orphan-free,” Gina interrupted, sliding next to Rory with a mischievous grin on her face. “Also, he’s lying, he asked me to go with him.”
Sean’s face went from pink to red as Penelope rolled her eyes. “Will you actually be helping him, or will you serve as a distraction?” she asked Gina.
Gina winked. “Both.”
“That’s my girl,” Rory said, high-fiving her teammate.
“Alright fine, as long as you get the photos in by the end of the night, I don’t care,” Penelope said. “Vee, how are things looking with the printers?”
Gina leaned in closer to Rory as Vanessa began briefing Penelope about print proofs and shipment dates. “Hey, have you talked to Helen lately?”
She cocked her head. “No, Helen and I never really hang outside of soccer stuff.”
“Gotcha,” Gina said, chewing her lip in concentration.
Rory frowned. “Is everything alright?”
Gina looked around the group to make sure no one was listening before turning her attention back to Rory. “So apparently she turned down her scholarship to play at Northeastern.”
Her eyes went wide. “You’re kidding.”
“Yeah, and her parents are, like, furious.”
“Where does she plan on going?”
“She told me she’s going to Barnard instead.”
“Do they even have a team?”
Gina shrugged. “Yeah, through Colombia. But she said she’s not playing at all.”
She shook her head, completely baffled. “That makes no sense. She hasn’t shut up about wanting to play college soccer since I met her in middle school.”
“Right? It doesn’t make sense to me, either. I’m wondering what’s behind it—”
“Hey,” Penelope snapped (her fingers literally snapping in front of Rory’s face). “Did you hear me?”
“Um, no?” she said, flustered. “Sorry.”
“I asked if you and Vanessa are still good to work on the spreads after prom.”
Prom. Images of Tyler and Zoe this morning flashed before her eyes, the way the school cheered for them. The idea of having to watch that all night, of having to somehow find a date that wasn’t Tyler…it made her want to scream. It made her not want to go. At all.
