Tess tossed her backpack onto her bed. She had some time before 5, when she could text Miguel. She noticed her mom had brought in a laundry basket of clean, folded clothes for her, so she spent some time putting her laundry away and then took the empty basket back to the laundry room.

When she got back to her room, Tess sat on the bed and opened up her social media accounts just to see what was going on. It was always a weird experience checking Facebook now that she'd moved away from home. She didn't have many friends in Virginia yet—she had, in fact, only friended Rebecca so far, not even Jacqui yet—and so most of her news feed was made up of photos and updates from her old Minnesotan friends.

After the accident, Tess had taken a leave from school, and most of her acquaintances had not made much of an effort to keep in touch. Even some of Tess's friends had distanced themselves from her, and Willow, Tess's best friend of all, had proven not to be very supportive, brushing off Tess's struggles with anxiety and depression. They hadn't broken up, exactly, but they had grown apart, and every interaction with Willow had left Tess feeling a nameless longing for something she knew she'd no longer be able to find in their friendship.

She scrolled down her feed, looking at photos of Gemma and Carey from choir class, selfies of Brittany and Britney and Bree, a rant about algebra from Ashton, and dog pictures from Devin.

Then, Tess's heart stopped. She'd scrolled across some pictures of Willow and a brunette girl, both of them in adorable bikinis. The post was captioned BIRTHDAY POOL PARTY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BESTIE ELEANDRA LOVE U GIRL!!!

Seeing all those beautiful people living their lives in a world Tess had left behind was surreal. She didn't exactly miss them, but she missed belonging to them. She'd always been shy, but they had been her people, her community...and now they weren't. Even Willow had moved on to crown a new best friend without ever saying a word to Tess.

It was weird, and it was depressing. Tess stared for a while at Willow's pretty, smiling face. Then, on impulse, she searched for Jacqui's name. When she came across a profile image of a pair of purple Converse sneakers, she knew she'd found the right Jacqui. She sent a friend request. After the request was successfully sent, she felt a little better.

Tess thought of friending Isaac, too, but creeping on his Facebook would probably consume a lot of time—time she didn't have. She promised herself that she'd request to friend him later when she had time to browse through his photos and posts and learn more about him. She set her phone aside and searched her backpack for her Lit assignment: a Puritan sermon from her text book, which was a brief departure from Hawthorne.

After what felt like hours, Clarette's voice broke into Tess's studies. "Everything all right in here, honey?"

Looking up, Tess sighed. "I feel like I'm being punished," she said, holding up her heavy literature textbook. "'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.' This is torture."

"Yikes." Clarette walked in and sat down beside Tess, peering over her shoulder to read for a few moments. "Yikes again. Just be glad we aren't Puritans. Need anything?"

"I was just about to come get some lemonade."

"I'll bring you some. You keep working. Do you want the fan on? It's warm in here."

Tess smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Mom. Hey, Ms. Keene gave me the tutor's number today. I'm gonna text him at 5:00."

Tess's mom glanced at her wrist watch—she was one of the few people Tess knew who still wore one—and raised her eyebrows. "Then you better text him, Tess. It's 5:07."

"Wow. I was just so absorbed in this riveting promise of eternal damnation," Tess muttered, pushing her book away.

Clarette raised a brow. "Amusing, honey, but please never let me hear you say anything like that to your grandmother. She's on heart medication." On her way out, Clarette flipped the switch that turned on the ceiling fan, and a cooling breeze began to waft through the room.

Tess reached for her phone and pulled the white envelope with Miguel's contact information out of her pocket. She unfolded the paper and stared at it for a minute, feeling uncertain and anxious. How did one begin a conversation with a stranger like this?

She opened a new message and entered Miguel's number into the "To" field. Then she spent about five minutes typing, deleting, and re-typing until she settled on what she hoped was a humble, professional message.

[TESS] Hello. This is Tess Morrison. Ms. Keene gave me your number. She said you are an English tutor who might be willing to help me out.

The door swung open, and Tess's mom stepped in with a tall glass of icy lemonade. "Here you go, honey. I'll just set it on your night stand."

"Thanks, Mom."

"No problem. Your dad's home, so we're going to be making dinner; I'll call you down when it's ready."

"Cool." Tess was about to ask what they were having when her phone buzzed. She snatched it up from the blanket and swiped to open the message as her mom headed back down the hall.

[804-555-4423] Hey Tess, it's Miguel. Yes, Ms. Keene called me today and I'm happy to help if I can. When can you meet?

Tess hadn't even thought about the details yet.

[TESS] I don't have much free time during the day. Any chance you would have evening hours?

[804-555-4423] That actually works great. Tonight is probably short notice. What about tomorrow?

[TESS] Sure, where should we meet?

Tess was pretty sure the school was locked after hours, and the library was probably not open much later than that. It took Miguel a few minutes to respond. As she waited, Tess went ahead and added his number as a contact into her phone.

[MIGUEL] Would it be OK to meet at your house/apt? It might be easier for you.

Tess considered how to respond to this unexpected request. As she frowned at her screen, she saw Miguel typing again.

[MIGUEL] If it's easier to talk by phone, feel free to call. I'd be happy to chat with your parents if they have ?s.

Ugh, of course he wanted a phone call. Tess threw her head back onto the pillow with a sigh, feeling anxious about the whole situation all over again. Talking by phone, especially with strangers, was the absolute worst.

But he was right—it would be easier to work out the details by phone. Before she could over-think it, tapped into his contact and tapped to call. The screen darkened immediately as a phone call was initiated.

He picked up after just one ring. "Hello, this is Miguel."

"Hi," Tess said. She cleared her throat to make her voice come through more clearly. "Hi, it's Tess."

There was some noise in the background, like a bunch of people talking and laughing, and Tess could hear the smile in Miguel's voice when he responded. "Hey, Tess! Nice to sort of meet you. Sorry if it's loud. I'm at the dining hall."

"Oh, I'm sorry—I didn't mean to interrupt you—"

"You're not interrupting at all. So, um, tomorrow work for you?"

"I think so, it's just I didn't really know where we'd be meeting and I'm not sure—you know, I just have to ask my parents about you coming here and stuff, but I think it would be fine." Tess hesitated. When she was on the phone, she rambled, and she knew she sounded scatter-brained. "I'll just ask them now."

"That would be great. I don't want to inconvenience you; I just didn't know if you'd want to come to the college campus. It can be hard to get around. I don't want to make you go out of your way."

Tess wasn't sure how to respond to that. It was really nice of him to consider her like that; trying to make her way around a college campus as a high school student did sound intimidating. As she made her way down the stairs to the kitchen, she said, "I'll just ask them."

"Great." A muffled crunch sounded on the other side of the line. "Sorry, I haven't eaten all day. I'll try not to munch in your ear."

Tess rounded the corner into the kitchen. "Don't worry about it. Hey, Mom? Miguel is wondering if we could do the tutoring stuff here, would that be okay?"

Clarette looked over at Tess from the stove. She was stirring something in a big stock pot. "That sounds great, honey. I thought he'd want you to come over to the high school?"

"No, he's a college student, remember? But he said he'd be fine coming to us. Do you want to talk to him?"

Tess's mom set her wooden spoon down on the spoon rest and came over to Tess, holding out her hand. Tess turned the phone over.

"Hello?" said Clarette. "...Hi, Miguel. This is Clarette Morrison, Tess's mom. ...Sure. ...Mmhmm. ...I don't see why not. It's really sweet of you to come over our way. ...Excellent. How's 6:00? ...All right. Have a good night. Here's Tess."

Taking her phone back, Tess exchanged a smile with her mom. "Miguel?"

"Yep. Your mom suggested tomorrow at 6—sound good to you, Tess?"

"Sure. That's great." Tess headed back toward her room.

"I just wanted to double check: you're going to need some help with your lit class and also a composition class, right?"

"Yeah. Right now in Senior English we're doing a research paper, and then in Lit we're reading The Scarlet Letter and some other Puritan stuff. English isn't really the easiest thing for me. I just need Help with a capital H."

Miguel laughed. "Okay, I'll definitely bring the capital H. I look forward to meeting you tomorrow, Tess."

"Good night. Enjoy your dinner."

"I always do. 'Night!"

Entering her bedroom again, Tess tapped to end the call and set her phone aside on the night stand. That had gone better than expected; he seemed nice. She was looking forward to meeting him in person the following night.