Books Chapter 10...

Books Chapter Nine 

“So, your genius writer friend is Ellie.”

“And you are Conrad Peterson Berranger. Of THE Berrangers. Berranger Hall Berrangers. Berranger Field Berrangers.”

“At your service. Though, as my fraternity pledge story should have made you realize, I am not really in good graces with THE Berrangers right now. The fact that my father could only get me evicted from my dorm and not the entire school still makes him grind his teeth.”

“Just because you didn’t join a fraternity?”

“Just because I didn’t join HIS fraternity. Just because I looked at them and decided that they were not the sort of people I wanted to be like. He didn’t view it as a rejection of them, but as a rejection of him.” Peter paused for a moment. “And I guess it was. Or at least a rejection of the life he had planned out for me. Which if he had paid a bit of attention to me up to that point, he would have seen coming.”

“Sometimes parents are too busy planning for the lives they want for their kids to actually notice the lives their kids are living already.”

“You sound like you have experience?”

“This is going to sound bad considering, but no. I don’t actually. My mother doesn’t have big plans for me like that. She’s always been too busy with her own life to plan mine. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, like she didn’t pay attention to me, I mean, like literally. My mother always worked a full-time job, plus any extra she could get. She is a single mother, so all of the parenting fell to her. Her sisters were just as busy with their own families so even if they could help it wasn’t much. She was too focused on keeping us going to have elaborate plans for me other than get a good education.”

“And here you are.”

“And here I am. Getting the same education as Conrad Peterson Berranger of THE Berrangers.”

Peter laughed, “How often am I going to hear that?”

“Honestly? Probably a lot.”

“You know we met before, right?”

“Ellie reminded me. You did the debutante thing with Missy.”

“I was an escort, but yeah, the debutante thing.”

“You know you should be careful who you tell you used to be an escort.”

“I’m not sure telling people I did debutantes sounds much better.”

Gloria laughed, “You’ve got a point. But, yeah, Ellie reminded me that we briefly met during one of Missy’s practices.”

“Boy, you really don’t like her, do you?”

“What?”

“Missy. I’m not sure if you’re aware of it but every time you say her name your cheek tightens at the corner of your mouth. Like you are trying not to grimace but only sort of succeeding.”

“I don’t like her. She’s not very likeable. At least not to me. But she is still Ellie’s half-sister, and I try to keep that in mind. And Ellie said she’s much better than she used to be.”

“And you don’t believe that for a second.”

“Ellie would like to believe in the best in everyone. Missy is no exception. Or maybe she’d like to see the best in Missy especially. She feels a little guilty that she got to live with their dad full time while Missy only visited. And we have other history as well.”

“The camp?”

Ellie leaned back in her chair, “You know about that?”

“My sister went to Camp Wildwoods every summer. She is a little younger than Missy and a little older than you and Ellie. I was talking to her yesterday and told her that I’d run into Ellie and had you in the class I am TA for, small world, blah blah blah, and she reminded me of the camp story. Which of course we had gotten her full retelling of it as soon as she got back.”

“So much for everyone will forget by the time they get home. That’s what Ellie’s mother told us on the drive back. Or told me since I don’t think Ellie would even listen to her at that point, she was so mad.”

“Mad at her mother? Over what Missy did?”

“No, mad at her mother for not telling her. For not telling me. For allowing it to happen. Ellie has a real thing about telling the truth. No matter what. And this wasn’t even avoiding the truth. She had lied to both of us. She had reasons, but it was still a lie. And for Ellie the rest of it didn’t matter. The lie was what was the biggest problem.”

“I remember that about her as a kid. She was the most honest little kid out there. And Missy was, well. Missy.”

“Missy never stood a chance. Ellie’s mother, the camp story aside, is one of the best people I know. Always striving to do the best she can to help others. She views it as her responsibility. She was born into some money, then married into more. She always viewed it as her job to use it wisely. Missy’s mother also was born into money, more than Ellie’s mother, and married into more, and then even more. And she viewed it as her job to remind people that she had more than they did. Or at least that’s how it seemed to me.”

“I am familiar with that use of money.”

“Berranger Hall. Berranger Field.”

“And that’s just here. There are Berranger nameplates all over the city. Never do a good deed if you don’t get the naming rights.”

Gloria’s phone chimed, “Shoot, I’ve got to get to work. We didn’t really cover anything but old gossip today, I’m going to leave you my revised paper. I think it’s ready to submit. Just shoot me a message letting me know what you think.”

“Work? I didn’t know you were working.”

“I just got the job last week. It’s technically my summer plan, but I’m training a few nights a week and covering some weekends until the end of the semester. The scholarship covers school expenses but if I want to stop relying on Ellie for my snacks, I need to get some money in the bank.”

Gloria packed up her things and headed out. She was really looking forward to her first day in the bookstore. She had already spent so much time there that people assumed she was a clerk. It was an easy yes when Adele asked her if she wanted a job. Of course, this was going to mean less time hanging out in the massive comfy chairs reading and more time restocking shelves and answering questions but still, working with books was her idea of a perfect summer.

She shook her head and smiled thinking of the other perfect summers she and Ellie had spent at Camp Wildwoods. Missy hadn’t completely ruined that for her, even though she had tried.