Page 21 of Switch!
“Do you think you’ll miss Wyoming?”
I’m about to ask what she means when I get another impression. A familiar one.
June thirteenth.
“I’m moving.” I don’t mean to say it out loud. I’m not sure what to make of the revelation except, “I can’t believe it!”
“It must be hard to at times,” Ashley says. “You’re lucky. Seattle is an amazing city.”
“Seattle?”
“You won’t be far from there, you said. What was the name of the city?”
Tacoma.
“Tacoma.”
Ashley nods. “It’s a half-hour drive from there, right? That’ll be fun.”
“I guess so.”
“Cheer up,” she says. “I’d love to escape from Wyoming. As soon as I graduate, I’m never looking back.”
“Where will you go?”
She looks over at me sharply. “You don’t remember? We talked about this. Or texted.”
No helpful impressions surface to bail me out. “Sorry,” I say. “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”
“I bet. I want to see the East Coast. I have family out there, including my sister, so I won’t be totally alone. I’m hoping to get into Johns Hopkins and do the whole medical thing. If they accept me.”
“They will,” I say instantly. “They’d be crazy not to.”
Ashley is peering at me suspiciously. “Is this the real you? Or is this an act?”
I swallow. “What do you mean?”
Ashley shakes her head and studies her feet. Her legs are hanging over the tailgate. I reach over with my foot to stop them kicking.
“Tell me,” I say.
“You don’t have the best reputation.”
“Oh. I guess I don’t.”
“If it’s not true, then I understand. People have said some mean things about me. Elliot’s ankle though… That’s more than just a rumor.”
How can I even begin to explain? “It was a bad situation.”
“Bad how?”
“We were picking on this kid. Travis Anderson.” I glance over to see her reaction, which is minimal. “Ever heard of him?”
She nods. “He’s a good guy. Why were you picking on him?”
“I don’t know. I guess we got carried away, and I wanted it to stop. So I made sure it did.”
Ashley frowns. “By stomping on Elliot’s ankle until it broke?”
