Page 9 of Escape Velocity
What is he missing to make him feel like he actually deserves where he is and that he belongs?
3
MASON
After a weekendof hyping himself up to go do it, and his mom’s incessant pestering about how the paper is going, Mason finally drags his feet into Montgomery’s journalism building.
He had jumped the gun and taken a journalism elective in his first semester, knowing that he was aiming for a spot on the team forThe Goldberg, Montgomery’s school paper.
“You’re not seriously thinking of going for the paper, right?”
Jenna takes a sip of her latte as she walks alongside him down the linoleum hallways.
Mason sighs. “I have to; I don’t have any other choice.”
“You can just pretend that you got in, no? If you can say you’re going to major in journalism, then you can lie about that too.”
He shakes his head. “My parents are getting each issue ofThe Goldbergmailed to their doorstep, and if my name isn’t in those pages, they’ll know.”
“But—”
Mason groans. “Jenna, there’s no way around this. I liedto them about my major being journalism, and the only way to get around it is actually pretending like I’m in it.”
Jenna shakes her head. “But we already discussed this. They’ll find out eventually, even if you somehow manage to hide it until graduation in four years.”
Mason scratches his arm. “I—I know, that’s just a… future-Mason problem.”
Jenna takes an unconvinced sip of her latte. They stop in front of the door toThe Goldberg’s office.
He blows out a breath and shakes his hands like he’s about to run a race.
“I got this. I can do this,” he tells himself.
Jenna smirks. “You were the chief editor of the Northwood High paper. I think you’re fine, Mase.”
He closes his eyes and nods. He knows that, but college is a whole other beast, and he’s competing against other journalism students. What if he doesn’t get in? His parents will surely find out about everything he’s lying about.
“Plus, your mom’s an editor forThe Meridian Tribune, and your dad’s a prolific writer; just by your last name alone they’ll have to take you on.”
Mason winces as Jenna tries to make him feel better. He wants to get in on his own merits, even if it’s something he doesn’t want to do in the first place. Getting into the paper based on his parents’ legacies will just make things worse.
“I refuse to be a nepotism baby,” he mumbles.
Jenna puts her hands on his shoulders and spins him around. “Then get in there and show them what Mason is made of.”
She gives him a shove, and he fumbles into the room. He whips his head around to glare at Jenna, but she just smiles and waves at him.
It’s too late to leave now. He whirls around and inhalessharply. Everyone’s busy, their eyes on their computers or their noses in newspapers. They all look much older and more experienced than he does. He’s a phony to even think he belongs here.
He thinks back to what Callum said the other day with his stupid smirk and stupid raven-black hair about how Mason hasn’t changed.
He could see that Mason hadn’t grown in the year since they last saw each other. Going after a college newspaper is a large step, and he might not have what it takes to cover new ground.
But he can change. He has to prove Callum wrong.
He searches the desks, looking for some kind of emblem to let him know who the chief editor is.
He walks up to a desk of a dark-haired girl with glasses that take up her whole face and perch on the bridge of her nose.
