Page 90 of First Impressions of You

The moment the door opens, Julia and I all but lunge at our sister.

Her bright smile comes out before any words.

“I’m officially innocent. My academic record has been cleared, and I’m fully reinstated at Elysian’s student body,” she proclaims the words as if reciting them back from what the dean told her.

We hug her in celebration, relief washing over us.

She turns to Winter after we let her go. “Thank you for coming to my defense,” she says weakly.

“Of course.” He gives her smile and a quick nod.

“And I’m sorry,” she utters under her breath.

Winter frowns at her. “What for?”

“Well…” She stretches the word, cocking her head in shame. “I might have said a few not-so-nice things about you to a few people around Movieland.”

He laughs, those dimples I love so much making an appearance.

“I bet you weren’t the only one.” He shrugs. “As long as you don’t still have those opinions about me…” His voice trails off.

“No, of course not.”

He chuckles. “Then we’re good.”

We make our way downstairs, and Winter offers to drive us home, so we all follow him to the parking lot. When we’re almost to his black Jeep, Olivia stops and tips her head to the sky, breathing out a sigh of relief. Her eyes roam around, taking in the campus around her. The campus where now she will be able to stay for the next three and a half years.

The she stops and looks at us. A mischievous smile on her face.

“Well, okay. Now that that is out of the way,” she says so matter-of-factly, I turn to her with a suspecting frown. “I guess I can tell you I’ve been officially nominated for the Golden Quill Awards.” She chuckles, but there’s a hint of nervousness there. “It would’ve been a bit awkward if this hadn’t gone my way,” she finishes pointing with her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the dean’s office.

“Olivia,” I yelp her name. Then, I repeat it more softly, my voice laced with admiration. “Olivia.”

Julia and I hug her at the same time as we congratulate her, and Winter waits by the sides, letting us have our sisterly moment.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Julia asks.

“I…” she hesitates. “I was afraid they’d withdraw the nomination if I couldn’t prove my innocence.”

We don’t question her reasoning. The fear of having something so huge be taken from you is something I’m well familiar with. It dawns on me how much she had riding on this talk with the dean. And how Winter’s help might’ve changed the course of her life.

Fighting the sudden wave of emotions that threaten to cascade down on me, I shake her lovingly.

“Holy shit, you’re a Golden Quill Award nominee!”

Julia smiles at my sudden outburst. “When is the ceremony?”

“January twenty-seventh,” Olivia answers.

My heart plummets inside me. My visa expires in the middle of January. Her awards ceremony has just joined the ever-growing list of invaluable things I’ll miss once I return to Brazil if I fail to secure a visa sponsorship.

I don’t mention it, though. I don’t think she’s realized that the date falls after I’m due to leave the country. So I keep it to myself and let my sister celebrate her moment the way she deserves it.

In fact, I realize there’s something else I can do to make her celebration even better.

We drop Julia and Olivia at our apartment, and I ask Winter if I can go to his house. He doesn’t even ask me why, he just drives.

As soon as we arrive, I take a deep breath and find my mom’s contact on my cellphone, pressing the videocall button.

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