Sunday, July 3

PARIS to AMSTERDAM

The train from Paris to Amsterdam left late at night, so it was completely dark out as they made their way between countries. Rae sat by herself, a sketchbook open in her lap, tapping her pen against the page. Gabe and Clara were across the aisle from her, and Aubrey and Jonah were in the row in front, all of them asleep.

Rae kept tapping her pen. And she kept thinking about yesterday. She thought about how she’d told Aubrey to leave Gabe alone, and she thought about how unbelievably stupid that was. Of course Aubrey shouldn’t leave Gabe alone! Rae should have told her to kick his ass for saying he didn’t want to be friends anymore.

No. Actually, Rae should be the one kicking his ass. She was Aubrey’s best friend—that kind of stuff was her job.

Clara slid into the free seat beside her, kicking off her flip-flops and pulling up her legs. “What are you working on?” she asked.

Rae looked over in shock. “Nothing,” she said. “Well, nothing serious.” Which was true—so far, it was only a few rough palm trees and the skeleton of a boat floating on a river.

“No, it’s perfect.” Clara leaned over the paper to get a better look. Her hair was pulled into a side braid with a few strands that must have fallen loose while she slept. Rae could smell the orange and raspberry perfume Clara always wore. That morning, she’d put some on standing in front of the hotel mirror, and it had lingered in the room until they had to leave.

“What about you?” Rae cleared her throat. “What have you been doing?”

“Sleeping. But I should be sketching like you. I have this idea for a series of mermaid-themed dresses—real mermaid dresses, with glittery tails and seashells sewn into them and everything. But I don’t know. I think maybe it’s a little over the top.”

“That’s still cool,” Rae said.

Clara sighed. “I keep imagining myself walking in on the first day of school and just… not knowing what to do. Not even knowing how to use a pen or a pair of scissors.”

“Never gonna happen.” Rae shifted so her back was against the window. The train hummed against her skin.

“Maybe I’ll have to transfer,” Clara said. “My parents would love that. Where do you think I should go? Somewhere else in California, right?”

Rae tossed the cap of her pen at her. “Stop being so negative. You’re not going to transfer. I won’t allow it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Aubrey sat up in front of them.

“Oh my God,” Rae said. “Wasn’t everyone asleep, like, two seconds ago?”

“I was.” Aubrey yawned. “But your mom keeps texting me. She told me to tell you to turn on your phone.”

“My phone is turned on. It’s also on silent.”

“So tell her yourself.”

Rae took out her phone and saw a series of photographs that Lucy had been sending her, all of them of an apartment decorated with sea-green furniture and vases of white flowers. The text read: Melbourne apartment. Could rent for all of December. What do you think???

Rae typed back, yeah, mom, looks cool.

Her mom’s response: NOT ENTHUSIASTIC ENOUGH!

YEAH, MOM! LOOKS COOL! Rae tossed the phone back in her bag.

“I still can’t believe it,” Clara said. “In less than two weeks, you’ll be in Australia. You’re going to have the coolest life.”

“I’m spending the next six months with my mom,” Rae said. “How is that the coolest life?”

“Lucy’s cool,” Aubrey said. “She’s definitely cooler than my parents.” There was a whooshing sound as someone opened the door connecting their carriage to the next. It closed, and the train went quiet again.

“And mine,” Clara said. “The most fun pre-college activity we have planned is making Rose come from Stanford so we can all go shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond.”

“Sure,” Rae said. “But that’s because your parents are reasonable adults.”

Aubrey reached over to prod Rae’s shoulder. “Lucy’s an adult.”

“She was nineteen when I was born.”

“So?” Aubrey poked her again. “She raised you by herself. She moved you back to London, and now she’s moving you to Australia. You can’t diss that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rae said, pretending to be exasperated. But honestly, she knew Aubrey was right. Her parents had dated for a while when they were both students at the University of Georgia, but they were never serious, and her dad was firmly out of the picture long before Rae was born. And here was the truth: Rae was fine with that. She liked the weird life she had with her mom—their house full of junk, and Lucy’s tiny antique store, and the small studio space in their guesthouse where Rae would sit with Iorek and do homework while her mom painted.

“Anyway.” Clara’s eyes went mischievous. “Rae just wants her mom out of the picture so she can find an Australian girl to fall in loooove with.”

“Well,” Aubrey said, “that’s definitely true.”

“Ugh.” Rae slid down against the window. “Why does everyone really enjoy making fun of me?”

“We’re not making fun of you,” Clara said. “We’re talking about how much crush potential is in your very near future.”

“Remember the California art-school guys?” Rae said. “Can’t we talk about them?”

Clara waved one hand to the side. “But I want to talk about Melbourne girls. Hot, artsy Melbourne girls with cute accents and tattoos.”

“Not my type,” Rae said dismissively. But the thing was, she had wondered about this before: What would happen if she met someone in Australia? Before Clara, she actually used to like having crushes. She liked the butterflies-in-her-stomach feeling whenever she ran into one of them; she liked the rush she felt every time they had a conversation or not-so-accidentally touched. And she liked obsessing over those crushes with her friends—texting Aubrey the second she saw Jane Carpenter at an art supply store in Covent Garden, or running up to Clara’s locker sophomore year when she’d just had a five-minute conversation with the pretty senior girl in her ceramics class. This was another reason Australia was a good thing. Distance would help her get over Clara, and then she could finally be open with her friends again.

The train started to slow down.

“You’ll see,” Clara said. “You’re going to meet so many cool girls. Way cooler than the entire population of LAS combined.”

“Oh yeah. I can already see it,” Rae deadpanned. “Get in line, ladies.”

Clara tipped her head to the side as a few people in surrounding seats began to get up and stretch. She seemed to be contemplating something. “Rae,” she said, “you do realize you’re kind of a babe, right?”

Rae’s pulse raced. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a question form on Aubrey’s face. And seriously, she had no idea what to make of any of this. Was Clara flirting with her? Had Aubrey noticed? Rae knew how to handle flirting, but she had no clue how to handle flirting with Clara.

In front of Aubrey.

She racked her brain, trying to come up with something to say, but luckily, she didn’t have to.

The train let out one final breath before clunking to a stop.

They’d arrived in Amsterdam.