The first person to say something to me Monday morning at school was a girl with red hair and braces. She’d looked at me as we passed in the hall, then did a double take. “Hey! I saw you last night. Congratulations!”
I waved in confusion and kept walking.
The next was a guy from my math class two years ago. His name was Lincoln. “They said you went to our school. I didn’t believe it. But here you are. Can I borrow five bucks?” He laughed at his own joke and rotated to face me as I kept walking.
Then my phone started dinging with notifications. People from school were tagging me with congratulatory messages. My followers on each of my accounts were increasing exponentially.
I ducked around the first corner I came to and dialed my mom.
She answered on the fourth ring. “Hey, baby¸ I’m at work so be fast.”
“Did the news run the story?”
“What?”
“That news reporter that called you? You told him I didn’t want to do the story, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I think they went ahead with it anyway.”
She let out a little grunt. “Oh no. I’m sorry. I didn’t think about the fact that they might run it without the interview.”
“Why did they wait a week to air it?”
“I didn’t watch the piece. Maybe they did other interviews and had to coordinate those, or follow up with their facts to make sure they were correct. I don’t know. Are you okay?” Mom asked.
“Yes, I will be. I think. I was just surprised.”
“I have to run. We’ll talk more about this at home,” she said.
“Okay.”
I hung up and texted Elise and Blaire: Meet me in the library. Stat.
Two more people called out “Congrats!” to me on my walk to the library. I kept my head down and practically ran.
Both Elise and Blaire were waiting in the tiled entry when I walked in.
“Is everything okay?” Blaire asked.
“Did you watch the news last night?”
“No,” Blaire said.
Elise shook her head.
“I think they did a story about me.”
“What kind of story?” Blaire asked.
“Is that a real question?”
She scowled. “About the lottery?”
“Yes.”
Elise grabbed my hand in support. “What makes you think that?”
“The half a dozen people who’ve said hi to me this morning.”
“That’s not normal?” Elise asked with a laugh.
My phone dinged again with an Instagram message. It was a picture of the back of me, taken minutes ago in the hall. The caption: The lottery winner goes to my school!
I held up my phone so they could both see. “Guys, I’m freaking out here.”
Elise forced a serious face. “Sorry.”
“Let’s talk this through,” Blaire said. “Let’s say they ran a story about you last night. What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my phone. “The entire school starts talking to me.”
“That’s the worst?”
“Or maybe someone kidnaps me and demands I pay them millions of dollars to let me free.”
Elise nodded slowly. “That’s a better worst-case scenario.”
“Do you think that’s ever happened to a lottery winner before?”
Blaire scrunched her nose. “I have no idea. But I don’t think that’s going to happen to you. This is what is going to happen: You’ll be this interesting story around school for a little while and then something new will happen and people will forget about it.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. And in the meantime, Elise and I will be your bodyguards.”
“If my bodyguards weren’t always busy doing other things, I might feel better.”
“You could hire a real bodyguard if you’re that worried,” Elise said.
I knew she was semi-joking but I thought about that possibility. Was I scared enough to hire a bodyguard? I really wasn’t. It was just unexpected, going from invisible to suddenly not. I’d be fine once I got used to it.
A large envelope waited on my desk when I got home. The return address read San Diego State. My heart thumped wildly in my chest. All my countless hours of preparation had led to this. I carefully opened the flap and slid out the stapled pages inside.
A cover letter, my name at the top, greeted me. I read each word carefully.
“Accepted,” I whispered. I’d been worried for nothing. San Diego wasn’t my top choice, but I had a choice now. And a way to pay for it.
I called Blaire.
“Hello,” she answered on the second ring.
“Let’s go dorm room shopping.”
“It’s March. We have like five months.”
“But I just got my first acceptance letter and I won the lottery and I want to buy things.”
She laughed. “Most girls would go on a makeover shopping spree if they won the lottery.”
“Oh.” I stopped when I realized I was petting my acceptance letter. “Well, we can do that when I officially have the money if you want.”
Blaire just laughed.
“No, seriously. Will you go shopping with me tonight?” There was something about the whole school knowing about the lottery now that made it more real. I might not have officially had the money in the bank yet, but it was finally sinking in. I was a millionaire. I’d done the math. I could spend over a thousand dollars every day for the rest of my life and never run out of money. And all I had bought were a couple of cell phones. It was time to change that.
“Sure. I have some things on my dorm room list that I need to buy,” Blaire replied.
“Do you think Elise will want to come with us?”
“She told us not to leave her out of college stuff, remember?”
“True. I’ll call her.”
IKEA was huge and we’d only covered a quarter of the store, but my cart was already half-full. I held up a strand of decorative patio lights. “Do you think this would drive a roommate crazy?”
“Are you even going to have a roommate?” Elise asked. “You can afford a private room. Or you could buy your own apartment in whichever city you end up in.”
“I want her to be my roommate,” Blaire said. “At Stanford. And yes, those lights would drive me crazy.” She took them from my hands and put them back on the shelf.
I snatched them back up and dropped them in my cart. “I’m going to UCLA.”
Blaire gave me a playful growl.
“Did you get your UCLA acceptance letter yet?” Elise asked.
“Not yet. But I will.” UCLA was the school I’d prepared my life around.
Elise held up a large black-and-white Audrey Hepburn print. “Maybe I should major in acting. Do you think I’d make a good actress?” She tried to mimic the face Audrey was making in the photo.
“You’d be an amazing actress,” I said.
“I would, wouldn’t I?”
“I thought you were going to major in nursing,” Blaire said, studying a Beatles print.
“No, I realized I hate blood. I think nurses have to love blood, right?”
I laughed and pointed at the Audrey picture. “Do you want that?”
“What?” Elise set it back on the shelf. “I don’t need decorations. You know I’m not moving into a dorm room.” She raised her hand in the air. “Community College crew right here.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t give your bedroom a dorm room makeover. I’m buying that for you.” I put the photo in my cart with the other things.
“Oh, Bruce, you spoil me.”
“Bruce?”
“You know, like Bruce Wayne. Batman.”
I laughed. “I think I liked Batman as a nickname better.” I picked up a picture of a ballerina. “We should line your walls with all your possible career choices.”
Blaire raised her eyebrows and held up a Back to the Future poster. “What about a time traveler? Is that on the short list?”