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“By Julian Ashcroft and his wife, Trinity, right? He named the school after her.”
“Trinity wanted it to be named after Julian,” Jesse told her. “Trinity and Julian came from families of teachers and worked at rival schools. When they met, there was a spark, much to the ire of their families.”
A smile played on Raina’s lips. “VeryRomeo and Julietof them.”
“Their story does have a happy ending, though,” Jesse promised. “Julian and Trinity realized that Julian, as a guy, was making a lot more money than Trinity was. They didn’t like that, so they founded Trinity on the idea that everyone is treated fairly, gets paid an equal wage, etcetera.”
“You get a lot of privilege being an Ashcroft,” Raina said wryly. “Very few people would be able to get a bake sale approved at their high school.”
“I guess so.”
“How do you know so much about Trinity and Julian? Do you have family history books?”
“We do,” Jesse said. He hesitated then, knowing what he was about to share. “I’ve never read them. When I was younger, I used to sit with my grandmother and look at the old pictures. This was before I got diagnosed with dyslexia, so we thought I was just slow to learn how to read. We’d sit for hours and she’d tell me stories about our ancestors, about her childhood, about my parents.”
“So you two were close?”
“Very.” It was Jesse’s turn to smile. “I know a lot of people would say every grandmother has a favorite grandchild, but mine truly didn’t. She had something special she did with each of us, and when she was spending time with me, I felt like I was on top of the world. Our thing was going through the Ashcroft history. As I got older, we began cataloging what happened in recent generations—where my parents traveled, notes about the house my grandmother grew up in…all the little things that might be lost. I would dictate, and she would type.”
Jesse didn’t notice how close their hands were until Raina’s pinky finger brushed his. Their gazes locked, compassion and understanding swimming in her pretty blue eyes.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Jesse. Your grandmother sounds amazing, and what you two were doing is cool.”
Jesse swallowed, ignoring the prickling feeling in his eyes. From the wetness on his cheeks, he knew he’d shed at least a few tears, but he didn’t want to move his hand to wipe them away. Because for the first time in a long while, talking about his grandmother didn’t send him deeper into a downward spiral. Instead, with Raina, it felt…okay to smile and laugh while telling the stories, to think fondly of the memories.
“Thank you,” he said at last. “I think she would’ve liked you. You have the same spirit she had.”
Somehow, without him having to say so, Raina understood that he didn’t want to talk, so instead they sat together and watched the fire crackle, fingers barely touching, yet that simple touch meant so much more than the warmest embrace.
ChapterFifteen
“If everyone could look for glasses, they look like Julian’s glasses,” Mr. Kingston was saying as Jesse entered the history classroom on Thursday morning. “They are Julian’s glasses. If everyone could look for glasses…” he continued as more students entered the room.
Jesse took a seat next to Raina, giving her a brief smile as he pulled out his laptop. It wasn’t his usual spot, but for some reason, he’d veered to the front row to sit beside her today.
“Ready for the presentation today?” he whispered.
Raina nodded. “I think so. It would help if we had some more time to run through it once more, but other than that, I think I’m good.”
Jesse raised his voice to catch his teacher’s attention. “Can we have the period today to work on our projects?”
Mr. Kingston plopped a thick stack of papers on his desk, thethudechoing throughout the classroom. His open laptop and a water bottle joined the papers before Mr. Kingston overturned his messenger bag and dumped an array of random candies onto the table. “Nice try, Ashcroft. I’m teaching today because I like the sound of my own voice. Besides, I know full well I haven’t assigned you any projects, so it can’t be for my class. But thank you for the idea.”
“But we have major presentations today!”
“Ooh, what class? Is it physics? I’m sorry for saying the p-word. Either way, we’re still learning.” Mr. Kingston paused to rip open a candy wrapper and pop the caramel into his mouth. “We’ll be discussing what came after the city-states, and how citizens learned to adapt when someone else was in charge.
As you all know, because you’ve obviously been keeping up with the readings, Verona was an independent city-state until 1405. And we’re using Verona as an example because, again, if you’ve been doing your readings, you should know a lot about it. And yes I know my class is clearly the most important and you should spend the majority of your time on it—” he cracked a teasing grin “—but reading your literature books is always a good idea.”
Jesse actually hadn’t read either textbook—he’d found an audiobook forRomeo and Juliet, despite owning the paper copy, and he’d been relying on class notes for history essays. His own notes were pretty indecipherable, so he was glad his accommodations included getting notes from the class notetakers.
“The Venetian Republic took control of Verona in 1405, and it wasn’t the easiest transition. Some people like being in control, and when they lost that control, they went a little crazy. I wouldn’t know anything about that, of course.”
Jesse typed along with his teacher’s lecturing to keep his hands busy. But at some point, his fingers stopped moving as his mind caught up to what Mr. Kingston had been saying.
If he was being honest with himself, the story of Verona sounded a lot like someone he knew. Someone who liked everything her way, someone who hated change, someone who was currently giving him a death stare because he’d sat next to Raina instead of her.
He didn’t fully grasp why Nicole hated Raina so much, only that she’d disliked Raina from day one. Unlike Jesse, who’d connected with Raina right away. Jesse and Nicole had video called every night, and whenever Jesse brought up Raina, a pixelated frown would appear on Nicole’s face. She hadn’t needed to be present at Trinity to dislike Raina, apparently.
