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Grace’s first day of college isn’t what most people picture when they think about the first day of freshman year. Grace was accepted into the US Naval Academy, her first-choice school, and it’s Induction Day at Annapolis. She is about to embark on, well, a new adventure.
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Living on Hawaii, it’s almost guaranteed that kids are going to leave for the mainland once they’ve graduated from high school. The educational opportunities on Hawaii are limited; not that there’s anything wrong with U of H, of course, it’s just that there are a lot more choices off Hawaii. So her parents--all four of them--had been prepared (rationally, if not emotionally) for her to leave Hawaii to go to college.
What they hadn’t been prepared for was her choice. The five of them had sat down together to discuss the schools that Grace was applying for (her dad wanted her to be in New Jersey, or even New York or Massachusetts, so she’d be close to family; her mom didn’t care as much about location, but tended to agree that being close to family was a good idea; Steve and Stan didn’t really offer opinions, but supported her quietly), and Grace dropped a bombshell on them.
None of them were surprised to find that Grace wanted to apply to Princeton, NYU, and Stanford (though her dad groaned at that one--too far away from family, she knew he was thinking; she thought being halfway between all of them might be good, plus the climate wouldn’t be as drastic a change from Hawaii). She was considering Harvard, maybe even MIT, and of course a couple of “safe” schools. Generally, everyone was happy: most of her choices were in the northeast, her planning was smart and thorough.
Once she had them where she wanted them--Dad wasn’t even ranting--she announced that her first choice school was Annapolis. There was a momentary silence, then confused chatter. Grace’s eyes bounced from one parent to another, encountering uniformly shocked expressions. Well, three out of four, anyway. Steve was shocked, too, there was no doubt, but he also looked...awed. She smiled at him and his expression shifted to pride, love, all the soft things the outside world rarely got to see in him.
“I don’t know why you’re all so surprised,” she said to them. “You have to have seen that I’ve been getting ready for this for years.” She looks at her dad and sees understanding dawning.
“Girl Scouts, ROTC--honestly, I thought that was just going to be a phase you went through, Gracie--and you’ve been working out with this guy.” He jerked a thumb in Steve’s direction. “For the last couple of years.” His expression turned to something more like wonder, and when he turned to look at Steve he reached out and squeezed his hand. After a long look at Steve, her dad turned back to her, eyes misty. “Okay,” he said quietly. “I get it.”
Who knew it was even possible to render her dad essentially speechless?
It took longer for her mom to come around--considerably longer--but she eventually did. Grace had to work out even harder with Steve that last year to pass the Candidate Fitness Assessment, but she’d been able to pass the Physical Readiness Test for quite a while. She’d looked it up and made it the unspoken goal of her training sessions with Steve.
Her parents might have been blindsided, but she was prepared. And determined.
-----
As Grace heads up the path toward Alumni Hall, she can hear her dad and Steve following behind. Dad is ranting, of course, and Grace knows that if she turns and looks at him Steve will be wearing that goofy grin of his, even as he pretends to argue with her dad.
They’re nearly at the door, so Grace pauses, turning back to her dads. “What time is it?” She isn’t allowed to bring a watch or a cellphone, so her dads are her only time reference at the moment.
“8:15,” Steve answers with a glance at his phone.
“Great. We have a few minutes.” She looks at her dad. “You have my things, right?”
“Right here.” He swings the small bag containing the few necessities the Navy allows plebes to bring with them for Plebe Summer.
She looks back and forth between her dad and Steve. Dad looks worried--she’s surprised he hasn’t latched onto something new to start ranting about yet--and Steve looks, well, proud. She grins at him and he steps forward to give her a hug, heedless of wrinkling his uniform.
“We’re going to miss you, Grace-- I’m going to miss you.” Grace watches Steve’s eyes mist before he gets it under control again. She supposes she’ll be able to do that eventually, too. “You’re going to be great, though. I hope you get as much out of it as I did.” He gives her a final squeeze, kisses her on the cheek, and lets her go.
She turns to her dad, who grabs her into a fierce hug. “Danno, you’re going to see me again later, you know.” She tries to laugh, but she understands. She feels it, too.
“I know,” he almost whispers. “But this is the last time you’re still just my baby girl.” Grace’s eyes tear up a little at that, but she blinks the tears back. “Next time I see you, you’ll be in a uniform, with a new haircut. You’ll be a plebe, a Navy midshipman--then you’ll really look like Steve’s daughter.”
She laughs weakly at the equally weak joke. They’ve long been used to people assuming she belonged to Steve on first glance. She’s taller than either her mom or her dad, and she has Steve’s coloring. The smile and the expressive hands are the clearest signs of her true parentage.
“I am Steve’s daughter,” she says, squeezing her dad tight.
“Of course you are.” He releases her, stepping back slightly to look at her. “You better get going, monkey.”
Grace smiles at the old nickname, and nods. Her dad kisses her on the forehead and murmurs, “Danno loves you, Gracie.”
“I love you, too, Dad. Both of you.” She sees Steve’s smile and she turns to go.
Later, after they’ve watched her take her oath of office with the rest of her 1200-plebe class, she’ll meet them under the “W” sign on Stribling Walk. She’ll have a few minutes to hug them again and say goodbye. Steve’s pride will shine from his eyes and he will salute her, for the first time. Dad will tear up and try, unsuccessfully, to hold the tears back. She’ll take her small bag and return to her platoon. Dad and Steve will follow her platoon to Bancroft Hall, taking pictures--they’d been taking pictures all day--and the last glimpse she will have of them, until they come back in seven weeks for Plebe Parents Weekend (with Rachel and Stan this time), will be her dad smiling through his tears and leaning on Steve, who, frankly, will still look a little gobsmacked that they’re even here.
She doesn’t look back, because no matter how much she wants this, no matter how hard she’s worked to get here, she knows that seeing her dad falling apart while Steve tries to comfort him will break her. Leaving them is hard enough already, but she knows this was the right choice.
Grace resolutely enters Alumni Hall, right on time, and takes her first steps toward her Naval career.