Chapter Text
It wasn't that Charlotte wasn't happy.
“It says ‘I am delighted to inform you,’ Char, they love you already!” Jasper crowed, as he reread the paper he’d snatched out of her hands.
“That’s literally what they write in every single acceptance letter, Jasp,” Charlotte shook her head as her laughter bubbled up at the sight of Jasper’s awed face.
“I’m not buying that – this is all you,” Jasper grinned, pointing double fingers, and Charlotte let out a surprised squeak as she was scooped up and spun around in front of their open lockers. No one in the hallways seemed to care. Whatever, they were seniors, decorum be damned. Nothing could phase her anymore.
“And you got in four months early somehow,” Jasper mused, not taking his eyes off of her. "I'm so proud of you."
“Thank you; again, that’s just how Early Action works,” Charlotte repeated for the thousandth time once her feet were touching the ground again. “It has nothing to do with me.”
“Uh, it has everything to do with you? Speaking of you, you don’t look super happy for someone who just got into the school she’s been wanting to go to since she was nine. What’s wrong?”
Charlotte knew that Jasper knew, and if he didn’t, then her face gave it away.
“You could tell him. He’d be happy.”
Charlotte shook her head vigorously.
“We can’t. I don’t want to.”
Jasper sighed. “He’d be over the moon for you. I don’t think Henry would want to be left out-”
“-I can’t,” Charlotte cut in. Jasper looked dejected.
“I can’t,” she repeated, kinder this time. “Christmas is in three weeks. The rest of our applications are due soon. He hasn’t shown up to school once this year, I don’t even think he’s thought about colleges, I – it wouldn’t be right.”
“I guess it would shake him up pretty bad,” Jasper conceded, as Piper’s name lit up their group chat with more congratulations. “We’re still celebrating, though, like we said we would.”
“We’re not celebrating without Henry!” Charlotte protested.
“We don’t have to!” Jasper retorted. “We can get a triple banana split any day of the week, for no reason at all.”
Charlotte failed to suppress her eye roll. “Yes, Jasper, let’s get the forbidden flavor combination abomination we’ve been plotting since seventh grade, with nine scoops of ice cream and every single topping on the menu, weighing in at seven pounds and totaling over twenty dollars, and see if Henry doesn’t catch on. Are we gonna do the rafts and the water guns right after, and hope he stays none the wiser?” Charlotte pushed aside the uneasy feeling that Henry actually might.
“It’s…December, so the water park section of Six Poles is closed. He might not…catch…on?” Jasper and Charlotte both deflated as they stared each other down.
“Hey,” Jasper said, gently but firmly as he put a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder, not letting her squirm out of making eye contact. “This is a big deal. We’re gonna do something fun today, okay? Even if it’s different.”
Charlotte nodded, then acquiesced. “Okay.”
Curiously, getting into Harvard didn’t feel like a big deal at all, even as she heard the morning announcements congratulating her and a few others who had been accepted early to their dream schools, even as L.I.M.P. and Cheer Squad had joined forces and surprised her with a decorated locker and plenty of screaming, even as Piper and Jasper had bickered over who knew with more certainty that she’d get in.
Jasper cut through Charlotte’s thoughts. “Whatever we do or don’t end up saying, I know for a fact that Henry would be ecstatic for you, and that he’d want you to be happy.”
Charlotte sighed. “I can’t argue with that logic.”