Enchanted Ivy

Silence.

She knocked on the back of the gargoyle. 'Excuse me? Hello? Where do I go next?'

Below her, Jake called up, 'Incoming—twelve o'clock!'

Lily looked up and saw a security guard jogging toward the gym. She bet he wasn't going to like the explanation that she was up here to talk with a gargoyle. 'Jake? Remember how you're going to keep me from splatting on the pavement?'

He positioned himself beneath the Literate Ape. Lily swung her legs off the gargoyle. She tried not to think about the cement sidewalk below. She wrapped her arms around the ape's neck and lowered herself down. Her toes touched Jake's shoulders, and he gripped her calves.

'Got me?' she asked.

He grunted in response.

She released the gargoyle. For an instant, she dropped. But then Jake's arms tightened around her legs, and she slid straight down into the circle of his arms. Her feet touched the sidewalk, and she looked into the very blue eyes of the very gorgeous boy who was now holding her tightly against his chest. 'Knight in shining armor,' she said.

He widened his eyes.

She heard the security guard shout, 'You! Stop!'

'You promised you weren't going to get me into trouble,' he said, his arms still around her.

'Technically, you're only in trouble if you're caught,' she said as the security guard neared. 'How about we run?'

'Good idea,' he said.

Together, they ran.

CHAPTER Five

'He's not following,' Jake reported.

Under the shade of a fir tree, Lily stopped. She bent over, hands on her knees, and caught her breath. They'd sprinted up a hill and past another Reunions tent to a path surrounded by fake wilderness. The trees, shrubs, and vines were staggered to resemble a bit of forest, but unlike a real forest, they'd been carefully trimmed and circled with mulch.

'You were amazing!' Jake said. 'Most people panic the first time they talk with the Literate Ape. But you ... you took it in stride! He even seemed to like you.' He was regarding her as if she'd flown solo across the Atlantic without an airplane.

Lily felt her cheeks heat up. 'Uh, thanks,' she said. She hadn't done anything so special. Certainly nothing to warrant that expression on his face. 'I just ... want to pass.' Closest she'd ever gotten to seeing that expression on a guy's face was when she'd dumped a container of chocolate milk directly on Melissa Grayson's head after Melissa had called Lily's mom a loony. She'd gotten applause and then a chat with the school psychologist. But that had been second grade. If it happened now, most of her high school class would agree with Melissa, and no amount of chocolate milk would change that. At least Lily's mom didn't vacation in Hawaii without her or fail to show up to parent-teacher conferences due to a manicure appointment like Melissa's oh-so-perfect mother.

'You really might pass!' Jake said.

'Your confidence in me is overwhelming,' she said drily.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'But most don't. Most can't handle it.'

'You did, right?' she asked.

'Of course,' he said.

He didn't elaborate, so she walked forward down the winding path. It opened onto a manicured garden of red and yellow tulips. Strips of flower beds curved into a shieldlike shape. Green blanketed the space between the tulips, and in the center was a fountain with candy blue water and a sculpture of a half horse, half man. Sunlight bathed the tulips so the petals glowed. Mom would love this, Lily thought. She should bring her here.

Or maybe Mom had already been here. She'd mentioned a tulip garden with a fountain. This place, like the Chained Dragon on the chapel, could be somehow lodged in Mom's memory. 'Where are we?' Lily asked.

'Prospect Gardens,' Jake said. 'Straight ahead is the student union, and beyond that are the eating clubs. To our right are dorms. To our left, Firestone Library, the chapel, East Pyne, Nassau Hall. You have your next clue?'

Unfortunately, she didn't. She knew that Feeders were bad and that the Old Boys liked Dungeons & Dragons a bit too much, but she didn't know what she was supposed to do next. She couldn't admit that with Jake still beaming at her, though, so she dodged the question instead. 'Did you talk to gargoyles in your test?'

'Oh, yes, but I spent the entire conversation with Professor Ape searching for a speaker and microphone,' Jake said. 'I even pried up a flagstone in the walk below. Grandpa subtracted the repair cost from my trust fund.'

'Oh.' She tried to imagine cavalierly tossing around words like 'trust fund' and couldn't. 'Your grandfather didn't help you?'

'It wouldn't have been ethical,' he said.

'Right. Sorry.'

Side by side, they circled through the garden. Ringed with evergreens, the flower beds were half in the shadows. Tulips swayed in a breathlike breeze.

'Grandpa did train me,' Jake said. 'Pop quizzes over breakfast on the prior night's homework, martial arts classes since age four, summer trips to Europe with enough museums to put an artist to sleep. He wanted to ensure that I had a chance at a future here. Failure wasn't an option for him or for me.'

She thought of Mom. If passing this test would keep Mom from slipping away—if walking through fire would keep Mom from slipping away—Lily would do it. 'Not so much an option for me, either.'

'Yeah, I get that.'

Their eyes met, and Jake smiled. She smiled back.

Voices carried across the garden as a string of chattering and laughing students passed by and then exited. A couple holding hands strolled after them, pausing for a photo in front of the yellow and red tulips.

'So, where to?' Jake asked.

She thought for a moment. She didn't know where to find the Key, but she did know what the Key (supposedly) opened. The Literate Ape had talked about a gate, and there was only one famous gate here: the entrance to Princeton, the gate that no student ever walked out through. It would be just like the Old Boys to pick the most ornate, most famous gate on campus as their special gate. 'This way,' she said.

Lily headed up a set of stone steps. Jake followed her behind a row of manicured bushes to a rose garden. She saw red and yellow and soft pink buds. Only one or two had begun to open their petals. At home, Mom had coaxed all their roses into bloom already. She claimed her success was due to the fact that she sang to them. Lily credited the skylights that turned their apartment into a greenhouse. As soon as her test was over, she'd bring Mom to this garden. Maybe it would stir up memories of Dad. The memories couldn't be gone forever, could they? There had to be some way to bring them back.

'Do you like it here?' Lily asked. 'At Princeton, I mean.'

'Love it,' he said. 'I can't picture myself anywhere else. I think I was a prefrosh from birth. My grandfather used to sing me Princeton songs instead of lullabies. I have these clear memories of him tucking me in while belting out a fight song. ... I know it sounds corny, but I always felt this was, like, my destiny.'

'Not corny at all,' she murmured. She thought of her grandpa singing Princeton songs in the flower shop on slow days.

Up ahead, she saw a familiar road. She'd walked this way before—the campus road led to the chapel and library plaza. She picked up her pace, weaving among members of a marching band dressed in orange and black plaid and wearing straw hats. As she crossed the plaza in front of the chapel, she imagined returning to Grandpa and Mom with the news that she'd passed. She'd be able to make Mom happy, a semimiraculous feat.