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quickly recovered. “Well, aren’t you smart to travel so light! Now, I brought six suitcases—”
    â€œSix. Really.” Kate tried to imagine how much could be transported in that many suitcases. Probably her entire wardrobe, with room to spare.
    â€œI know that seems like a lot, but let me tell you, that was the bare minimum, ” Lucy said, somewhat defensively. “In fact, that’s what I told the man at the check-in counter, because he was being really sarcastic. I finally had to say, look, I would pack less stuff, but then everything would be at home!”
    Kate wrinkled her forehead. There must have been some lingering fogginess from the trip, because she didn’t seem to be able to track that reasoning. “Quite true,” she said at last.
    Lucy wandered to the dresser, where Kate’s workout clothes were still piled high, waiting to be put away. “You must really like to exercise,” she said.
    â€œI run every day, if I can,” Kate said. “If you’d like to go with me, I’d love the company.”
    â€œOh, honey, I wouldn’t run unless I was being chased by a bear,” Lucy said with a flip of her hand. “I hate getting sweaty. But maybe Tom across the hall would go with you. He looks very athletic.”
    â€œSo who is this Tom-across-the-hall?”
    Lucy brightened up immediately. “Oh, he’s a super-sweet guy, which is good because we’re the only three Americans. Well, the only Americans who are still in high school. There are a bunch of college kids staying here, too, but they’re not going to be in our seminar, and I can tell you I am just completely thankful about that because I’ve already met a few of them, and in my opinion, they are way too intense.”
    As they headed across the hall to meet Tom, Kate learned that Lucy’s father was a businessman known as the Sofabed King of the South; that her mother was a former Miss Mississippi; that one of her six suitcases was actually empty, ready to be filled with what she bought in Italy; that there were only a hundred and three people in her high school class; and furthermore—
    Tom Boone opened his door. “Hey.” He had sun-bleached hair, clear green eyes, and a smile that belonged in a toothpaste commercial. “Are you guys hungry?”
    As they headed downstairs in search of breakfast, Lucy confided that she simply adored Shakespeare, that she harbored a secret hope of playing the part of Juliet in her high school’s fall production, and that Romeo and Juliet was simply her favorite play of all time.
    â€œI mean,” she finished up, “it’s so romantic .”
    â€œWhy does everyone always say that?” Kate asked as they walked into the dining room, a note of exasperation in her voice. “Even a superficial reading of the text would indicate that the word ‘romantic’ doesn’t really apply. After all, the story does end with a double suicide.”
    Too late, Kate realized that they were giving her odd looks, the same kind of looks that she used to get in school when she got too enthusiastic about iambic pentameter or the construction of sonnets.
    She could almost hear Annie’s voice in her ear, making a point that they had argued many times over the years.
    â€œYou’re such a nerd,” Annie would sigh.
    â€œSo? What’s wrong with being a nerd?” Kate would snap. “Bill Gates is a nerd, and he’s the richest man in the world.”
    â€œThere’s nothing wrong with being a nerd,” Annie would say patiently, as if she were merely stating the obvious. “What’s wrong—or at least monumentally inappropriate—is letting people know you’re a nerd.”
    Lucy was saying blithely, “Well, I know the ending is a downer, but I just stop reading before Juliet takes that sleeping pill. After all, before that happened, things were going so well