Most Likely (Most Likely #1) - Sarah Watson Page 0,72
there on Friday.”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“To Stanford. To see the campus.”
He nodded. “No problem. I hope it’s everything you dreamed it would be.”
Ava leaned over Jordan and watched as a large machine deiced the wings of their plane. If they didn’t die, it would be seventy degrees and sunny when they landed in California.
“I’m nervous,” Ava said.
“Don’t be,” said Jordan, who seemed nervous herself. “It’s totally normal. Wings get covered in ice all the time. We’ll be fine.”
Ava shot her a look. “I’m nervous about seeing my birth mom.”
“Don’t be,” CJ said from the aisle seat. “Adopted children observe their biological mothers from a safe distance every day. You’ll be fine.”
Ava turned to CJ and shot her the same look she’d just given Jordan.
Outside, there was a loud whirring sound as the machine blasted the plane wing with some kind of chemical.
“Okay,” Ava said. “Now I’m nervous about the plane. I should have brought a magazine or something.”
“Oh,” CJ said. “I almost forgot. I have something for you.”
It took a little maneuvering for CJ to bend her tall body enough to reach her backpack under the seat in front of her. She pulled a book out of it and handed it to Ava.
“A biography of Franklin Roosevelt,” Ava said, running her hand along the cover. “Thanks?” She opened it and found an inscription on the front page. “A little inspiration in case you ever decide to run for president. XOXO, Clarke.”
CJ reached over and shut the book. “I forgot I wrote that. Sorry. It was originally supposed to be for Wyatt.”
Jordan peered at the book. “This is an incredibly weird thing to regift, Clarke.”
“Just trust me,” CJ said. “You can skip the parts on Franklin. Read up on Eleanor. I think you’ll find it interesting.”
Ava set the book in her lap. The deicing truck was backing away from the plane. A flight attendant’s voice crackled over the PA and told them that they would be departing shortly. There was no turning back now. Jordan and CJ each took one of Ava’s hands and squeezed.
The takeoff was bumpy but they soon leveled off, and once the threat of death was behind them, CJ and Jordan fell asleep almost immediately. There was no way Ava could sleep. She was too anxious. She looked out the window, and the clouds brought back a memory of sitting next to her mom on a flight like this one. A million memories, actually. Her mom had traveled a lot for work when Ava was young and she’d always brought Ava with her. Ava would spend every flight staring out the window, sure that her mom had the coolest job in the world.
Ava shifted in her seat and tried to shake off the memory. She could feel the guilt creeping in and was worried that it might make her lose her nerve. With her phone off and CJ and Jordan both passed out next to her, she picked up the book CJ had given her as a distraction. As instructed, she skipped the parts about Franklin Roosevelt and dropped right into Eleanor. Ava already knew a lot of the information from AP US History. She knew that Eleanor had essentially redefined the role of the first lady and that a lot of historians even thought that Eleanor might have been president herself had the world not still been a raging ball of sexism at the time. Her list of accomplishments was certainly impressive. Was this what CJ wanted her to see?
Ava really didn’t care about an impressive woman doing impressive things. Stories like these always made Ava feel inadequate. But since the only thing she feared more than not living up to her potential was being alone with her thoughts, Ava kept reading. After another couple of pages, she learned what she had never been taught in history class. Eleanor Roosevelt suffered from depression.
How did Ava not know this? Why didn’t anyone ever teach her this? She devoured the chapter. Eleanor Roosevelt was a timid wife when her husband pushed her into the spotlight. It was only because she was forced to, that she found her voice. But, boy oh boy, did she find it. It wasn’t just that she had depression. She wasn’t ashamed of it. The first lady of the United States of America was open and honest about her struggles. She even gave her dark periods a cutesy nickname. She would tell family and friends that she was “in one of her Griselda moods.”