Chapter 28

Last seen: Seven families, the Brown family, the Graham family, the Andrews family, the Patrick family, the Peters family, and the Woods family, all dining at the Yale Club to celebrate their children's graduations from the Patricia Loyalton School for Girls and the Kingston School for Boys, as members of the Class of 2005. All eight kids will be attending Yale University in the fall, as members of the Class of 2009.

Emma carefully cut out the pages, and added them to her scrapbook.

When she closed the scrapbook, and put it into the box, the tears started to fall.

She looked around her at her childhood room. She would never return to this room the same person again.

Of course she would return, on vacations, weekends at home, over the summer. It would always be her room, for college she still considered herself a kid, so she could come home and live at home, be a part of her home.

She knew it would be different though. She would have the knowledge she gained from college. She would have knowledge she gained from life.

Not for school but for life we learn, was her school moto.

She felt prepared.

Not just for Yale, and whatever schooling they would come across later, but for life. Life after Loyalton, life after Yale, a life where she would get married, have kids, have a husband, have a family, have a job, have her own apartment (preferably penthouse) or brownstone. Where she would be her own person, and no longer be a sibling, daughter, or student. She would be her.

Her room looked scarily sparse. Most of her things were packed.

Amanda was her roommate, and they had already organized who would bring what stuff from home. Elizabeth and Nicky were roommates. They would take most of the same classes together, as would the guys, and with the guys. But they would all begin to grow as their own people, hopefully, and not just as cookie cutter replicas of each other.

She hoped.