Getting Caught Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m working toward. He’s not teasing anymore. There’s a sparkle in his eyes, and I know the day my acceptance letter comes, he’s going to celebrate with me.
    You see, if it weren’t for him, I’d have probably gone insane by now. He’s the only one in my family who really believes in me . Tina and my dad probably couldn’t even name which Ivy-League school I’m obsessed with. I’m glad Evan has never moved out even though he’s twenty-one now. I sort of need him as my personal cheerleader.
    Besides, I help him a lot too. I must spend five or six hours a week filling out job applications, tweaking his resume, and scouring Craigslist for jobs. We have a Sunday evening ritual, and I never miss it.
    Maybe some siblings don’t get along, but my brother and I, we’re practically besties. As long as he’s not wearing sweaty socks, anyway. Then I won’t let him come within a ten-foot radius.
    “Of course. As long as these stupid SAT scores arrive, and they’re better than last time,” I say.
    “I thought you got a twenty-two fifty last time,” he says. My brother is not a book-smarts kind of guy. He barely made it through high school with a one-point-four GPA and never even took the SATs. To him, my score is good enough.
    “I did. But seriously, that’s not Ivy-League material.” I can’t believe he thinks 2250 is the sort of number I’d attach to my Harvard application. Is he nuts?
    “Move,” he says, walking up to my swivel chair.
    “Now is not the time to patrol eBay.” I glare at him. He’s not really going to make me move, is he? My hands grip the sides of the chair. He might actually pick me up and force me to move, and all the while my entire world is about to be handed to me in a single email. How can he do this?
    “Chill. You look like you’re coming down from a crack binge or something. I’ll watch your e-mail. If you don’t move, you’re gonna have a meltdown.”
    “You have to refresh it at least once per minute.”
    “I know,” he says, exasperated. “I swear, sometimes I have to save you from yourself.” He gingerly picks me up by the elbows and removes me from the chair.
    I stare, testing him. He stares back. I know he’s not going to mess with me. So finally, I sigh in relief and throw myself down on my bed as he takes my chair. My eyes were starting to hurt anyway.
    “You can be my aide-de-camp,” I say.
    He raises an eyebrow.
    “ An officer who receives and transmits the orders of a general, ” I recite.
    “Oh. How many of those words did you memorize?”
    “Five thousand.”
    He snorts.
    “Okay, at least half of them I already knew. They had words like alcoholism , and parallel, and enormity. You know, every day vocabulary.”
    “Ri-ight.” He clicks the refresh button for me, and for a moment the room is silent. “Nope.”
    I let out the breath I’d been holding. I’m not sure if this is an improvement.
    “You realize Harvard is completely crazy if they don’t accept you. You’re the model student.”
    “Are you sure?”
    We have this conversation at least once a week. It’s the only thing that makes me feel better. My brother knows this, and he knows I have his entire argument memorized. But he goes through it all again anyways. “Peyton. Look at me.”
    I prop my elbows up against the green plaid comforter and look across the room at him. He’s much more relaxed, sitting in that chair, than I was. Sometimes I wish I could just float through life like he does, even if he doesn’t have any direction. “You’ve got valedictorian in the bag. You’re class president. You got twenty-two fifty—soon to be twenty-four hundred—on your SATs. You’re in all AP courses. You volunteer at the senior center. You’re in the musical, science club, and the honor society. And you’ve been working on your application and admittance essay for a year. I think you’ve got it covered.”
    “Thank you,” I say, plopping back down on the bed. I stare at the