Graduation Trip to the Cornfields

The girl my parents had been bankrolling for four years wanted them to hand over another four thousand dollars for her graduation trip.

She had gone ahead and bought a seat on my flight without asking anyone.

Now she was standing in our living room with her suitcase, announcing that she was coming to Key West with me and my best friends.

When I said no, she turned around and posted in the family group chat: [Uncle Brad, Aunt Holly, I'd like to apply for graduation trip funding!] [Key West runs about four thousand a person, so you can just give me four thousand.] It was that one little word.

Just. Just give me four thousand. I laughed out loud, and there was nothing funny in it. Then I canceled the plane tickets on the spot and booked the next longdistance train out.

My friends asked where we were going instead. I sent them the excuse Raina had originally given for going home. Cornfields.

Chapter 1 Right before I left for my graduation trip, my parents handed me a bag, both of them looking very pleased with themselves.

I took one look inside and my eyes lit up. "Whoa, is this the new 18 series?

Mom, oh my God, thank you!" My dad made a face and flicked me in the forehead. "You little brat, your dad paid for that.

We figured you wouldn't have much spending money left after this trip, so I cracked open the vault and got you a new phone.

Call it a graduation present." I hugged the boxes to my chest, grinning, and laid it on thick. "Yes! Thank you, Father dearest.

The minute I'm back I am doing the dishes for a solid month, I swear on it." Mom and Dad saw how happy I was and dissolved into laughter with me.

Just then the lock on the guest room door gave a small click. I glanced over, puzzled, and when nobody came out, I looked away again.

My mom checked the time and started hurrying me off to the airport. "Jo, isn't your flight at one?

Get there two hours early, don't cut it close." I nodded like a good daughter, started to open the new phone, then just tucked it into my bag.

That was when the guest room door happened to swing open. Then Raina came out, the girl who had been living in our house for years on my parents' money.

Came out isn't really the word. She was hauling a loaded suitcase, working her way inch by inch into the living room.

My dad saw her and couldn't help himself. "Raina, you heading home today? You should have said something ahead of time, sweetheart.

I could have driven you." Raina waved a hand, quick to deny it. "No, it's not that, Uncle Brad—" My dad's brows drew together and he was about to ask where she was going, when she jumped straight to admiring something instead. "Wow, Jordan, you got a new phone?

That must have been so expensive." I smiled at her. "Not really.

My dad bought it." She let out a small, sullen oh, dropped her head, and pulled out her own old phone, running her thumb across the screen. Chapter 2 "Oh, I see.

I thought maybe the phones were like the yogurt before, where we each got a case…" Raina said. "Mine's secondhand, five years old now.

My parents never could afford to buy me one…" My mom's face stiffened, and a beat too late she reached over and patted my arm. "Uh, Jo, since Raina's about to head out, why don't you give her your old phone?

It'll get her through until she's working, at least." I pushed down the small, wrong feeling in my chest and moved my data over to the new phone.

Then I held out the old one. "Here, Raina. It's yours." Raina took it with a grateful look and gave me an offhand thankyou.

But her eyes stayed on the new phone in my palm. "Okay, Mom, Dad, I'm done talking.

I'm going to the airport." It was about time to leave for my flight, so I gathered up my things and headed for the door. That was when someone caught my arm.

I turned and looked at Raina, who had hooked her elbow through mine. "What is it, Raina?

Did you… need something else?" Raina gave the handle of her rolling suitcase a little shake, her eyes bright and expectant. "Jordan, let's go together!" This time I frowned harder.

I spelled it out for her. "Raina, I'm going on a graduation trip. Aren't you going back to Nebraska to pick the sweet corn off your grandma's patch?

We're not even headed the same direction." Raina blinked at me, all innocence. "Oh, there's hardly any corn out there.

Grandma says somebody's helping her, and she told me to go have some fun before I graduate." The smile froze on my face, and something in my stomach dropped. "So where were you planning to go?" Raina nuzzled her cheek against my arm. "I don't know my way around anywhere.

Obviously I'll just follow you, Jordan. Think of me as company for the trip." My mouth flattened out. "But I'm going with my friends.

You don't know them, and it'd be awkward the whole way.

Besides, we never bought you a ticket." Raina snorted out a laugh and held up her phone, waving the ticket she had bought days ago. "Tada! Look, Jordan.

I heard you on the phone saying Key West, so I already got mine…" That stopped all three of us cold, not just me.

Because Raina's grandma had called only a few days earlier, after graduation, and gone on and on about how Raina had to come home and help pick the corn.

And here she was with a boarding pass already in hand. My mom saw the room go awkward and tried to smooth it over. "Raina, Jo can be a little scattered.

She might not be able to look after you the whole way, and you've never traveled far." My dad heard that and nodded. "That's right.

We wouldn't feel good handing you over to her." Slowly, Raina's arm slid off mine. "Aunt Holly, Uncle Brad, do you two think I don't deserve a trip either?" At that moment my parents weren't the only ones lost.

Even I couldn't read the plainfaced, sweettempered girl my own age standing right in front of me. My parents are easygoing people. I'm not.

I asked her straight out. "Raina, who paid for that ticket?" Raina choked on it, and it took her half a beat to get the words out. "Well.

I saved it out of my living expenses." I let out a long, meaningful oh. "Right.

Living expenses that came out of my parents' pockets." "There's enough left over that you can buy yourself a plane ticket.

So where does all this Idon'tdeserveatrip talk come from?" "Isn't that just turning around and biting the hand that feeds you?" Chapter 3 Raina panicked and rushed to apologize, her face going red. "I'm sorry, Uncle Brad, Aunt Holly.

I'm sorry, Jordan. I'm being too sensitive, I know.

I just wanted one trip, so I could close out my college years the right way." My mom sighed and patted her shoulder. "It's fine, honey, let it go.

Jo just says whatever's in her head. Don't take it to heart." "You're both going to Key West anyway, so you might as well ride together.

Once you're down there you can each do your own thing and come home together." Once it had gotten that far, all I could do was put on a smile and pull the front door open. "Come on.

We'll go to the airport together." Only then did Raina's tears turn into a grin, and she came trailing after me with her suitcase, delighted.

On the way to the airport, Raina wasn't wounded anymore. She hummed along to music she was playing out loud, tapping away at her screen.

Almost that same second, a message landed on mine. The WhatsApp group. Happy Family. Raina had posted: [Uncle Brad, Aunt Holly, I'd like to apply for graduation trip funding!

I looked it up, Key West runs about four thousand a person, so you can just give me four thousand~] Then a whole itemized budget under it. The second I saw it, my brain went blank.

I sat there staring at it for three full seconds. Four thousand dollars. Do you know what four thousand meant?

From the day she started college, four thousand was half a semester of her living expenses. She was out of school now, and she still had the nerve to apply for a travel fund.

For four thousand dollars. I let out one hard breath, went into the group settings, and switched it so only admins could post.

Then I typed something there was no arguing with. [No need to apply. I'm covering this whole trip.

I've still got twentyfive thousand in my account, so your little perperson number is on me.] The message had barely gone through.

In the front seat of the cab, Raina twisted around and looked back at me, all wounded. "Jordan, your friends are coming too, right?

If you pay for me, what happens when they start guessing about where I come from…" I forced a thin, polite smile and came right back at her. "Is that so.

Well, then there's really nothing I can do.

My friends are on a completely different spending level, you know, and you can't force your way into a circle you don't fit." "Why don't you travel with your own classmates instead?

Some of them are getting help too, aren't they?" The driver's eyes went over her in the mirror without seeming to, and there was a sneer in them. The color went out of Raina's face.

She sat back down and didn't make another sound. I watched the back of her head and ground my teeth, with a fire already climbing in my chest.

Then, wouldn't you know it, my thumb slipped and opened Raina's Instagram. There it was, the carefully staged account of our sponsored fake heiress.

The newest post read: [College station. Now arriving. ?] [Next stop, Key West.

Fasten your seat belts, here we go!] The photos were a boarding pass and a run of island shots she had pulled off the internet.

I scrolled through the comments, and it was walltowall applause from family and friends. I couldn't help the cold laugh that came out of me. So that was it.

She was using my parents' money to put on a show for everybody? Some nerve. Somewhere in there my hand had closed into a fist.

By the time my screen lit up again, I had canceled the plane tickets and booked four coach seats on the Amtrak app.

Then I sent a message to my friends. [Change of plans, we're not doing Key West. Sudden urge to experience some real country living.

Cornfields, here we come.] A second later Gemma sent a stunned face. [Jo, did you have a stroke?] Zena sent back the most unhinged reaction sticker she owned. [Seriously, I'm almost AT the airport!] Chapter 4 I made up my mind and went off in the group chat. [We have a situation.

Cornfields, open fire! Blow that weasel out of the water!!!] The two of them realized I wasn't kidding, and without another word they changed their destination.

I breathed out and tapped the back of the driver's seat. "Could you take a different route? Not the airport. The train station." Raina heard that and froze.

Then she checked her watch and got frantic. "Jordan, the flight's in an hour and a half. Where else could we possibly be going?" I smiled and patted her shoulder. "It's my friends.

They're dying to check off some place that's blowing up online.

We'll do that first, then Key West." "Bbut the plane isn't going to wait for us!" I looked at her with a smile that never got anywhere near my eyes. "Did you forget, Raina?

I'm covering the tickets and the whole itinerary.

If it's really out of your way, why don't you go on to the airport by yourself?" That shut her up so hard she couldn't get a breath in.

She turned back to the front, sulking. "Never mind, Jordan. Whatever you say.

It's not like I'm allowed an opinion." I ignored her, and once we got to the station we finally met up with my friends.

Gemma and Zena stared at the person standing next to me. "Jo, who's this?" Before I could open my mouth, Raina jumped in, all warmth. "Hi, you guys! I'm Jordan's cousin.

You can just call me Raina." The two of them traded a look, and neither of their faces was easy to read. We got our tickets scanned and boarded together.

After squeezing down a packed aisle, we found our seats. Raina ended up wedged in the middle of the car with a stranger beside her, and the look on her face was awful.

She couldn't hold the complaint in. "Jordan, we could have flown to your checkin spot. Why sit on a train this long?

It's slow and it's miserable." I had already sat down with my friends, and I answered without much interest. "Oh.

There's no airport out there." Raina's whole face bunched up, disgust plain on it, and she bent over her phone to keep editing her post.

I turned around and started venting in our group chat, and over the next few hours my friends' expressions cycled through everything.

Shock, then revulsion, then no words left at all, and finally something else entirely.

Every time Raina lifted her head to work her way into the conversation, the two of them would start yelling about the scenery out the window, or chatter over her about something else until her voice disappeared underneath it.

Raina's face changed a few times, and she posted a complaint about it on her own account. That held until dinner.

I went downstairs to the café car and came back up with four cups of instant noodles.

After the three of us picked our flavors, I asked her without thinking much about it. "Raina, do you want chicken or beef?" Raina frowned and gave an embarrassed little laugh. "That's okay, Jordan.

I'd rather eat in the dining car. Actually, could you tell me what my meal allowance is? So I know what to order." For a few seconds nobody said anything.

Zena held it in as long as she could, and what came out was diplomatic and blunt at the same time. "Raina, just make do on the train.

The dining car isn't necessarily good, and it's a pain to walk back and forth." Gemma nodded. "Right. And your allowance? Who set you an allowance?

That 'cousin' of yours?" The smile faded off Raina's face, and she didn't budge an inch. "Sorry, you two, but my parents don't let me eat junk food." "And about the allowance.

Jordan is my cousin, so what's the problem? I get twelve dollars a meal on my campus card as it is, and this is a vacation.

Sixty a meal, minimum." After everything I had watched her pull, I wasn't surprised anymore. I wasn't even angry. I was dead calm