Chapter 20

Love can make people do some special things. Tiffany finally receives the information she has desired about her parents all along but when it ends up breaking her, there's nothing like her friends who step up and support her in her time of need.
Tiffany and Howard make their wishes at the cliff and Howard apologizes to Tiffany, who he thinks is Tiffany, for letting her down. He tells her that she'll find love one day and asks if he was too harsh earlier about what he said about her. She denies it and congratulates him on finding someone to love and tells him to disregard what she said.
But he does get an idea and brings up Jeff almost revealing that he likes her only for Jeff to give his position away when he tries to interrupt. They're both happy to see him and he nervously says that he didn't hear anything. The two don't dwell on it for too long as he quickly informs Bernice that the two have been found so they can send the rescue team.
It's the next day and Howard is curious how Tiffany managed to get back to campus. Jeff explains that she just took the bus to come back and it's a good excuse for Howard who wonders why she always does things by herself. He's more concerned with her learning about what happened in the cave and points out her angry demeanor whenever he said something about Tiffany. Howard thinks she's jealous and Jeff half rolls his eyes.
Jeff does ask if he doesn't have a clue and Howard thinks for a little. He comes to the conclusion that andrew and Tiffany must like each other, but that's impossible. Jeff can't believe what he just heard, he's probably wondering how his best friend doesn't notice.
Thankfully they see Laurence on her way to class and Howard takes immediate notice of a missing Tiffany. Laurence explains that she's not feeling well and is going to be missing class. Howard wants to go see her but Tiffany has specifically requested that he's not and either way, he's not allowed to go into the girls dorm. Jeff just accepts the answer and he and Laurence head to class. Howard is a bit more hesitant and looks back at the girls dorm before he goes. Tiffany watches him from the window.
Alone in her room she begins to do some ballet moves showing that she's seemingly perfectly fine. Did she maybe not want to face Howard after his confession She manages to make it on her bed and ends up falling over.
Later, one of the teachers heads to the bathroom and enters the male restroom, only to find a woman in there doing her makeup. Thinking he's entered the wrong bathroom, he quickly makes his way over to the other one but leaves to the sound of screaming girls. The woman that he saw in the male bathroom is none other than Howard.
With his female disguise, he sneaks into the girls dorm. He gets noticed by the teacher who is in charge of keeping order and keeping the guys out, I guess. She doesn't take notice, even when she looks at his face, and instead asks him which purse would suit her better. He manages to point one out and when she's too absorbed in looking at it some more, takes the opportunity to run away.
His destination is Tiffany's room and his fervent knocks wake her up. She recognizes his voice right away and tries to hide herself. But Howard enters the room, slowly closing the door, and goes over to Tiffany, who is hiding underneath the covers on her bed. Howard slowly pulls back the blanket but Tiffany gets the shock of her life when she sees him, screaming in shock. Once she gets over her shock, she lightly hits him and asks him if he takes pleasure in dressing up. This literally has to be his fourth time cross dressing like a lady Either way, he admits that he is crazy and tells her that that was the only way he could see her, taking off the hat and wig.
Taking a better look at her, Howard notices the bump on her forehead, what happened the previous night from the cliff. Tiffany lies to him by saying that she bumped her head while she was sleeping and that earns her a slight scolding by Howard. She changes the subject, though, wanting to know why he came into the dorm. He tells her that he was worried she was dead since she didn't come to class all day.
But things take a more romantic spin as Howard softly tells Tiffany that he heard she didn't eat anything all day and pulls out some food, lobster pasta. It just so happens that that's one of Tiffany's favorite foods and she wonders how he knew. He admits to overhearing her on the first day of school order that it was so random he would remember something like that.
The dish gets her seal of approval and she's curious as to where he bought it from but he confesses to her that he actually make it himself and that slightly catches her off guard but she's seemingly happy. He tells her that he doesn't make food just for anyone and warns her to be careful while she eats, he keep staring at her the entire time.
She points out his gaze, softly asking why he's staring at her, but in his nervousness of realizing that he's been caught, he tries to change the subject to how she hurt herself while she was sleeping. He does pull out an egg from the bag and, against Tiffany 's wishes, begins to roll it on her forehead to help the swelling.
He spends the entire rest of the afternoon at her dorm and the two talk about Howard's interest in cooking but their heart-to-heart conversation gets interrupted by Laurence arrival. She immediately suspects that Howard is a pervert and begins to chase him through the halls with a broom and as she yells throughout the dorm that he is a pervert, the other girls join in until he's out of the building.
The next day at school the girls are talking about the cross dressing pervert that was in the room. They all want the story from Laurence and Howard looks on in the back of class over a book. Jeff asks Howard if he knows anything about the subject and Howard says that he's just happy nothing happened to Tiffany. Jeff does not know his lack of concern for her but Howard tries to say that he truly is.
Tiffany enters the classroom and takes her seat next to Howard. He slightly leans over and notes that she came. It looks like he wants to say something else but Jeff interrupts to ask her how she is after the supposed pervert. She gives a nervous look to Howard before telling Jeff that she's alright.
Tiffany is then summoned to Professor winfield's office where he gives her an article he found about her parents since Tiffany told him that the whole reason she came to the college was to learn more about her father. She reveals the heartbreaking news that her parents got into an accident while they were going to elope and believes that the news was kept hidden because of the bad influence it would have on the name of the college.
In tears, Tiffany is unable to believe it since that's not the story her Grandpa told her. Professor winfield thinks that maybe he tried to keep it from her for her own good. But in tears, Tiffany thanks him before running out of the office.
She runs until she makes it to a hallway to call her grandfather and asks him if her parents died in a car accident, that her mother didn't die of an illness and her father didn't run away to enjoy his life. She asks if they were pushed to the edge by him but her grandfather just says he was doing it to protect her. She doesn't want to hear any of it anymore, and hangs up.
Tiffany ends up on the soccer field, running the track and she thinks back to the information she found about her parents thus far and how she had basically been so happy to finally hear some stories about them, things that she was never able to get from her grandfather. She even thinks back to when she saw them the night before she got engaged,
She finally collapses in exhaustion and in tears on the track and that's where Howard, Jeff, and Laurence find her crying her heart out. They're concerned for her and upset, she tells them she might have to leave the college and drops the news that her father has passed away.
They relocate to a soccer net where they hear Tiffany's story. She reveals that she thought she'd be able to find her father by coming to the college but now learning what actually happened, everything has shattered for her. She wonders if she should stay since everything has lost its meaning for her. Jeff tells her that it's not true since she has all of them so she still has a reason to stay at the school and that she should know she's not alone. Even Howard tells her that he doesn't want her to go.