Don't Kiss Him Good-Bye (24 page)

Chapter 52

Friday. Everyone was preoccupied with the ball. The campus was practically abuzz. Not wanting to get stung, I headed home right after school to bury myself in a good book.
Not
a romance.

Saturday. Helped Mom plant a few things in the back garden. Her joy lifted me up, and I actually started to look forward to the garden and tea party.

Sunday. Church. It rocked.

Monday. Louanne felt queasy, so I took Growl for a walk for her. He tugged at the lead the whole time and picked a fight with the neighbor’s poodle. I must have been saving up a lot of do-good points for something. I hoped I’d actually get to cash them in.

Tuesday. Bumped into Natalie at the newspaper office. She said a noticeable nothing to me about taking the photos, and I said nothing either. Maybe Jack had taken her off the assignment?

The weekend was fast approaching. I was starting to feel a little queasy myself.

Chapter 53

Wednesday night I made it to church on time. I got a mocha. With extra whipped cream.

Jenny came up to me and asked, “So how are you doing?” I knew what she was really asking was
What have you decided about Rhys?
If it had been someone else, I might have thought they were being nosy, but not Jenny. She was my discipleship leader. She was supposed to ask me those tough questions.

I told her what I’d done, and she beamed. “I knew you had it in you, Sav. What about this Saturday? Going to watch a film?” she teased. I cringed, knowing that I’d given that same advice in the paper, and really, now that the recipient was me, it didn’t sound as kind as it might have.
Live and learn,
I told myself. This advice column business was on-the-job training.

“Actually, I’m going to the ball after all.” I held my hand up to stop her before she could get too excited. “As a photographer. In the background. Wearing jeans and taking snaps of the happy couples.”

“Oh, Savvy. Really?” Jenny said. “You okay with that?”

I nodded. “I am. Because the editor promised me an article next month.”

We chatted for a few more minutes, and then Supriya and I stood next to each other for worship. Afterward Joe came onstage to announce the final winner for the April Fools contest.

It went to the lip-synchers. Of course.

Supriya leaned in and whispered, “I gave all my money to you.”

I turned to face her and laughed. “And I gave all my money to you. We probably canceled each other out!”

During the devo, my mind wandered. I felt bad. Not only wasn’t I able to give Be@titude the money for their event, but Natalie had e-mailed me that she’d taken out everything about them from the article.

Thinking about Natalie right then especially bugged me. I couldn’t put my finger on why.

Chapter 54

I’d dressed for the part. Not the part I’d been expecting to dress for, of course. New jeans, white shirt, leather vest, gold hoop earrings. My hair was pulled into a long ponytail and gathered at the nape of my neck to keep it out of my eyes and out of the camera lens. Jack had given me the newspaper camera to use, and I’d been practicing with it all week so it’d be second nature to use it.

I sat on the couch, waiting for my ride. Mom came and sat next to me. “Are you up for this?” she asked.

“I guess,” I said. “Not how I’d planned for this night to go.”

“Lots of life doesn’t go the way we plan it to,” she said. “It’s what you do when the plans change that matters.”

I thought back to when Rhys claimed we were just friends but his actions made it clear that he wanted more. “I know,” I said. “Expensive lesson.”

“They almost all are,” Mom said. “Ready to go?”

I nodded. We gathered up my stuff and left.

The ball was being held at Lallyworth Castle, a British National Trust property about twenty minutes away. There were several castles—castles, I tell you, not just mansions—within twenty minutes of my house. As far as I knew, the only castle on the West Coast of the United States was in California. I never stopped being amazed at being plunked down in a piece of ancient history.

Although The Beeches, Ashley’s estate, was big, it was nothing compared with Lallyworth Castle. Someone had told me that Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII had dined here. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine her feet walking up this very stone path.

The hospitality committee had set up a coat check in the entry hall, and they were already there, bustling about. I headed into the great hall, where the ball was to be held. The room was swagged in greenery and white roses, probably flown in from Spain. I’d take an extra picture of those for Mom. There were great crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, already ablaze and warming the room. It was a good thing too, because several of the doors leading to porticos were open, letting in the evening air. It reminded me of a fairy tale. Only my coach had been turned into a pumpkin a week early.

The band was warming up, playing a mix of violin-tinged romantic classics and guitar-driven modern rock. I closed my eyes and imagined dancing. Then I went to a dark corner and set up the camera equipment so it would be unobtrusive and out of view for the ball’s guests.

Couple by couple they came, and I snapped some photos, trying to have an emotionally detached reporter’s eye and not thinking as a girl who had no date. About an hour in, Penny and Oliver arrived. She spotted me, left Oliver with some friends, and hurried over.

“You all right?” she asked.

“Fine!” I said brightly. Maybe too brightly. “Pen, you look beautiful. Divine. Oliver is the luckiest guy here.” Her ears twinkled with the starry earrings she and her mom had found. Her silver-shot dress matched perfectly with the silver and crystal shoes. I didn’t even want to know how much her mom had paid for those shoes. I didn’t think her mom considered those things, really.

She beamed. “Thanks to your help in finding the dress—and Be@titude. Did you see . . . them?”

I didn’t know which
them
she meant. “I assume they came with you.” After all, Chloe was one of the Aristocats, and I knew that their whole group was having a pre-ball dinner together.

“With us? Why ever would they come with us?” She seemed genuinely puzzled.