Face the Music (7 page)

Another happy surprise of the evening was that Cesar (yes, I’ve-kissed-dating-goodbye Cesar) was there. He was with Marty Ruez.

“It’s not a real date,” Marty informed me. “Cesar’s just being nice because he knew that no one else would ask me.”

“I just figured there was no reason the two of us couldn’t hang out together and have a good time without calling it date,” said Cesar.

I felt like hugging him just then. Good old Cesar. What a guy. I proudly introduced him to Isaiah, saying, “Cesar and I used to date, but now he’s given up dating altogether.”

Isaiah frowned. “Man, I hope it wasn’t anything personal, Chloe.”

I acted as if I were mad, then quickly told Cesar that Isaiah and I weren’t dating either. “We’re just friends,” I said, worried that Cesar might get the wrong impression. I’m not even sure
why this bothered me, but for some reason I didn’t want to do anything to hurt Cesar tonight—or ever for that matter. I think Cesar will always have a special place in my heart. And if not for the whole stupid thing with Jeremy, I’d probably still have feelings for Cesar. Isn’t life funny?

“Hey, speak for yourself,” said Isaiah. “For all we know, I could be falling in love tonight.”

But I knew he was just joking.

Just then Tiffany came back over. She’d been dogging our heels since we’d arrived. “I wanted you and Isaiah to meet my date,” she told me as she shoved a tall blond guy toward me, blocking Marty and Cesar. “This is Adam Brown. You probably don’t know him since he goes to McFadden. I met him at youth group.”

Adam smiled, but I could tell he was uncomfortable. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, Chloe.” Then he looked at Isaiah in a slightly starstruck way. “And I have an Iron Cross CD. Uh, it’s really good.”

“Thanks,” said Isaiah.

Then trying to be polite, since Tiffany seemed clueless, I introduced Adam to Cesar and Marty, who were still standing nearby.

“They’re not really dating,” said Tiffany, as if it mattered.

“Well, we’re not really dating either,” I told her, winking at Isaiah.

Tiffany studied Marty carefully, and fearing Tiffany was about to let loose with a cutting remark, I decided to head her off at the pass.

“You look absolutely great,” I said to Marty. “That dark blue is striking on you. Really brings out your eyes.”

“The lady at the mall told me it was slimming.”

I heard Tiffany clear her throat.

“She must be right,” I said quickly. “Or else you’ve lost weight.”

Marty smiled. “Thanks, Chloe. You’re not looking too bad yourself. I hardly recognized you tonight.”

I laughed. “Yeah, everyone keeps saying that. I guess no one really thought I knew how to dress like a girl.”

“Where did you get that dress?” said Tiffany. Thankfully she was distracted from Marty now.

“Beanie Jacobs designed our outfits,” I told her. Not that it would mean anything to her since Beanie had graduated before Tiffany and I ever started high school.

“Oh yeah, I think I saw some of her stuff in ‘Vogue’ recently.”

I maintained my poker face as I nodded, then reminded myself to let Beanie know that her
career has launched much faster than anyone imagined possible.

Another surprise of the evening was that Marissa had come with Jake. “Just as friends,” she quickly assured me. “It was Cesar’s idea. We doubled with him and Marty. I tried to bribe Marty into trading dates with me, but naturally she refused. At least we got to come in the same car together.”

“So you’re still chasing after poor Cesar?”

Marissa stood up straighter, adjusting the top of her black strapless dress, which in my opinion exposed more cleavage than necessary. I’m guessing this was intended more for Cesar than Jake.

“Hey, he can’t give up women forever.”

I started to say that it was more than that, but I realized she’d probably already heard this dozens of times. Sometimes people just believe what they want to believe.

Well, our group of six really worked that prom. We mixed it up with just about everyone, which I must say was rather cool. Another big surprise of the evening was when Jessie Oldfield (my old best friend from middle school, before I turned into a rebel) came over to talk to me. I didn’t even know that she’d moved back.

“You look great, Chloe.”

“Thanks, Jess. So do you.”

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to write you or something.” Jessie looked down, fiddling with her wrist corsage. “I know I wasn’t very nice to you in middle school, and I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

I put my hand on her shoulder. “No problem. Really. I just needed to go through some hard stuff back then. But ultimately it led me to God, and that’s what truly matters.”

“I know.”

I blinked. “Really? You know about God?”

She nodded. “And it has a lot to do with what you’re doing. I got your CD, which I think is awesome by the way, and I listened to it over and over, and I read all the lyrics and really thought about what it all meant. I guess it just started making me hungry for God too. I asked Jesus into my heart a couple of months ago.”

“That is so cool, Jessie!”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “It is, isn’t it? Anyway, I hope we can be friends again, but I wouldn’t blame you if you—”

“Hey, if you’re a Christian you should know about forgiveness by now.”

“I do. But I also know that you can’t force other people to forgive you.”

“Well, I totally forgive you, Jess. I did that a long time ago.”

We talked some more and agreed to stay in
touch through e-mail. Now that was something I never would’ve expected to happen—ever. So to say this day was full of surprises is absolutely the truth.

We have two more concerts (Friday and Saturday), both with Iron Cross, but after that we come back home for the two weeks of school preceding graduation. Then Laura can participate in all her senior activities that Mrs. Mitchell feels are so important. This was agreed upon before we went back on tour this spring. At the time I felt a little resentful, but after going to the prom on Saturday, I understand better how these times really are important. And I wouldn’t want to take that away from Laura.

Speaking of Laura, she did “break it off” with Ryan. Not that they were exactly going together, but Laura said that he seemed pretty surprised and slightly hurt when she told him she didn’t have the time or energy to have a boyfriend in her life right now.

“It was weird,” she told us the next day. “I mean, I didn’t really think Ryan was all that interested in me since James had said how Ryan was all bummed about this other girl. But when he realized that I wasn’t interested, well, it was like he was really interested in me and
practically begged me to reconsider.”

Allie laughed. “Now, what is up with that?”

“Maybe it’s the old hard-to-get routine,” I suggested. “You act like you’re all uninterested, and suddenly the guy is totally nuts for you.”

“Too bad more girls don’t understand this concept,” said Allie.

“Or not,” I said.

“What about guys?” asked Laura. “Don’t they play hard to get?”

“Yeah, and I think guys are better at it than girls,” I said. “Think about it. They don’t usually throw their hearts down onto the table for everyone to look at. Not the way girls do anyway.”

“Maybe that’s why the girls are usually chasing the guys,” said Allie.

And I do think we’re onto something. I mean, I’m trying not to think about the way Jeremy acted on prom night. At first I thought I was imagining it, but then Caitlin noticed it too. And so there’s this little part of me that thinks Jeremy may have gotten just the teensiest bit interested in me because he saw me going out with his brother. Now that’s all I’m going to say about that because I want to honor my pact with Laura and Allie, and I do not want to start falling all over myself in love with Jeremy Baxter again. Phew.

Our concerts both went fine this week. Without a hitch, as Willy would say, although I thought they lacked a little something in energy. It was hard to tell whether it was due to the musicians or the crowd. But I must say that even Iron Cross didn’t seem as hot as usual. Maybe it was just something in the air.

But now we’re on our way home again (only four hours away). And we three girls are all very glad. I think we’re a little worn out. A couple of weeks at home sounds like just the break we need. But now let me write down the most exciting thing to happen this week. In fact, I would call it
breaking news
!

Without letting on to any of us girls, Willy proposed to Elise last night and she has accepted. We were all pretty shocked when they told us today. Talk about your clandestine romance. I mean, we sort of knew that Willy had it bad for Elise. But none of us, not even Allie, had the slightest inclination that Elise felt the same way about him. That woman should get an Oscar for her performance.

“How did you keep it to yourselves this whole time?” demanded Allie at breakfast this morning, after the happy couple shared the news. Allie wasn’t really mad about the engagement but simply irritated that she hadn’t seen it coming better.

“I was only trying to set a good example for you girls,” Elise explained. “I thought maybe, since I’m supposed to be the chaperone, well, it was better if you didn’t see Willy and me acting all mushy and goofy.”

Willy grinned. “We’ll be saving that for later.”

Elise winked at him. “But there is a little problem now.”

“I called Eric Green this morning,” said Willy. “I explained our situation and expressed our concern about having Redemption’s chaperone be engaged to the manager while we’re on tour. I know it probably sounds a little old-fashioned on my part, but I was concerned about how it might appear to the public, you know?”

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” said Allie.

“I don’t know,” said Laura. “I don’t mean to be a wet blanket here, but I can’t help wondering what my mom would say about the whole thing. You know how she can be.”

“And she’s not totally wrong,” said Willy. “If we err here, I would rather we err on the side of prudence. You know a lot of people are watching Redemption and following your every move. We don’t want to do anything with the least bit of impropriety that might harm your reputation.”

“But who will we get for our chaperone?” Allie glanced over to where Rosy was at the counter refilling her coffee cup. “Hey, maybe Rosy can do it.”

“She could, and we all know she’s a great help. But she needs to focus her attention on the driving end of things,” said Willy. “That in itself is a pretty big responsibility.”

“I have an idea,” I said suddenly. “It was something we’d joked about a while back, but now that
this has happened, well, who knows? Maybe this could be a real God-thing.”

“What is it?” asked Elise as she helped Davie open his milk carton.

“What about having Caitlin O’Conner for a chaperone?”

Willy nodded. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. Do you think she’d be interested?”

“Yes! Yes!” shrieked Allie. “That is totally perfect.”

“And how about Beanie too?” asked Laura eagerly. “She could be our wardrobe designer on the road.”

“I think you girls may be onto something,” said Willy.

“Caitlin and Beanie will both be done with school by the time we leave for tour again,” I said. “The timing is perfect.”

“What about in the fall?” asked Elise. “When it’s time for Caitlin and Beanie to return to school?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But remember, Jesus said we only need to worry about one day at a time.”

“God will take care of the rest,” said Allie happily.

So we e-mailed Caitlin and Beanie right after breakfast. And Willy discussed it with Eric Green. And by the end of the day, it was settled.
Not only would we have Caitlin as chaperone, but we’d have Beanie as wardrobe designer. Both on salary.

Man, this is so totally cool. Not that we don’t love Elise—we definitely do. And she’s been a great chaperone. But having Caitlin and Beanie will be so awesome. And as far as keeping us in line (like we’re such a problem—okay, maybe sometimes), I have no doubt whatsoever that the level-headed Caitlin O’Conner will have no trouble keeping us on track. Not only that, but she said in her e-mail that she has a new devotional book that she wants to take us through during our summer tour. This is going to be so cool!

If you have to be in school, and I’m not complaining because there are definitely some things that I miss, you might do it during the last two weeks of the school year. I suppose there’s not a lot of quality schoolwork going on this time of year, but everyone seems to be in a happy mood and the social life is great. Of course, I didn’t think this way a couple of years ago. Man, how life can change when you let God into it. I was reminded of this in a major way when I got a note from Mrs. King (school counselor) this afternoon.

Now the last time I got a note from Mrs. King was when I was in deep doo-doo for smacking Kerry Fraley in the face with my backpack and consequently breaking her nose. Okay, it was self-defense, but at the same time it was getting ugly with criminal charges threatening to be pressed and whatnot. Anyway, that all flashed back on me as I walked to her office. Of course, I knew that I wasn’t really in trouble today. I mean, I’ve done nothing wrong. But just the same it felt pretty weird, and I even experienced a serious wave of guilt as I walked into her office.