How To Be A Perfect Girl (22 page)

Chapter 15

Val spent Saturday morning
and afternoon working on homework and trying to figure out how to
get her parents to let her go to Aaliyah’s party.
I could just tell them I apologized to
Jenny,
she thought; it was the best plan
she could come up with. The only alternative was attempting to
sneak out, but Val knew that would only land her in more trouble if
her parents found out. There was also a timing aspect to consider:
if Val lied about her apology to Jenny right before asking if she
could go to Aaliyah’s party, she knew her parents would make a
connection between the two.

So instead, Val decided to tell them during
lunch, which left at least five hours for her parents to digest the
lie before she would want to leave for the party—or soiree, as
Aaliyah had called it. “So I apologized to Jenny,” Val said simply
as they sat around the table; Saturday lunch was one of the few
meals they still ate as a family.

Dad nodded, “That’s good. How’d she take
it?”

“Well enough, I guess. We’re not exactly
gonna be friends again anytime soon—but at least I set things
right.”

“Yes, that’s good,” Mom agreed, “Good job,
Val. I’m proud of you,” she smiled and nodded to herself.

Dad was not quite satisfied, “And you won’t
do anything like that again, will you?”

“Oh gosh no,” Val tried to say the sentence
as if the very idea of insulting someone else repulsed her, “I
mean, I don’t wanna become just another mean girl.”

“Exactly,” Dad leaned back in his chair,
“Anyone can be mean, but it takes a special person to be nice. A
special girl—like you.”

“I’m not that special,” Val replied,
attempting to change the subject from Jenny and the
apology-that-wasn’t—she knew denying the complement would also gain
points with Dad, since he would interpret the denial as
modesty.

“Sure you are. Why, I bet most girls
wouldn’t have even apologized to someone who slapped them.” The
words made Val a little uncomfortable, but she didn’t let it
show.

“Anyway,” Mom interjected, “What are you
planning on doing today, Val?”

“Oh, you know, this and that. I was thinking
I would stay in and watch a movie or something.”

“Val, I’m fifty, and that sounds boring even
to me.” Dad laughed, “Why don’t you do something with your
friends?”

Sensing her opportunity, Val seized upon his
suggestion, “Well Aaliyah’s having a—get-together. Can I go to
that?”

Mom and Dad looked at each other, their
expressions nearly unreadable. “I guess I don’t see any harm in
it,” Mom finally said, “When does it start, and how long are you
going to be there?”

“I don’t know, to be
honest.” Val pulled out her phone, “Should I ask?” She hid her
giddiness—
they’re gonna let me
go!

“Please. I want to know as many details as
possible; you know how much I worry sometimes.”

Val nodded, “Ok , I’ll ask Aaliyah.” She
sent a text asking for details; the reply was short in coming. “So,
she says it’s starting at five, and there’s not really like a set
end point. Just whenever everyone wants to go home.”

“Five? But you’ll miss dinner,” Dad
frowned.

Val laughed, “I think you guys can handle me
not being here for one night.”

“I don’t know,” Dad
laughed, latching onto the joke, “You
are
the only important thing in our
lives.”

“Psh, I’m not even in the top ten.”

“Awh, don’t sell yourself short honey,” Mom
said, “You’re a solid ninth place.”

“Gee, thanks,” Val stuck her tongue out at
Mom.

“That’s rude, honey.”

“Oh, so sorry,” Val replied, still in a
joking mood, “I most certainly did not enjoy that last comment. I
found it to be a disparagement upon my character.”

“What?” Dad laughed, and choked on some of
the water he’d been sipping. “Disparagement?” he said once he had
regained his composure, “You trying to use vocab words at
home?”

Val shook her head, “No, I was just trying
to get my point across in a non-rude way.”

Dad nodded, “Also, I want to drive you to
this get-together.”

Alarms went off in Val’s mind—images of
passed out high schoolers on the lawn, and, worse, of Aaliyah
laughing when Val’s father dropped her off, like she was a small
child. “That’s alright, I’ll take a cab,” Val said.

“Nonsense! I don’t have anything better to
do; I’m not sure I want you travelling alone late at night,
anyway.”

Val couldn’t think of any argument that
would dissuade Dad from his plan; “Alright, sounds good. Could we
leave a little early?” she hoped that, if they arrived before the
party had really started, none of the scenarios she was imagining
would come to pass.

“Sure,” Dad agreed.

It was still only one-fifteen; Val returned
to her room and tried to work on homework, despite the heavy
distraction now enticing her to think of anything and everything
else. Her mind kept wondering what the “soiree” would be like—would
it be a high-class affair, with champagne and fancy dresses? Or a
classic high-school party, with alcohol? Val decided to go straight
to the source and ask Aaliyah.

“Oh, you know,” her friend replied via text,
“It’s gonna be pretty casual. Just wear what you’d normally wear to
school.”

“Cool,” Val texted back,
“Thank you.”
Wear what I normally would for
school,
Val thought. Palm Lake’s dress
code was strict; she decided that she would wear what she would if
the dress code were a little more lax. After another hour of
struggling with math problems, four pm came
around—
close enough to five.

Val opened her dresser and retrieved a
comfortable set of shorts—Dad had described them as “Pretty much
underwear” when she’d purchased them, but Val found the cotton
shorts to be both warm and soft. She traded her baggy blue shirt
for a white tank top, and headed downstairs to find her shoes.

“Unh uh,” Dad said, turning from his spot in
the armchair in front of their tv to point at Val, “That’s not
going to work. Put on some real clothes.”

“These
are
real clothes,” Val
argued.

Dad coughed, “Will there be boys at this
get-together?”

“Yeah—”

“Then those shorts aren’t going to cut it.
And that shirt’s a little tight too.” Dad raised his eyebrows to
drive home the point.

“This shirt’s not tight! Seriously, it just
looks that way from your angle.”

“Val, I can see the cups of your bra. Go
change, honey.”

Val sighed and returned to
her room;
darn it,
she thought,
my one chance to wear
these shorts and Dad won’t even let me.
She looked at the clothes in her dresser before deciding the
whole effort was pointless,
I don’t want to
wear what I’d wear to school.
She went
over to her closet, and the dresses hanging up there,
if I can’t go for the comfortable look, why not
overdress a little?

When Val again descended the steps to the
main level, she was clothed in a floral pattern dress that cinched
at the waist. It was an attractive pattern, and Val had always
liked the way it fit her so well.

“Just what kind of get-together is this?”
Dad asked, a look of genuine confusion on his face.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, first you come down in short shorts
and a tight shirt, and now you’re wearing a dress?”

Val shrugged, “I knew you’d let me wear
this.” She checked the time on her phone: 4:15pm.

“Fair enough. How far away is your friend’s
house?”

“Not that far. I made a note with the
address on my phone—here, I’ll google the directions.” Val typed
Aaliyah’s address into her phone’s gps app, “It says it should be
about a fifteen minute drive.”

Dad glanced at his watch, “Then we should be
going soon, if you want to get there early.”

“I know,” Val said, “But I still need to put
on shoes and makeup.”

“Alright. I’ll be here.”

Val retrieved a pair of flip flops from the
hall closet and returned to her room, where she rushed through
putting on makeup; remembering the incident yesterday, she made
sure to slip her kit into her purse before deciding she was ready
to go.

“Four thirty,” Dad announced when Val walked
into the main hallway; he was already standing with keys in hand.
“I hope we don’t get lost, or we won’t be early.”

“Yeah, me too.” Val led
the way to their garage; she was nervous the entire drive over. It
wasn’t just fear of what Dad might see at Aaliyah’s house—since
they were getting there before anyone else—but a fear of the party
itself, which surprised Val; she’d never been afraid of going to
parties before.
It’s probably just because
I don’t feel like I know that many people at Palm Lake;
Val preferred parties where she knew everyone and
they knew her.

Val’s gps led them to Aaliyah’s house, and
she convinced her father to stay in the car. “Please, I don’t want
anyone thinking you feel like you need to chaperone me
everywhere.”

Dad smiled, “Sometimes I do. But okay,
honey, I’ll wait here. Just send me a text if this is the wrong
house or something. Otherwise, have fun and try not to get in any
trouble.”

“I will. Have a good night. Oh, and do you
want to pick me up?”

“Of course. Just call when you want to go
home, and also if you decide to stay after ten.”

“Ten?” Val replied incredulously, “Ten’s so
early, though.”

Dad frowned, “What do you think a fair time
is, then?”

“I don’t know, like twelve?”

“How about eleven?” Dad compromised.

“Alright. See you,” Val hopped out of Dad’s
white SUV and walked up to Aaliyah’s door. She rang the bell.

“Hey,” Aaliyah opened the door, “You’re,
uh—a little early.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Val apologized, “My dad
wanted to give me a ride, so—here I am.”

“Say no more,” Aaliyah smiled and held out
her arms for a hug, “It’s good to see you!”

“You too!” Val embraced her friend.

“I love your dress! It’s so pretty,” Aaliyah
complemented.

“Thank you. I wish I could have dressed a
bit more like you, though.” Aaliyah was wearing a skirt-cami
combination very similar to what Val’s father had made her change
out of.

Aaliyah laughed, “You could have.”

“Naw, my dad made me change.”

“That’s why you wear layers. Parents don’t
have x-ray vision, they don’t know what you’re wearing under a
hoodie and sweats.” Val had to admit, that was a good
suggestion.

“Maybe I’ll try that next time.”

“You should. By the way, I wanted to warn
you—Noah’s here,” Aaliyah whispered.

“What? Why?” Val asked, flabbergasted that
anyone would willingly socialize with Noah—in Val’s estimation a
mean nerd was about the lowest rung on the Palm Lake totem
pole.

“He overheard me inviting some seniors, and
I felt bad not inviting him too.”

Val frowned, “What seniors did you
invite?”

“Don’t worry,” Aaliyah smiled, “Only the
cute ones.”

“Did you invite Porter?”

“Yeah, but he said he couldn’t come
because—well, it doesn’t matter.”

Val breathed a sigh of relief, “Who all else
is coming?”

“A lot of freshman; I pretty much handed out
an open invitation to everyone our age. There are some kids from
St. Mary’s that I invited—“

“Oh, I’ve heard of that school,” Val
interrupted, remembering the kids from her church who’d claimed to
go there.

Aaliyah laughed, “Cool. So then you know
it’s a good thing that they all pretty much declined. All in all, I
estimate there should be about thirty to fifty people.”

“That’s a good amount,” Val glanced at a
pile of shoes in the front hall, “Do you want me to take my flip
flops off?”

“You can if you want. My parents aren’t
home, and they’re really the ones that enforce the whole ‘no shoes
household thing’—so do what you want.”

Val kicked off her flip flops and added them
to the top of the pile, “I’m not really feeling flip flops today
anyway.”

Aaliyah nodded, “You wanna help me put out
the food and drinks?”

“Sure,” Val checked her phone as Aaliyah led
the way to her kitchen; she opened an unviewed text, wondering how
she could have missed the buzz when it got sent. The message was
from Dad, “Didn’t see any cars out front. Where are your friend’s
parents?”

“Their cars are in the garage,” Val lied.
She sent the text and checked the time (4:50) before putting her
phone away.

“Okay, so we have a range of foods
available,” Aaliyah swept her hand over a counter covered in
ceramic bowls, “Junk food, like chips and cookies. But for the
healthier-minded people, I also picked up a couple of those veggie
trays—you know, the ones that have ranch in the middle and carrots
and broccoli and stuff?”

Val nodded, “I like that idea. I don’t see
them here, though—“

“Oh, they’re there, they’re just under—“
Aaliyah lifted an orange bowl, “—here. See?”

Val grinned, “I see. A feast fit for a
rabbit.”

“Yeah. I can’t say I understand why some
girls—it seems to be mostly girls—insist on eating, as you say,
‘rabbit food’.”

Val shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess it’s
just healthier.” She didn’t mention that she was one of the girls
Aaliyah was talking about, and had simply been joking about the
“rabbit feast”.

A cough caused the pair of girls to turn;
Noah was standing in the doorway between the kitchen and living
room. “Hey Val,” he said.

“Noah,” Val replied curtly.

“Good timing!” Aaliyah enthused, “Here, take
these to the coffee table,” she handed Noah a pair of cream-colored
bowls brimming with chips. Noah stood for a moment before doing as
she had requested. “And Val, one of the veggie trays goes in
between the chips,” she handed a vegetable tray to Val, who
followed Noah into the living room.