New Year's Eve (20 page)

“Even more favorite than Lee?” Gwynnie said.

Jamie nodded. “You have a tower head.”

Gwynnie, tower head and all, leaned toward Jamie to give him a kiss. Gary gasped for breath, struggling to keep his balance. They all laughed but Jamie said seriously,

“Happy New Year. Are you my sister's friend? Are you coming to our house sometimes now? Will you always look this weird ?”

Gwynnie just sat on Gary's back, her towering wig at a slant, and her eyes invisible behind her sunglasses.

Kip thought, Why, Gwynnie can't answer those questions. Because she doesn't know. Gwynnie wants friends and admiration as much as the rest of us: more dramatic about it, but all she wants is to have a boyfriend, and a horde of girlfriends, and people who say “Hi” in the halls. That's what all resolutions are. To have enough friends. “Yes, Jamie. She's my friend. She'll be coming to our house.”

Gwynnie beamed and slid off Gary's back. For a moment they thought Gary's back was permanently misshapen, but with Gwynnie pushing and pulling, Gary straightened.

“We'll be at the party,” Kip promised Gwynnie. “Wait up for us.”

The party will be such fun, she thought. Only the people I really care about will be there, not this crowd of millions. We get to meet Gwynnie's parents, and go inside Gwynnie's house, and stay up till dawn….

And I get to go with Lee.

Oh, Happy New Year! Happy, Happy New Year!

Gwynnie caught sight of the horrendous green and black dress with the ever-kissing silhouettes. She had scarcely spoken to Molly all night, what with all the other action that had swirled around her. Poor Molly, wearing a dress that awful in order to get attention. Gwynnie had never felt sorrier for a girl than she did for Molly. Pitiful thing. Gwynnie knew how it felt to be friendless. She was hoping at her party to help Molly blend in a little better. Although the dress wasn't exactly the blending kind. Gwynnie called, “You're coming, right, Molly?”

Kip gasped. Oh no! Would she have to spend the party face to face with a girl who had tried to put her in jail, to ruin her life in front of her little brothers and Lee?

A boy standing invisibly behind Lee muttered, “I wouldn't want an arsonist and a drunk in
my
house, but then who would expect Gwynnie to have standards?”

Nobody knew what to say. Most of them agreed.

Kip wanted to speak up to defend Christopher, but how could she do that unless she also defended Molly? And that was beyond her.

Beth Rose, wet from the waist up, dry from the waist down, still holding the last of her dinosaur balloons, said, “Now you hush. That's ancient history and there was no proof. Don't you listen to a thing, Molly. It's New Year's Eve, and we're going to start it off right.”

Kip closed her eyes. Yet it was sweet. Kip would never tell Beth Rose what had really happened that night.

Christopher thought, That's dumb. I ought to tell her. Because who knows what Molly might try another time?

George thought, I like Beth Rose. I really like her.

Gary thought, Still naive. And I still like her. A lot.

Molly was deeply amused. She had not gotten her revenge, and yet this was a very pleasant ending to the night. Molly linked her arm through Beth Rose's. No two dresses ever clashed as much as Beth's violet brocade and Molly's vicious green. “Happy New Year, Bethie,” she crooned.

Beth squirmed a little, but Molly held on tight.

I wonder if I will tell Christopher it was only talc, she thought. Or will I let him go on thinking he was a hero? Some hero. Saving the innocent girls from the vile threat of Talcum Powder!

Molly laughed out loud.

She could see that Christopher was suspicious of that laugh. He would cling to her like bark to a tree all night, being sure she didn't try anything else.

Look at Beth, Molly Nelmes thought. The simpleton. She loses Gary, who is perfect. She gains George, who is nothing but tall. She cozies up to me, who would love to see her in trouble. Almost got her there, too.

Next time I will.

Nice guys, Molly Nelmes thought, finish last.

Nice girls, Beth Rose thought, finish first.

I'm nice. George knows it. I know it. My friends know it.

The New Year is going to be happy because I'm happy.

She gave George a kiss. Startled, he kissed her back.

“You're getting good at that,” Jamie informed his big brother.

Molly snorted.

Beth Rose said, “Practice makes perfect.”

She and George practiced.

Anne and Con had never stopped practicing.

Kip and Lee kissed again; Jamie hugged Lee's legs; Kevin and Pete wanted to know when they were going to stop all this slushy stuff and get going.

Nobody loved Christopher. But for the first time in a long time, Christopher could love himself.

Emily, Matt, and Mr. Edmundson drank a toast to happy homes.

Gwynnie put her arms around Gary and thought of her lovely party coming up, with her parents who adored her—difficult though the task might be—and a roomful of friends and laughter.

To love and be loved.

Nothing counts more.

Especially on the very last Saturday night of the year.

Turn the page to continue reading from the A Night to Remember series

T
HE GIRLS WERE SLICK
with sun-block lotion and the air smelled of coconut oil. The radio played softly, the wind blew gently, and the heat of August soaked into their hearts and minds. There was a party to get ready for, but since the guest of honor didn't know about it, conversation was difficult.

For high school was over, graduation a memory, and Anne would be the first to leave Westerly the following morning. How unlike Anne to be first! It gave the girls a shiver, because already they could see that the neat little predictions written under their yearbook photographs might not turn out as planned.

They lay in the sun thinking of the surprise party on the boat: the shining river and the fireworks after dark. They thought of the dresses they would wear and the boys who would be there.

Boys.

Always—whether you thought of today or tomorrow, college or commuting, you thought also of boys.

They did not know that before midnight, the plans of at least one boy would change their lives forever.

T
HE TIMER WENT OFF
with a gentle ding. The girls rolled over so they would tan evenly. The sun's strength was fading now, though, and the shadows from the trees by the back steps had reached Beth's feet. The banana and yogurt Beth Rose had had for lunch felt very long ago. She wondered what they would have to eat at the party. Steak, broiled on charcoal at the beach? Or hot dogs and hamburgers? Or was it being catered, so they risked eggplant parmesan? She was in an eating mood. There was nothing like a yogurt and banana to put a girl in an eating mood.

Beth Rose had dark red hair and transparent skin with an ever-increasing array of light freckles. She was not at her best in the sun. She lay on her stomach now, resting her face on her crossed hands, and admired the tans of the other girls. Anne, of course, was perfect, having tanned an even gold. Anne's normally blonde hair had become nearly silver over the summer, until she was almost a walking beach scene. Golden sun and white-hot sand were the colors of Anne's body. Even half asleep on the hot gray slates that formed a wide terrace around the swimming pool, Anne seemed warmer and more intense than the rest of them. She was not leaving till the next day, but already she had a star's quality.

I want to be a star, too, thought Beth Rose. But I don't know that I want to take on the whole world. One single terrific boy would do. Maybe tonight on the boat, I'll meet a boy who is perfect for me.

Beth Rose sighed. She had often met boys who were perfect for her. They, regrettably, had not considered Beth Rose perfect for them. Besides, there would be no strangers on the boat tonight, only people she had known forever.

Beth could hardly wait for the signal from Kip to get moving on the surprise party plans. She could not imagine how the rest of them endured it—lying around getting tan when there was a party ahead. She wanted to talk of boys and dresses and dancing and life. They just snoozed away as if it were any old summer afternoon.

It was very hot.

The heat seemed to slow time down, the hours growing heavier and longer.

Beth Rose closed her eyes and dreamed of boys. She felt like a war strategist rather than a dreamer, but that was how it was with boys. You had to plan your moves. The other girls were leaving the battlefield. Anne circling the globe, Kip going to college in New York, Emily getting married.

Beth Rose did not know how all this had come about. It was as if she had gone to get an ice-cream cone or to set her hair, and in the same half hour everybody else made plans for life and bought plane tickets.

Everybody was so impressed with Anne's job, so full of excitement about what Anne would be doing. I am a hick, thought Beth. I don't envy Anne. I have no desire to see Paris or Rome. I want a boyfriend and some new clothes.

She toyed with the idea of Con being her boyfriend, since Anne was dumping him in preference of London and Tokyo. But why should Con forget perfect, golden Anne—like a shining dove in flight—to take out plain, old, red-haired Beth Rose? Plus, of course, being one of Anne's confidants, Beth knew that Con might be the most handsome, suave and dashing boy in the high school, but he was not the nicest. In fact, for a guy with a ten body, it was too bad he was about a three on a nice scale.

“This,” said Molly from her side of the pool, “is the kind of afternoon when it feels as if something special is about to happen.” Molly was wearing a tiny bathing suit which she had rolled down to make even tinier, and when she propped herself up on her elbow it was to admire her own figure. Molly did a slow scissors kick and left one leg up to admire it framed against the blue sky.

Something special
was
going to happen, of course, but not to Molly. Nobody would invite Molly anywhere, let alone to Anne's surprise party. Molly was petty, mean, and borderline-criminal, and why Anne even let Molly into her yard was a mystery to Beth. Probably so full of daydreams she forgot who Molly is, thought Beth. I think Anne has even forgotten who Con is. Con won't like that at all.

“We could crash the dance they're giving over in Raulston,” Molly suggested.

So that was why she had come. To find company for party crashing. How odd that she picked us, Beth thought. She knows we can't stand her and I would have said it was mutual.

“Too hot to party,” Kip mumbled.

Molly snorted. She knew perfectly well it was never too hot to party.

“A hundred and eight degrees out,” Beth agreed, with mild exaggeration. “We don't want to die of heat prostration the day before we turn into adults.” This silenced Molly. But Beth did not feel as if she were turning into an adult. The only thing Beth was turning into was a slightly more sunburned teenager than she had been yesterday. Beth was positively exhausted by the energy her friends had. Her own plans included nothing new. She would take biology and English at the junior college while she waitressed at Pizza Hut.

It was a mistake, she thought. Commuting is not a threshold. Nothing changes. Nobody will give
me
a good-bye party. I'm not going anywhere.

What if that's true all my life?

What if I never go anywhere?

Maybe I'm already as sophisticated and knowledgeable as I'm ever going to be.

If that's true, Beth thought, I might as well roll over into the swimming pool and breathe chlorinated blue water.

Only two years before Beth Rose had been an ugly duckling, blossoming overnight at the Autumn Leaves Dance with Gary. Maybe I'm going back into the ugly duckling's shell, she thought. It was magic, but the spell is broken. The old pieces of shell are still lying there, waiting to snap shut on me.

Suddenly the thought of staying in Westerly was oppressive, even frightening. Life was a dark alley.

Beth Rose sat up quickly and moved back into the sunlight.

“What's the matter?” Molly asked, amused. “Ghost walk on your grave?”

Molly could always laugh at people in pain. Beth stared at Molly, trying to detect Molly's plan, her reason for coming there. But the sun was in Beth's eyes and Molly just looked like another teenager in a skimpy bikini, worrying about her tan.

Molly is jealous of us, Beth Rose thought. She's jealous of Kip, going to a terrific school; and Emily, whose boyfriend wants them to get married; and Anne, who is going to see the world. If Molly knew about the surprise party, she'd want it to be for her. She'd
make
it be for her. But nobody cares enough about Molly to say good-bye. Not one of us here has even asked Molly what she's going to do this fall.

How jealous is she? Beth Rose wondered. Jealous enough to—to do something?