‘It’s really
the kind of thing a girl should expect, not be thankful for
,’ Mouche stated, quoting Mrs Jones again.
You could tell they’d taken the gangster thing seriously because there were sawn off toy shotguns on the back seat and when Mrs Mouche saw them she must have looked alarmed because Jet said, ‘oh don’t worry, they’re fake.’
Then Trish came over and said, ‘boys, you just can’t go around like that. Anyone might think you were packing a - what do they call it in those crime shows?’
‘Packing a piece?’ Jet said, helpfully.
‘Yes, packing a piece.’
The boys loaded the toys into the car boot.
‘That’s better,’ my mother said.
Martin came out and took photographs which made Mouche and I want to cringe and Mark was looking seriously uncomfortable when he leant on the porch and a piece of panelling fell off the surrounding fence.
Then the dog from a neighbour’s backyard escaped, ran wild, started barking and nearly savaged Jet. Suddenly Wednesday felt it timely to attempt cartwheels on the front porch even though she was supposed to be in bed – she didn’t seem to be bothered about showing off her cartoon character underwear but I didn’t think it was at all appropriate. And then Ella and Katie arrived with their mothers and their dates. The cousins started giggling and chewing gum. It was wildly embarrassing as they all waved goodbye to us when we walked to the car. Mark glared at me as if I was pure trailer trash.
Jet was smiling and still his good-natured self. And I may have imagined it, especially since both our moms were treating Jet and Mark like princes, but Mark actually looked bored when we got into the car. Or was it worried? Either way, this really annoyed me. I thought even Joel might have had a sense of humor about the whole thing and I wished he’d invited me instead.
Mark saving my life in the alley, was no reason to feel indebted, forever. Besides, he’d hardly spoken to me tonight and I wasn’t responding well to being ignored. I wondered if, realistically, I was at all suited to the strong and silent type. Still, I was pleased to see he’d made an effort. His hair was extra shiny and his shirt freshly ironed. I wondered if he had a housekeeper because I couldn’t imagine him doing menial tasks himself.
Jet kept trying to touch Mouche’s knees in the car and was attempting to play footsie with me which I found pretty immature. Mark sat still, making little effort to converse and staring out the window. Meanwhile, I was adjusting my corsage, an old fashioned touch which Mouche and I had been presented with upon the boys’ arrival. The corsage was a timeless romantic teen motif and we were secretly thrilled at the complimentary colour scheme of our peonies. Jet swigged something out of his flask and Mouche looked at me as if to say, ‘this is going to be a long evening.’
When we arrived at the school gym, the Princesses were taking turns to hand out punch. We knew we all had to put in an appearance for at least an hour at the dance, then we could head to the post dance party at Jet’s mansion.
Now it was true that Mark looked quite cute in repose, wearing his gangster’s suit, but he hadn’t said a word to me all evening. The silence was beginning to seriously annoy me since half the night was already over. Playing cool certainly wasn’t getting the desired response. Then Jet spiked his own punch and pulled his jacket off and dragged Mouche with him onto the stage. The band played hits from previous decades. My toe started to tap on the dance floor. My date appeared to be unaware of my presence.
Meanwhile, Teegan, who was wearing the latest designer rip-off from the famous Sunrise store,
Fake,
put down her glass of punch and walked boldly up to Mark, who seemed busy ignoring me and texting on his cell, and said, ‘hi Mark. Do you want to dance?’
‘Um...I don’t really dance,’ he replied in a very uptight, distracted way. One of the decorations fell from the imagined sky as he spoke and a little piece of tin foil streamer played in Teegan’s hair, irritating her more than the rebuff.
Teegan blew the foil off her face and fronted Mark squarely. She looked defeated but tried once again, ‘uh, okay, but why don’t we make an exception to that rule? I could teach you.’
‘No thank you,’ he said, and walked off, brushing past me in the process. He didn’t even ask me if I wanted a drink, although the queue was long and I was totally parched. And though men were few, men who were taller than girls were even fewer, so when Teegan mimed to me, ‘we-
eird
-o!’ I found myself grudgingly in agreement.
‘Mark was standing about a metre in front of me texting someone, I’m not sure who. Probably his girlfriend back in England or wherever,’ I told Mouche later.
‘
Ru-ude
,’ Mouche agreed.
I danced with Joel who’d arrived with two girls, dressed as gangster’s molls wearing drop-waisted dresses with tassels on the hems. Joel walked up to me and took my hand. We had about five minutes on the dance floor until the music became so wild that Joel and his girlfriends (whom I happen to know also ‘tutor’ him, that is, do his homework on alternate days) kind of joined in until there was very little space left on the dance floor for me anyway, so I walked off.
Brooke was standing on the sidelines, looking uncharacteristically alone at the punch bowl. She had her curls tied in a bow at the side of her face and her nails freshly painted a fluorescent shade of pink. I wandered over to finally get something to drink.
‘Mmm...’ Brooke sighed, ‘Mark is so cute. I wonder if he likes spiked punch...’
Mark had finished texting at this point but was still busy ignoring me.
Jet had stopped dancing with Mouche and was walking towards the punch table to get his flappers a drink. It looked for the entire world like an old-fashioned 1920’s dance, piquing my imagination.
However, what happened next really was unexpected.
‘Mark,’ Jet said, ‘what are you doing?’
‘I’m texting Petra. I’m worried about her. We shouldn’t have left her home alone.’
‘Petra will be fine. Your aunt came home before we left. Besides, how could we bring her? She doesn’t even go to this school. You know we had to check our IDs at the door. Besides, we’ll be home in half an hour and Petra can join in when we get there.’
‘So Petra is either the sister or the girlfriend,’ I said to no one in particular.
‘She’s the sister,’ Mouche replied. ‘What’s with Mark?’
‘I don’t know. He hasn’t spoken to me all night.’
‘This is so not in the rules,’ Mouche said, raising an eyebrow.
‘Not everything goes by the rules. Besides, I don’t even know what to say to him.’
‘Shh,’ she said. ‘did you hear that?’
Beneath the drone of the music, a quite audible conversation could be heard.
Jet started it.
‘I think this is the best school dance I’ve ever been to,’ he observed.
‘As far as I can tell, it’s the
only
school dance you’ve ever been to...’ Mark replied.
‘Well, I’ll do anything to impress Mouche - she’s totally hot. But I don’t understand why you’re not dancing.’
‘Perhaps it has something to do with you monopolizing the
only
hot girl in the entire room.’
‘Are you serious? The women of Sunrise High are known for their...special qualities. Why don’t you get together with her friend?
‘What, you think she’s hot?
‘Sure, have you seen her in rehearsal? She’s
smokin
’...’
‘You hooked up with the only girl in the room I would describe as ‘
smokin
’. To be honest, I just don’t find her friend that attractive...’
I spluttered into my punch as Mark said this. I was standing right behind him but he didn’t seem to realize and I have to admit, though his comments were hurtful, they were truly compelling...
He continued, ‘I mean, she’s pretty enough, sure, but I just don’t think I like girls who are that outspoken and rude and she’s such a show off at rehearsals.’
‘Well, she does have the leading role.’
‘She doesn’t seem like a leading lady to me.’
‘I think she’s quietly confident - not really as outgoing as Mouche but I like girls who speak their mind.’
‘You might call it confidence, but where I come from ...well, we just call it common...she has shopgirl manners!’
‘Shopgirl manners! I’m way proud to have worked part-time at a clothing store since I turned fifteen. I hated that I had to stop after summer to concentrate on my studies. And how could I be labelled ‘pushy’ just because I scored the lead role in the school play? I mean, after all, I am a drama major. He should have been so lucky to dance with me. I could have at least taught him the steps,’ I whispered to Mouche.
Determined not to let him see me cry, I flounced past him with a slight smile on my face. He’d offended me to the core. Mouche followed me outside.
‘A movie rejection, a mugging and being called ‘common’ (I intended to
google
the term when I got home) plus a date rejection, all in the space of a month, is almost too much for me to bear.’
I burst into tears on the pavement outside the auditorium.
‘Here,’ Mouche said, handing me a clean tissue.
I think maybe Joel was standing near enough, holding hands with one of his girlfriends, to hear.
‘I have certainly been brought low in my own little world and I’d gone to so much trouble to dress up and hold my tongue and do all the rules on our stupid list,’ I told my friend.
Mouche looked at me. Horror and embarrassment filled her eyes. Although I looked Mark in the eyes as I passed him and he looked embarrassed when he realized I’d heard, he didn’t turn away.
