Pride & Princesses (26 page)

    
Our moms told us, ‘we could never discuss anything with our mothers, we are so lucky we have you girls for advice, to set us straight.’

    
Wednesday clapped her hands in approval, ‘wet us wait,’ she repeated in her cute baby voice.

    
Someone else who needed to be set straight was Mark, but it seemed the opposite was occurring.

    
Although the scheduled meeting with the Princesses had distracted us, it was with sheer disbelief that I discovered a note from Mark one day in my locker.

    
‘What took him so long?’ Mouche asked.

     
It was, I suppose, a letter of apology because Mouche had told Tory who’d told Jet who’d told Teegan who’d told Mark that I was ignoring him because I’d heard him dissing me at the Fall Fling. I promptly stuck the note in the glory box guide, after passing it to Mouche to read.

   
The letter was surprisingly humble. It read:

Dear Phoebe

   
I just wanted to write to say I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings at the Fall Fling. I was having a bad evening. I was worried about my sister, Petra, and I said some things I shouldn’t have. I didn’t want people to think I liked you. For what it’s worth, I think you are a really good actress and perhaps it is me who is lacking in social etiquette, not you.

 
My apologies

 
Mark Knightly

     
‘Mmm. Quite the backhanded apology.’ Mouche said, obviously shocked.

     
He, ‘
didn’t want people to think he liked me
?’ What was wrong with liking me? I wondered.

     
‘What an arrogant nightmare. I’m glad to be rid of him.’ I said.

     
‘Still, it was quite unexpected. From another era even,’ Mouche replied.

     
‘Perhaps the Neolithic one,’ I added.

      
I stuck the note straight in the
Boy-Rating Diary
under the heading
Phoebe’s
love letters
. Pleased with my work, I highlighted the headings with glitter glue, ‘I think that almost counts, don’t you?’

 
   
Mouche laughed and said, ‘I think it’s kind of beautiful; an apology, even if it was poorly worded. Maybe we’re too young to have hearts of stone.’

    
Meanwhile, the hole in the brick wall between our houses had grown bigger because our locker was one third full and our little treasure chest was filling up with items and secrets.

    
For a week or so, the dating game took a back seat as study and school life and the general business that became a game of dodging Princesses (before the meeting) took over.
 
Mouche and I, after our initial surge in popularity, struggled with how to proceed.
 

    
We had a page about all the boys on our list, and had put off the ‘secret meeting’ with the Princesses for as long as possible.

    
Trish and Mrs Mouche’s first post-break-up dates were successful enough to encourage them to start dating properly again, but nothing memorable had happened for them in the form of love letters, or anything else (except dinners).

   
In the meantime, both of our moms were on vacation for a week and during that time they threw themselves into self-care (manicures, hairdressers, deep tissue massages) and mothering which we admired.

   
Trish began to cook again using her mother’s recipes. Together we had mother / daughter meals which were both memorable and delicious. Mrs Mouche even invited Martin around to share in the meal as a return for the night he took her bowling and let her win. He had a son named Eli as it turned out who was two years younger than me and very studious. Eli seemed quite interested in being friends which was flattering, but he was too young to date, although quite the reader. In fact most of the boys on our list at Sunrise were such a mismatch for me, that I started wondering what it would be like to properly date Joel or Ethan or even Mark; the guys I’d initially been attracted to but who for obvious reasons, hadn’t really worked out thus far.
        

    
Meanwhile, Mrs Mouche was dating an accountant from her work whom she’d decided was, ‘
boring boring
boring
,
but at least he’s teaching me how to organise my taxes.’

    
*Note to self: men who teach you something useful...especially about money and boy stuff (ie. mechanics) are good to know (because a lot of women don’t know as much as they should and being unknowledgeable about money and cars leaves you open to financial abuse....).
That is a direct quote from Mrs Mouche.

      
In any case, work and socializing were keeping our
mommies who drink
very busy these days. We were also indulging in a social whirl. Our moms were too pre-occupied to check up on us which was perfect because we hadn’t really refined our dating game properly; and the best was definitely yet to come.

Chapter 15

Mattresses and Meetings

     
Teegan, Tory, Brooke and Freya had been wracking their minds over the meaning of that one page of muddled notes they’d discovered weeks ago and the fact that we seemed, every now and then, to be juggling a list of men for possible dates in between our busy schedule of school, rehearsals and semi-professional auditioning activities.

     
Unbeknown to Mouche, I have to admit, I’d flirted with Trey. Unbeknown to either of us, I think Jet was beginning to like Mouche again (he’d glanced over at her in rehearsals more than once to see if she was noticing him) and maybe because of this or in spite of this, I was really noticing when Mark was noticing me. It was like the fact that I had ignored him peaked his interest. Then once (or was I imagining it?) he seemed to be watching Mouche’s dance scene with more than professional interest. As if I cared. There were nine other men on my list.

     
Plus, although Tory was getting louder and pushier by the hour, I was still the lead character in the play. But I was offended and had a long memory (like an elephant’s, my mother once said). My pride had been sorely injured by Mark’s remarks at the dance, more than I cared to admit. Although the letter was nice, it took until the visit to Mark’s house, many days later, for me to start seeing my tormentor in a different light.

   
In the meantime, I was becoming friendlier with Joel.

   
This seemed to hit the spot, Mark’s sore spot. For some reason Mark just hated Joel, who, although friendly with multiple girls, always took extra time to say ‘hi’, and hang out with me now. I knew he might be a bit unreliable to actually date but I was happy to become friends with him.

   
‘You know, Phoebe, you are actually my first friend who is a girl,’ he said analytically, as we snacked on pretzels during my rehearsal break. We talked about lots of things, not just the novels we had to read for English, or his guitar solos. We talked about New York and how it is one of the most fantastic cities in the world.
 

    
Known only to Mark, Freya had offered (as the social secretary of junior year) to show him around Sunrise one weekend. It would have been totally against our original rules to make all the running, but Freya had a hot new car her father had bought for her birthday and wanted to show off
it
and herself. I heard her tell Tory she had plans to be Mark’s ‘special girlfriend’. I’m not sure even Mark knew what that meant but Tory seemed momentarily put out.

   
Tory explained it (many weeks later) in the guide thus:
‘In England, macking is called snogging, and since Mark had been in England for a year, he seemed to think dating was just hooking up and snogging. So when I suggested we hook up and go to the movies, Mark was, according to Jet who told Teegan who told Mouche who told me, ‘too polite to refuse.’

   
We all had a little laugh at that entry, especially me, and it seemed the days when I imagined Mark to be ‘the one’ were long gone.
 

    
But I forgot to tell you how the Princesses got involved.

    
In the beginning, they all, rather cluelessly and obviously, tried to target Mark. We shuddered at their appalling lack of smarts in this area. He had them on speed dial and even more confused than he’d had Mouche and I. The other girls evidently needed our savvy.

    
Mark, the alpha male, was playing them.

    
‘I don’t understand why charms I’ve worked on countless pre-men seem to fall short with Mr
I love myself
Knightly,’ Teegan complained.

     
Tory listened to Teegan’s whining then relayed it to Brooke who told me.

    
‘You won’t believe it,’ Tory added, ‘but Teegs actually said to him after rehearsal one night when she was taking notes,
‘your place or mine?
’ when he offered her a lift. Anyway, he obviously didn’t like her that much since he offered Phoebe and Mouche a lift also. Mouche said ‘yes’ before Phoebe could say ‘no’ because it was late at night and she thought it would be in their best interests to swallow their pride.’

    
My ears burned at that one. It was true, I hadn’t had a chance to say no, but we were not in a position to refuse. Trey had borrowed Mouche’s car (his was at the local garage) and I didn’t have one. Trey’s cell was on answer which really annoyed both Mouche and me, because we have a rule to never walk home alone in the dark.

   
‘I’ll talk to Trey about that later,’ Mouche promised, as if she was the parent and Trey, the child.

    
After Mark had slighted me, Mouche had considered spreading the rumor that he was a man-slut but then we mutually decided that this would just enhance his reputation and make us sound bitter. We were more amused watching the Princesses fail to make headway in the dating game with him, one by one.

   
‘Sometimes it’s best to let bygones be bygones,’ my grandmother always used to say which I suppose means, forget about past hurts. So I left the idea of Mark as ‘the perfect boyfriend’ alone, where it ought to be, and just got on with my life. Then the Princesses lives entwined with ours in the most obvious way.
 

   
We’re not sure how far Mark and Freya went after he dropped Mouche and me off that night after rehearsal, but the next day Brooke and Teegan and Tory were seen huddling around a crying Freya who was whining something about,
‘he kissed me and everything but now I don’t think he even likes me. How could he not like me? I’m the smartest, funniest, coolest girl in the school!’