Surviving High School (20 page)

The day before homecoming, Mr. McBride asked Emily to stay after class. That usually wasn’t a good sign, but this time a hint of a smile on her teacher’s face let Emily know she didn’t need to dread this conversation.

“I’m afraid I have some alarming news for you,” Mr. McBride announced as Emily approached his desk after the bell rang. Unlike most days, he actually looked up from an essay he’d begun grading. “Your most recent test has thrown off my entire grading curve, thus forcing me to award it an A-plus instead of my usual maximum grade of a simple A.”

“I’m—sorry?” Emily
had
studied extra hard, and it certainly made things easier that she wasn’t falling asleep on top of her test sheet.

“As am I!” said Mr. McBride. “Should this trend continue, my reputation as the school’s harshest grader may be at stake.”

He handed her the test.

“I’ve been informed through certain faculty back channels that you have ‘found’ your textbook. I trust you’ll take better care of it this time?”

“Believe me, I will,” said Emily.

Mr. McBride returned to grading the essay.

“That will be all, Ms. Kessler.”

Emily backed out of the room, unable to contain her smile.

On the afternoon of homecoming, Kimi came over so that she and Emily could get ready together. Kimi had found a bottle of nail polish that perfectly matched Emily’s dress, and they painted her fingernails for the first time. As her nails were drying, Emily wiggled her fingers happily and watched as Kimi painted her own toenails bright red.

They were about to move on to their hair when Emily’s dad walked in. He was dressed in his gray game-day suit and wore his lucky coach’s whistle—the one he reserved for state and national meets—around his neck.

“I just wanted to say good-bye,” he said. “Have fun at the dance. We’ll sure miss you at the tournament. Without you around, Dominique won’t have much competition.”

A little pang of guilt struck at Emily. There was a part of her that wanted to go with him. But the part of her that wanted to see Ben all dressed up, to sway with him on the dance floor and kiss him again, was stronger.

“Thanks for understanding,” she said, giving her dad a hug, and when she drew back, she saw that a bit of blue nail polish had somehow ended up on his cheek. She smiled.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Good luck at Junior Nationals.”

“You’re skipping a meet?” Kimi asked as he left.

“Right,” said Emily. “To go to the dance.”

“You really have changed, Em,” said Kimi. “I like it.” She
picked up a massive can of hair spray and a curling iron. “Now it’s time to get pretty.”

Ben couldn’t stop staring. The blue dress flowed around Emily’s body like water, so that she almost seemed to be swimming instead of walking. For the first time, she felt as graceful on land as she did in the pool. Trying not to stare at her body, Ben took one of Emily’s long brown curls in his fingers and bounced it playfully in the air.

“Hey!” said Kimi. “That took, like, an hour to get right. Don’t go messing it up in the first ten minutes. You’ll have plenty of time for that later.”

The three of them, along with Kevin Delucca, who was wearing a T-shirt with a
picture
of a tuxedo on it, much to Kimi’s embarrassment, all sat in Ben’s car as they drove to the dance.

Ben still couldn’t take his eyes off Emily.

“Shouldn’t you be, you know, watching the road?” asked Kimi.

“I thought you were supposed to be the one freaking out about my driving, Emily,” said Ben, finally looking forward again.

Emily considered that for a second. “I guess I just—forgot.”

In truth, she was too entranced by Ben to think about anything else. In place of the pink seventies-style suit he’d threatened over the last few days to wear, he’d worn a simple black one with a white shirt and a blue tie that almost perfectly matched her dress. She suspected that Kimi might have
tipped him off. Best of all, he smelled like he had that day he’d first run into her in the cafeteria and called her Yogurt—like vanilla and cookies.

“What’s that cologne?” she finally broke down and asked.

“It’s not cologne,” he said. “It’s the artificial flavor they use to make Mrs. Jenkins Holiday Cookies. Just one of the fringe benefits of having a workaholic scientist for a father. Technically, his job is to design custom scents and flavors for mass-produced food.”

Emily smiled. Apparently she still had a lot to learn about Ben.

Inside the Twin Branches gym, where homecoming was always held, the four of them headed straight for the dance floor and joined a small circle from Ben’s crowd, including Zach and Hannah, Spencer and Lindsay, and Hector and Amanda. A fast song with a driving bass rattled the windows and hurt Emily’s ears.

“Good to see you!” Hannah shouted over the music. “I’m so glad you and Ben are back together.”

In the meantime, Lindsay was looking at Kimi, horrified. It didn’t take Emily too long to see why: They were wearing the same dress.

“This can’t be happening,” said Lindsay. “I—I’m dressed just like the
Realtor
.”

“And I’d have to say she’s pulling it off better,” said Kevin, smiling at Kimi. She gave his hand a thankful squeeze as Lindsay ran for the girls’ room.

Heading back from the snack table by herself a few minutes later, Emily spotted Samantha and Nick talking in the corner. As she passed them, Samantha giggled at something, and Emily smiled. It was the first time she’d heard Samantha laugh.

Away from the circle on the dance floor, Kevin and Kimi were now talking with Amir and an incredibly tall, black-haired girl who was pronouncing all of her
o
’s as
ooo
. As she walked by them, Emily overheard her say, “Of
course
we have homecoming back in Canada!” Emily shook her head in disbelief. So Amir really
did
have a hot Canadian girlfriend.

Nearby, Cameron Clark stood alone. Seeing Emily, he walked over and looked down at her, his eyes staring deep into hers.

“Where’s your date?” he asked, and she pointed out Ben in the center of the dance floor, talking loudly to Spencer over the music.

“Where’s yours?”

He shrugged.

“I came alone. Figured I might meet someone here at the dance. Maybe you’d like to—”

He put a hand on her shoulder, and his touch was like fire on her skin—in a good way, but Ben was waiting. Emily felt the sudden need to shake Cameron off—to push him away.

“I—I better get back to my date,” she said, retreating from him, and he nodded.

“Of course.”

She walked away quickly, wondering what had just
happened between them. She hoped Ben hadn’t noticed. After a few worried minutes, though, she decided to put it out of her mind. Whatever she felt toward Cameron Clark, she’d worry about it some other day.

Today was about concentrating on the good things. A few months ago, she might have been haunted by the knowledge that this would have been Sara’s senior-year homecoming, but it seemed okay now, as if her ghost was finally at rest.

Lost in the music, Emily was slow-dancing with Ben near Kimi and Kevin, when he said, “You know, I’m really glad you made me come. The music is good, my friends all came, and I’m here with the prettiest girl at school. If you had told me a couple of months ago that I’d be here, I would have laughed. Now I never want to leave.”

“You know, I’ve heard that the winter formal’s coming up,” said Emily. “And then prom after that.”

“Very interesting,” said Ben. “I guess I’ll have to keep my grades up. You’re sure you’re not just a secret agent sent here by my dad to make sure I get into a good college, right?”

“What do you think?”

She leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. It felt so natural now. How had she ever lived without it?

“Looks like Dominique decided not to show,” he said as the next song started. “Good thing—honestly, I was a little worried there would be some drama between the two of you.”

Emily hadn’t said a word to Ben about Junior Nationals. Better just to let him enjoy the dance with her instead of letting
him know what she’d given up. Mentioning it would only have been selfish.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m glad Dom’s not here.”

“Of course she’s not,” said Kimi from a few feet over. “She’s at the Junior Nationals.”

Cringe. Thanks for nothing, Kimi.

Ben took a step away from Emily and looked her in the eye.

“What’s she talking about?”

“It’s Junior Nationals today—but I decided I’d rather be here.”

“So you don’t want to be there?”

“No,” she said. “I mean yes. I guess so. But not as much as I want to be here.”

“Emily—” He didn’t take his eyes off her once. “You’re incredibly sweet, skipping that for me. But I—I couldn’t live with myself if I let you throw away everything you’ve been working so hard for, just for my sake.”

“Well, it’s not just for you. This is about me being able to make my own choices, even if it means occasionally sacrificing something I want.”

He kept looking into her eyes as if trying to read her mind.

“What time are you scheduled to swim?”

“My first race is at eight.”

“It’s seven-oh-four right now,” said Kimi. “And the meet is over in Las Playas. That’s an hour away.”

Ben looked around the dance and nodded.

“You know, I
told
you this dance was going to be lame,” he said, arching an eyebrow. “I say we bail and take a little road trip.”

“But you just said you never wanted to leave!”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like something I’d say.”

“You’d really leave early like this, for me?”

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I’ve thrown better parties in my sleep. Literally. I’ve gone to sleep in the middle of lots of my parties.”

“You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Las Playas,” said Kimi.

“And where she goes, I go,” said Kevin. “Who knows when she’ll mark a whole bunch of demerits in my cons column and dump me for someone better?”

“Jerk. You know I stopped doing that!”

“Emily,” said Ben, “what do you say? It’s up to you. Feel like a swim?”

For a moment, Emily imagined seven girls standing up on blocks at the side of the pool while the center lane—her lane—was left vacant. She imagined Dominique swimming out ahead of everyone else and smiling triumphantly as she won the race. She imagined all the names on the leaderboard disappearing, replaced with Dominique’s. Emily tightened her hands into fists.

“Let’s do this.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” said Ben. “You have exactly two minutes to grab your stuff from your locker and meet me at the front door. You’ve got a race to win.”

Fifteen minutes later, Emily was naked under a blanket in the back of Ben’s car. Okay, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. In order to change, she’d had to strip off her homecoming dress in transit, and was now slipping on her swimsuit. Kimi sat in the back with her, holding the blanket over her and making sure the guys didn’t peek.

The funny thing was, Emily barely felt embarrassed. In just a few weeks, she’d come a long way from worrying about Dominique’s teasing in the locker room.

“After all the time we spent picking out that dress,” said Kimi sadly.

“Could you hand me my swim cap?” asked Emily from under the blanket.

“Your hair! Your curls! We didn’t even take a picture.”

“It’s like you said at the start of the year. The winter formal isn’t too far away. And then there’s prom after that.”

“Oooh. Good point! I’ve already got some ideas for your hair next time. What would you say to a Snooki-style pouf?”

“Um, we’ll talk about it,” said Emily as she stuffed her carefully done hair under her swim cap.

“Shouldn’t you be going a little faster?” Kevin asked Ben in the front seat. “You’re doing
exactly
the speed limit.”

“I’m just playing it safe,” said Ben.

“Yeah,” said Kevin. “But according to the map on my phone, that means we’re going to get there at eight-oh-two.”

“He’s got a point, Ben,” said Emily. “Just a few miles over the speed limit wouldn’t hurt.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

She pulled the blanket aside and saw his smile in the rearview mirror.

“One or two miles over the limit wouldn’t hurt.”

At exactly seven fifty-seven, the car reached the Las Playas Country Club pool, and Emily and Kimi hopped out. The guys would park the car and meet them inside.

“Good luck in there!” shouted Ben as Emily ran for the door.

A minute and a half later, the girls entered the main swimming facility, where hundreds of fans sat on the bleachers, looking down at dozens of the best swimmers from around the country.

Where the Spartan Academy swimming facility had been sleek and ultramodern, Las Playas was classical, the pools shining sparkling white and lined with marble. The surrounding stands were laid out in a gigantic circle, like the Colosseum, around pools arranged in a four-square formation. Walking in, Emily felt like a gladiator. A gladiator who had shown up just in the nick of time.

“Emily!” Before she even saw him, her dad was picking her up in a huge bear hug. “I knew you’d come!”

“You did? Because I just realized it about fifty-eight minutes ago.”

“Better late than never,” he said. “Or maybe better on time than late? Anyway, the point is, the first race is about to start. You’ve got the fifty-meter backstroke in pool three. The
meet is running about five minutes behind schedule, so you should have just enough time to stretch out.”

She had to start with the 50-meter backstroke? In which Dominique now held the national record?
Perfect
, she thought.
At least this way I can get my first loss out of the way early.

“What’s with the frown?” asked Ben, winded from sprinting in from the parking lot. “Should I not have brought you?”

“I’m just not looking forward to losing this one.”

“So don’t lose. I was there at the match against Wilson when you beat Dominique in every race. Who says you can’t do it again?”

“She’s better now than she was then.”