The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition (32 page)

              Wesley sent David a text to let them know to get back over to where the others were waiting.  Jennifer’s race was about to start and they needed to be in position for when Jennifer returned to the stands. 

              He couldn’t think of anybody else who’d taken such pains to come up with the right way to ask somebody to the prom.  He’d worked several days on the signs and had threatened to strangle somebody if they spilled anything on them before the signs had served their purpose.                Everything was planned out.  Jennifer was eager for this race, but he couldn’t let everybody raise the signs up until after she had finished her run.  It wouldn’t do for her to get distracted during this important race.  Not with a recruiter – or three – in the stands. 

              Wesley knew that she was a bit annoyed about how long it was taking him to ask her to the Prom.  She’d even sent him a few pointed hints.  Delilah had raved about the other girl’s dress and strongly hinted at flowers in Jennifer’s favorite color.  He had noticed Jennifer looking at him whenever the other girls were talking about their Prom plans; including the limo he had already paid their part of in advance. 

              He could see her getting in position, spikes on her feet instead of her every day running shoes.  Two laps.  That’s all it would take.  Two laps. 

              “Remember,” he turned to the others, “Don’t hold up your signs until she passes that finish line.” 

              She could hear the cheering from the stands.  The support from her friends.  She was secretly thrilled that they’d thought to come to this race.  It scarcely mattered that she already qualified for Regionals with her time from the previous week’s races.  Wesley had been there for that race. 

              But, she knew what she had to do.  Within seconds she blocked out all noise except for her coach and the officiant on the sidelines.  She wasn’t the only racer aware of the recruiters in the stands.  She knew that any of these girls would try their hardest to beat her just to get noticed. 

              This was her race.  She’d been training for four years to get to this point.  She’d even suffered through Cross-Country at her coach’s recommendation.  She hadn’t been running for four years to let some sophomores and juniors mess everything up now. 

              “On your marks,” she heard.

             
Steady
. 

              “Get set.”

             
Damn.  Some freshman got too eager.  One less person to deal with.
  Jennifer settled back into position, shaking her arms loose as she waited for the freshman to get off the track. 

              “Let’s try this again,” the lady on the sidelines chuckled.  “Tough crowd.”   Taking a deep breath, “On your marks.” 

             
Steady
.

              “Get set.”

             
Steady
.

              “Go!”

             
Two laps.  That’s all it would take.  Two laps.

              She took off running, remembering to pace herself until the last third of the race.  She even let some of the juniors get ahead of her in the curve, not that it was that difficult when everybody had to stay in a lane until they reached the marker at the end of the curve. 

              Okay.  There went the freshmen.  The people from that school that tried to distract me during the 1500 meter.  The juniors. 

              She passed every single one of them.

              It was the seniors that she would be keeping pace with for the next 400 meters.  It wouldn’t do for them to think they couldn’t beat her until the last 100 meters when she would give it her all in the straightaway.

              The crowds were a distance buzz.  She could hear her coach yelling, “Run, Jennifer, run!”  The sentiment echoed among her teammates, except the sophomore she’d already passed. 

              Two hundred to go.  As soon as she made it around that final curve she’d find the last of her energy reserve and sprint down the remainder of that track. 

              She’d have to do it again for the 400 meter, but she’d have time for a break then.  Wait until her friends saw her race that one. 

              But this was her race.

One by one the other seniors either slowed down or were passed.  Jennifer expected about a seven-second gap between her and second place. 

              It wasn’t until she passed the finish line did she allow herself to notice her surroundings.  Except for her coach coming down to congratulate her, she noticed nobody else.  No other noise.  Until…

              “Hey, Jenn!” Wesley shouted.  “Congratulations!”

              Looking up in the stands, she noticed the words.  “Will you go to prom with me?” Each one of her friends was holding one of the words with Wesley holding the “me?”

              “One second,” she said to her coach, before shouting, “YES!” into the stands. 

              Turning back to her coach, she waited for him to give her the times he’d recorded down, to congratulate her on her improved times – she’d cut three seconds off of her previous time –, and sent her into the stands to give her ‘boyfriend’ a sweaty hug.  “Don’t forget about the 400,” he reminded her before preparing for the next race. 

              Grabbing her water bottle from where she had left it, she climbed the stands to where Wesley was standing.  “I was starting to think you were never going to ask me.” 

              “I don’t know where you got that idea.”

              Jennifer wisely did not ignore Delilah’s summons to get dressed for Prom over at her house.  “All you need to do is shower, shave, and dry your hair.  Don’t style it.  My sisters will help take care of our makeup and everything else.” 

              Some of those words were enough to get Jennifer to start a mental stream of profanity that would have made her brothers blush.  Well, maybe her brothers’ significant others.  Or Penny. 

              Yes, definitely Penny. 

              But on the other hand, once Jennifer’s panic receded, she acknowledged that she did want to look pretty for Wesley.  They might not be in a relationship, but she still wanted to look nice for him.  She still wanted to knock his socks off. 

              That’s why she found herself with Grace and Delilah in Charlotte’s room.  The college sophomore had agreed to help out.  There was also the added benefit that Samantha wanted to try out several formal hairstyles for her upcoming wedding that summer. 

              That would be one of the two weddings where Jennifer would have to wear a dress.  In one summer.  She couldn’t wait for it to be over.

But when they looked at Jennifer and back at themselves, Samantha acknowledged that they couldn’t go ‘fancy’ on Jennifer.  “It just won’t work.  She won’t look right.”

              “Well, what should we do?”

              “I don’t know,” Samantha tilted her head.  “Have you ever curled your hair?”

              Jennifer looked between the sisters, “I don’t know.  My mom might have when I was little.”

              Charlotte looked at Samantha, “So we don’t know if it’ll hold.”

              “It might if we use enough hairspray.”

              “And if we use the wand instead of the curling iron.” 

              The sisters went back to looking at her.  She could hear Delilah putting on Grace’s makeup in the other room.  Delilah had escaped with the other girl once Charlotte had finished Grace’s hair. 

              Jennifer didn’t know if she was more concerned over her hair or her makeup.  “Maybe I better…”

              “Sit back down,” one sister commanded while the other pushed on Jennifer’s shoulders.  “We are not done with you yet.”  Then they went back to consulting about what to do as if she wasn’t in the room.

              Finally, Charlotte pulled out the curling wand, “Don’t worry.  I’m a master at this thanks to all of the time I spend helping people get ready at the theatre.”  While the wand heated up she started clipping Jennifer’s hair back in sections. 

              She tried looking over at what Samantha was digging into, but a tug from Charlotte changed her mind.  “Ouch!” she snapped at Delilah’s sister.  “What was that for?”

              “Stop trying to peek,” Charlotte scolded.  “It’s going to be a surprise.” 

              “I hate surprises.  Did Delilah ever tell you about the surprise one of my brother’s gave me?”  She glared at the reflection of the Davis sisters in the mirror.

              Charlotte didn’t look up from where she was checking the curling wand.  “Why would she?”

              “Because you know this brother?” Jennifer weakly supplied. 

              Shrugging her shoulders, Charlotte turned back to her victim, “Probably.  I think Samantha dated one of them.”  Turning to face her sister, she sweetly asked, “You did date Gage, right?”

              “We had one date and I ended up paying for the entire evening,” Samantha growled.  “Worst date ever.”

              Jennifer laughed, “That sounds like something Gage would do.”  Turning back to Charlotte, “But I’m talking about Drew.  And the time when he put all of my clothes online, for free, and filled my closet with dresses and skirts from the Goodwill.” 

              Samantha and Charlotte looked at Jennifer and then back at each other.  “Sounds like what we did to Delilah,” one of them whispered. 

              “We did give Dee her pants back after that first day.  And look at what happened because she was forced to wear a skirt that first day.  It served its purpose.”

              “I don’t think our purpose was for Delilah and David to get together.  Our purpose was to help Delilah move on.” 

              Jennifer started to get a headache from all her ping ponging back and forth between the siblings.  She wondered if crossing her eyes, or even just turning her head instead of following the conversation with her eyes, would be less painful.  “Thank goodness I don’t have sisters.”

              “Well, Drew did pull a girl move by selling all of your clothes,” Charlotte pointed out. 

              Sighing, “Can we just get this over with?”

              Wesley, Garrett Bryant, and Will Cooper all went to collect the limo.  They picked up Will’s date first – Tracy Wyatt.  Wesley was a little concerned when Tracy slid into the limo next to Garrett first, putting her hand on his thigh to help her move closer to where Will had settled in. 

              Their next stop was Delilah’s house where David and Kyle would be waiting with the other girls.  “Come on inside for pictures,” Wesley suggested to Will and Tracy.  “Delilah’s sister Samantha is in town and David told me that she takes amazing photos.” 

              They all poured out of the limo, Wesley a bit more eagerly than the others, and headed towards the front door.  Before anybody could knock or ring the doorbell, the door was pulled open by one of the Davis sisters, he didn’t know which one.  The other one shouted upstairs while Kyle and David greeted their friends – including Garrett and Tracy even though they didn’t know the two newcomers very well. 

              David was the first person to notice movement on the stairs.  He started grinning when he saw Delilah descending the stairs in her dress.  Kelly wasn’t far behind her, smiling until she noticed that her date wasn’t paying attention.  A quick nudge from Wesley alerted Garrett to his date’s appearance. 

              Grace somehow floated down.  Charlotte held her breath until the other girl had both feet on level ground – she was remembering her own fall and broken arm from the year before and hoped they wouldn’t have a repeat.  Lifting her hem, Grace revealed her flats to Kyle, who started laughing.  “I’m glad to know that.”  He kept thinking about how many times over the school year he’d had to catch his not-so-graceful girlfriend.

              Jennifer was last and as she descended the staircase, not even looking at Wesley but at her own two feet – also in flats.  Delilah and David noticed how Wesley’s jaw had dropped at Jennifer’s simple black dress.  Her hair was curled – and coated with a small can of hairspray – and pulled back at her temples by sparkly hair combs.  Somebody had found a necklace that flirted with her modestly covered cleavage. 

              “Well?” she asked, finally looking up.  “Will I do?”

              “You look stunning.” 

              Samantha changed her focus – she’d been taking photos of the girls as they came down the stairs – and caught a shot of Wesley looking at Jennifer.  Leaning towards her sister, “Are you sure they aren’t together?” she whispered.

              “Positive.”

              “They should be.”

              “Jennifer has a thing about high school relationships.” 

              David pulled Delilah into his arms, “I’m glad you don’t,” he mumbled, obvious to Samantha’s camera focusing on them. 

              The venue for the Prom glittered.  It seriously looked as if the glitter fairy had thrown up over everything and nobody decided to be the person that had to clean it up.  That was the first thing that both Jennifer and Wesley thought as they followed their friends into the room. 

              On closer inspection, it was more than just glitter that decorated the tables and floor.  Shiny confetti had joined the mix.  Shimmery things bobbled up and down from fishing line, lights on the inside of them cast soft balls of light around the room.    Fairy lights, as Kelly called them, were twined around the lanterns – closer inspection told Jennifer that paper lanterns had been covered in material – and draped around the room. 

              “Well?” Kelly bounced, “How did we do?”

              Suddenly the surplus of glitter made sense.  The lights and lanterns reminded David of that awful party the previous year that Aimee had insisted he throw.  Kelly too had helped decorate his yard, even though it had meant following Aimee’s commands. 

              Oblivious to her friends’ lack of response, “One of the other girls insisted on throwing glitter everywhere.  Somebody else had suggested confetti that had a shine to it instead, but before anybody could do anything Nicole had tossed the glitter everywhere.  We spent hours trying to sweep it up after she left, but…”

              “Glitter is difficult to remove,” David finished, remembering the glitter that Aimee had insisted on and how long it took for all of it to wash away.  A year later he was still finding it on the patio.

              Beaming at David, Kelly bounced again, “Exactly!”

              “I love the lanterns,” Jennifer added.

              “And the fairy lights,” Grace whispered, still overwhelmed.  Within moments she was pulled away by Kyle as he tugged her towards some of his other friends.  “Save us a seat!” she called out to Delilah. 

              Will grabbed Tracy’s hand, “We’ll be over there,” he pointed.  “Let us know when you are ready to go.”  Kelly and Garrett followed after them. 

              “It still looks like a fairy has gotten sick in here,” Wesley whispered in Jennifer’s ear.

              “Or a unicorn,” she added. 

              The friends started laughing, uncaring that David and Delilah were looking at them as if they’d gone crazy.  They were at Prom.  Jennifer was in a dress. 

              Maybe she had lost her mind.  The room was starting to grow on Jennifer.  The glitter and larger confetti reflected the light, sending little sparkles around the room.  The lights were set to twinkle instead of a solid glow.  The lanterns were gently swaying as people touched them, sending even more reflections bouncing around the room.  It reminded her, vaguely, of a starry night. 

              Everything was going according to normal.  They danced, they ate the food – the girls carefully in order to protect their dresses from food falling on or in their dresses – and they sat in the chairs chatting as weary feet were rubbed.  On occasion, Penny, who had refused the limo for herself, would complain about how “trashy” everybody’s dresses were.  Nobody was surprised when her date disappeared. 

              It took a turn when a screech was sounded over the music.  Jennifer quickly looked in the direction where the sound came from and saw Aimee grinning from where she watched the scene.  That never was a good sign. 

              “How dare you pour that punch over my head!” Tracy Wyatt screeched - there was no other way to describe her highly pitched tone that sounded like feedback from a dropped microphone – at Kelly.

              “Then you shouldn’t have been making out with my date,” Kelly calmly responded.  Turning to look at Garrett, “You can have him.”  She started to turn around, “But not the limo.” 

              Grabbing Will’s hand, she tugged him over to where her friends were watching the scene.  “I can’t believe they did that!” she was heard exclaiming.  Looking up, she saw the smirk on Aimee’s face.  “But I do believe Tracy was paid to do it.”  Kelly nodded over to where Aimee was watching them.