The Dating Game (16 page)

“That’s not fair,” she managed to say. Her throat felt tight. She was so disappointed. “You’ll ruin the results of our IHD project.”

“I don’t care,” Gilbert said. “I’m ruthless. I’ll do anything to get you.”

He pulled a bunch of roses wrapped in cellophane from behind his back and presented them to her. She gripped the stems with her cold, cold fingers.

“Madison, I have something very important to talk about with you,” Gilbert said. “I have a confession to make. It’s a little embarrassing, but I know I can trust you.”

“What is it?” Mads asked. She wanted desperately to leave but her legs felt frozen stiff.

“Madison, I’m a virgin.” Mads looked up at him. Did she hear him right? Or was this all just part of some terrible dream?

“Did you just say you were a virgin?” Mads asked. “At twelve? Gee, that’s a shocker.”

“Yes, it’s true,” Gilbert said, wiping his nose with his sleeve. “I know it’s hard to believe. But I have decided to lose my virginity with you. You’re a little older than I am, so you must be more advanced, right?”

Oh my god
, Mads thought. If only he knew. Was Gilbert sent by the devil to torture her?

“So is it a deal?” Gilbert asked. “Can we do it as soon as possible? We could lock the art room door and do it right here, right now. What do you say?”

Gilbert flashed her a big smile and got down in front of her on one knee, arms open wide.

Mads stared at him in disbelief. The roses fell from her hands to the floor, but she didn’t notice or care. She was too stunned to speak.

Gilbert’s smile faded, but he wasn’t giving up hope yet. “Or I could take you out on a date first,” he offered. “That would be fine, too.”

Slowly, the icy shock that had held her in its grip began to thaw. Mads wiggled her fingers and toes. She wanted to run screaming from the room, but she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her up.

She slowly got to her feet, testing her strength. “I understand your situation, Gilbert,” she said in a calm voice. “Believe me, I feel for you. But I can’t help you. I’m sorry, but I’m not interested.”

Gilbert shuffled across the floor on his knees in a panic. “Madison, if you’d give me a chance to win you over—”

Madison’s calm, polite shell cracked. It had never been too sturdy to begin with. Her legs, however, were fine.

“No!” she shouted. “Get away from me!”

Now
she ran screaming from the room.

“Madison, come back!” Gilbert shouted. “Will you go to the dance with me?”

16

The Dance Begins

To:     mad4u, hollygolitely, linaonme

From: Your daily horoscope

HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: SOLAR ECLIPSE! Another huge astrological event. Unfortunately, it will happen in the Southern Hemisphere, so you Northerners won’t get to see it. But that doesn’t mean it won’t affect you. The stars predict close encounters, close calls, and close shaves for everybody.

I
’ll meet you girls back here at eleven, all right?” Lina’s father said to Lina and Mads, leaning out the window of his black Lexus sedan.

“All right, Dad. Thanks,” Lina said.

“Thanks, Mr. Ozu,” Mads said. It had only been a few joyous weeks since Holly got her driver’s license, but Lina and Mads were already used to having her pick them up for parties and stuff. It felt like a hardship to have to rely on a parent again.

“What if Holly and Rob become a couple?” Mads asked. “Holly will never want to drive us anywhere. And you’re not turning sixteen until July!”

“But if Holly likes Rob…” Lina said. “I mean, I don’t think that’s a very good reason to want them not to get together.”

“I know. It’s totally selfish and I’m a terrible person. We’ll just have to cozy up to Rebecca or somebody. I think her birthday’s in March.”

They stood outside the school entrance, watching the students pour in for the dance. Then they went inside and down the hall to the auditorium, which had been lamely decorated with fake snow, an igloo, and colored lights. There was no band, just a DJ—somebody’s older brother—hired by the social committee. Still, even though they pretended it was no big deal, Lina and Mads were excited. Mads hoped Sean would be there. Maybe she could dance near him and he’d turn around and they’d dance together, even if only for a few seconds.

Lina had borrowed her mother’s perfume, just in case Dan somehow stood close to her. Maybe he’d catch a whiff of the sophisticated scent and it would stay with him, haunting him, making him think of Lina in a new way.…

“Hi, girls.” There he was. Dan stood by the door, welcoming the kids as they entered the auditorium. He wore his usual suit and skinny tie, dressed up with a porkpie hat. “You both look great.”

Lina felt her face flame. She knew he was saying it in a general way to both her and Mads. But still his words had an effect on her—she couldn’t help it.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Have a good time tonight,” he said. The girls walked in. He stayed at the door to greet more kids. Music was blasting but nobody was dancing yet.

“Let’s get a drink,” Mads said, and they made a beeline for the soda table. It was something to do. They got sodas and leaned against a wall, watching and waiting to see how the chips would fall as the kids settled in.

Lina’s eyes kept wandering back to Dan at the door. How did he treat everyone? Pretty evenly, it seemed. But he must like some students more than others, must have some secret signal he gives out to show it, even if he isn’t aware of it.… Ugh, in came Ramona, with Siobhan, Chandra, and Maggie. They were in full vampire makeup, black hair streaked with temporary red stripes, towering black lace-up boots and gauzy Stevie Nicks dresses. They fluttered around Dan like moths, pretending to cast some kind of witchy spell on him. He laughed and played along. Just being nice, probably. Then they scurried out to the dance floor, the first ones to start dancing, all together in a circle, twirling and spinning as if caught up in some kind of secret ecstasy. God, they bugged Lina. They acted as if they knew something no one else did, as if they had a secret wisdom or knowledge. But Lina suspected—no, knew—it was just an act, a way to make themselves feel special. Underneath the costumes and hair dye and cakey makeup they were just regular doofuses like everybody else.

“Hey.” Mads nudged her. “There’s Holly and Rob.”

Holly looked so pretty in her form-fitting knit dress and knee-high boots, her heavy hair piled up messily on top of her head, that Mads regretted her selfish tantrum about driving.

Holly waved and left Rob for a minute to greet them. “You guys look so cute!” she said.

“How’s it going?” Lina asked, meaning the date with Rob.

“No glitches yet,” Holly said. “We just got here. If somebody besides the four witches would dance, maybe we would, too. You should come dance with us!”

“No,” Mads said. “This is like a first date for you. We’ll wait until you’re a well-established couple, then we’ll barge in on you.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Lina said. “Go!”

Holly glowed. She trotted back to Rob. They went to the drink table for sodas.

Lina and Mads checked out the chaperones, clustered in two clumps near the door and the drink table. “There’s Mildew,” Mads said, “the snooze machine. Look what she’s wearing.”

The stout Ms. Weymouth wore a bright-orange flowered caftan and a lei made of plastic flowers. She was droning in the ear of Frank Welling, the art teacher, who was dressed according to theme in a puffy ski outfit.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Mads said. Ms. Weymouth and Mr. Welling seemed to have nothing in common—except, of course, that they both taught at Rosewood. And their last names started with W.

“Maybe she’s flirting with him,” Lina said. “Or trying to pick him up! Like, ‘Oh, Frank, meet me in the woods behind the gym. Make passionate love to me, Frank!’”

Mads laughed. “Yeah, and he’s saying, ‘Will do, Mildew. Just give me a few minutes to shoot myself in the head first.’ Isn’t she married?”

“I don’t know. Probably.”

“It’s funny that the chaperones don’t bring dates to the dance,” Mads said. “You know, so they’d have somebody to dance with.”

“I don’t see why they can’t dance with students,” Lina said.

“I bet you don’t,” Mads said.

Mademoiselle Barker, a slender, pretty young French teacher with sleek, short dark hair and a fringe along her forehead too short to call bangs, twirled across the room to the door and started talking to Dan. She took his hand and danced a few steps in front of him, hips swaying, while he stood rooted in place and laughed.

She’s not married,
Lina thought.
If she were, we’d call her Madame.

Mlle. Barker did another skirt-flying spin and gave up on Dan for the moment. A new song played and a group of football players stormed the dance floor, stomping their feet and clapping. Must have been some anthem they warmed up to in the locker room before games.

Mads suddenly pinched Lina’s upper arm, then tightened her grip. “Sean’s here,” she whispered.

“Ow.” Lina yanked her arm away. Sean walked in with his friends Alex Sipress, Barton Mitchell, and Mo Basri. Sean had his arm around a pretty girl Lina didn’t recognize. She was tall and blond with long bangs that nearly hid her large, black-lined eyes. She was wearing jeans and boots and a too-small military jacket over a tight t-shirt. She looked as if she hadn’t planned on going to a dance at all, which of course made her the hippest girl in the room. She was too cool to go to a school dance; this was just a lark for her, on the way to bigger and better things.

“Who’s that?” Mads asked.

“Maybe it’s Sean’s sister,” Lina said.

“Sean doesn’t have a sister,” Mads said. “And don’t say cousin. She’s obviously not his cousin either.”

Sean swung the girl around until she was dizzy, then pulled her tightly against him and kissed her on the mouth.

“Guess she goes to another school,” Lina said. Or college. The girl had to be at least eighteen.

Mads stared at them, scowling. How could she ever compete with a girl like that? No matter what Mads did, no matter how sophisticated she tried to be, she’d never be that cool. It was like trying to compete with a movie star—so impossible, so depressing, Mads couldn’t even hold the thought in her mind. She let it fly away and returned to her usual state of ditzy optimism.

“So Sean has a date,” Mads said. “It’s not as if I didn’t expect it. I’m in this for the long haul.” She aimed her laser vision at Sean’s friends: Alex, Barton, and Mo.

“Alex is the cutest,” Lina said.

“I concur,” Mads said. “Alex it is. I’ll hook up with Sean’s friend. He’ll have to notice that. It may take some time to maneuver from Alex to Sean, but at least step one will be accomplished: Sean will realize that I am not a little kid. If I’m mature enough to be with his friend Alex, then I’m mature enough to be with him.”

Mads presented herself to Lina for inspection. Everything checked out okay. “Go get him,” Lina said.

“Hey, Lina.” Walker slouched up to her in his coolguy way. “Want to dance?”

Lina glanced at Mads, who practically pushed her onto the dance floor. “Mads, why don’t you dance with us?” Lina said.

“Yeah, Mads,” Walker said, taking both girls’ hands and leading them onto the floor. “Come on. I love this song.”

The three of them danced together to OutKast. Mads maneuvered their group to be near Sean. The dance floor was crowded now, everybody dancing whether they had a partner or not, but Sean was definitely dancing with the blond girl.

Mads turned away from Lina and found herself face-to-face with Alex. He grinned, grabbed her hand, and twirled her around. Mads laughed, delighted. The OutKast song segued into the Neptunes, and Alex didn’t let Mads go. Mads did her sexy shimmy, and Alex laughed.

They kept going, song after song, until Mads didn’t know where Holly or Lina were, or even Sean. She and Alex were in their own little dance world, hot and sweaty. Just as Mads was getting thirsty and thinking of stopping for a drink, a pale face framed by a pageboy haircut popped into her field of vision. Yucky Gilbert.

“Aauugh!” Mads screamed.

“Hi, Madison!” Gilbert was looking his yuckiest in a pea-green knit shirt that emphasized his sallow skin tone.

Alex elbowed Gilbert away. “Dude, we’re dancing here.” Thank god for Alex. Mads thought she could fall in love with him for that gesture alone.

She danced on, afraid to stop for a drink now. It might give Gilbert an opening and Alex a chance to leave. She tried to shut Gilbert out, but he kept buzzing around her, arms and legs flailing. One of his arms flew up and accidentally slapped the back of her head.

“Ow!” Mads cried, rubbing her head.

“Do you know this guy?” Alex asked.

“Not really,” Mads said. “Gilbert, leave us alone!”

“May I cut in?” he asked, so beyond getting the hint that a steamroller couldn’t have stopped him. He placed himself between Mads and Alex and let his arms and legs flap around like noodles.

Mads gave up. “Want to get something to drink?” she asked Alex.

“Yeah.”

They walked away, leaving Gilbert dancing by himself for a few seconds. When he realized he’d been abandoned, he followed them to the drink table. He took a flask from his jacket pocket and waved it under Mads’ nose. “Irish up your Sprite, Mads?” he offered, unscrewing the top of the flask. “I’ve got melon liqueur in here. I wanted vodka but my mom only drinks melon liqueur. She puts it in her diet smoothies.”

“No, thanks.” Alex’s eyes were scanning the room. His attention was straying. No! She had to keep him interested. She had to get rid of Gilbert.

At the other end of the auditorium, Mr. Welling and some social committee kids were setting up a pizza table. A long line of kids had already formed, waiting for slices.

“Why don’t you go get us some pizza, Gilbert?” Mads asked. That ought to keep him busy for a while. The line was growing fast. Maybe she and Alex could slip away before he came back.

“Okay, Madison,” Gilbert said. “Whatever you like. Hey, they’ve got garlic knots. Do you like garlic knots?”

“Sure, whatever,” Mads said. “Just hurry up and get in line before it gets too long.”