The Hidden (19 page)

They all looked at each other and grinned.

I laughed loudly, and it echoed around us.
My friends are really strange.
The bell rang, and the group turned to go. I stood there for a moment, gazing after them as they walked. That thought sinking into my brain.
My friends
…

“Yo, you coming?” Beth yelled.

“Yeah.” I smiled down at the ground. “I’m coming.”

“All right, superstar.” Ben grinned at me as I walked out of English. “What color bow tie should I wear? I know you probably don’t have a dress yet because girls have to wait until the last minute for everything, right? I know the ‘girl rules.’ But just let me know when you know, so I can get the right one.”

“The right color bow tie?” I gave him a confused look. “Um, what?”

“For the Hollow Ball? I got your note. In my locker.”

A suspicious feeling filled the pit of my stomach. “Can I see the note?”

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a folded slip of paper. I recognized Caspian’s handwriting right away. He’d even taken the time to draw little hearts.

One word was all there was: YES.

Clearly all signs were pointing to yes.

Why fight it?
I sighed. “Yup. It was about the Hollow Ball.”

“I knew you couldn’t resist me.” He grinned, then said, “Beth’s going with Lewis, so do you want to rent a limo with them? We could take Candy Christine, but the limo is classier.”

Ugh. This means dress shopping
… “Um, yeah, sure. That’s fine with me.”

“Okay. I’m on it. Oh, and what about the wrist flower thing?”

“Corsage?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

He looked relieved. “Okay. Great. Let me know about the bow tie, though. Gotta go.”

“Will do,” I called as he walked away.
I’ll get on that just as soon as I’m done chewing my boyfriend out.

When Caspian came to pick me up at the end of the day, I was waiting for him. Arms crossed. He read my face. “You found out about my note, didn’t you?”

I glanced over at Cyn, who was rearranging her dead plant menagerie to make room for another one. “Not here,” I said quietly.

“All I wanted to do was—”

“Something that I didn’t want you to do,” I interrupted. “I told you I wanted to make my own decision. Why didn’t you respect that?”

Cyn paused and glanced over her shoulder at me.

I moved away from her, away from Caspian, and started walking down the hall. We needed to finish this discussion somewhere private. Where no one could hear me. I didn’t let loose again until we were home, in the safety of my room.

“How could you
do
that?” I stormed, stalking around the bed. All of my words were pent up inside me and ready to burst out. “I just can’t believe it.”

“I thought it would help.”

“Help? How is making the decision for me helping me? In what way, shape, or form is that ‘help’?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have—”

But I was too mad to listen. “Now I’m going to
have
to go. I
told Ben yes, and I can’t back out. How is that fair to me?”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.”

I paced back and forth. “This
also
means that I’m going to have to go dress shopping. Most likely with my
mother
. Which is never fun, by the way.” I blew out an angry breath. “And now—”

“Astrid.” He stood up, and came to face me. “Give me the note.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I’m going to write a new one. I got you into this. I’ll get you out. Consider it already done.”

I fished the note out of my pocket. It was crumpled around the edges from where Ben had been holding it. As I stared blindly down at it, all I could see was the expression on Ben’s face as he talked about his bow tie and the limo. Then I saw him giving me the tickets in case I said no.

Caspian reached for it.

“Wait.” I sighed, holding it back. “You can’t. I’ll feel bad.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“Yeah, but
I
won’t get over it.”

He paused, hand outstretched. “I don’t want to make you do anything you’ll regret.”

“Other than the dress shopping with my mother, the only regret I have is that I won’t get to go with you.” I exhaled again
and sat down. “Actually, I think that’s what I’m really mad about. Going with Ben is no big deal. It’s the fact that if I want to go at all, it has to be with someone other than you.” I glanced up at him and said softly, “I want to be there with
you
as my date.”

“I know. I want that too. Believe me, I actually thought about …” He shook his head. “It’s selfish, but I actually thought about telling you not to go. To stay here with me.”

As he said that, I realized how much it must have hurt him to push me to go with Ben. All so I wouldn’t miss out on my senior prom. “I’m not letting you off the hook for pretending to be me and writing that note,” I said. “But I understand why you did it.”

He went over to my desk and opened up a drawer. “I, uh, have something for you. Something that I hope will act as a peace offering.” Reaching down into the drawer, his hand disappeared.

“Damn it,” he said a minute later. “Damn. I can’t …”

“What?” I got up and went over to him.

“I can’t pick it up.” He glanced at me, eyes wide with panic. “I can’t touch it.”

Panic flared inside me too. “Try again. You can do it.”

He reached his hand down again. With the same result.

“One more time,” I pleaded, refusing to believe what was
happening. Or almost happening. Refusing to believe that the loss of control over his sleeping, and now this, might mean he was fading away from me. “Try again.
Please
.”

He did, and this time the results were different.

With a look of relief, he pulled out a small square item draped in a piece of blue cloth. He placed it down on the desk.

“It worked that time, see?” I said, trying to keep the edge of desperation out of my voice.

“Yeah.” He was doing the same thing too. Affecting a falsely happy tone. Nudging the item toward me, he said, “Open it.”

I picked the object up and slowly peeled away the fabric. A small piece of wood was revealed. On closer inspection I could see that it was actually resting on top of a second piece of wood. The edges were smooth and round, sanded down to perfection. And the wood had been stained a light cherry color. Tiny crank handles were at each corner.

It was surprisingly lightweight, and fit comfortably in my hands.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a flower press. You place a flower in between the two pieces of wood, like a sandwich. Then you turn the handles to tighten it, and it flattens the flower. It takes five to seven days for the flower to dry completely.”

“How did you …? Where did you …?”

“I went to go see Nikolas today, and he made it.”

I turned it around and around to look at it. “This is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Now I just need to get some flowers.” I smiled up at him. “Thank you, Caspian. I love it.”

He stuck a hand into his front pocket. “It wasn’t a bribe or anything. I don’t want you to think that. But I
did
think it would be in my best interest if I had a present to give you today.”

“Today, of all days, when you just so happened to promise Ben that I’d go to the dance with him?” I raised my eyebrow.

“Totally and completely had nothing to do with that.”

Laughing, I cradled my gift closer. “Let’s just say, then, that you’re a very good present picker. And an even smarter boyfriend.”

It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day; the sky was clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance.

—“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

M
om was in the kitchen when Caspian and I got home from school the next day. “Do you have any plans right now?” she asked me. “I mean, when are you going dress shopping with Beth?”

Mentally I prepared my argument. Beth and I had made plans last night. “We’re not going until Wednesday. But I have homework to do. Why?”

“A lot of homework? Or can it wait?”

I cast a side glance at Caspian. “That depends. Can you just tell me what’s up?”

Excitement was written all over her face. She could barely contain her grin. “I want to take you somewhere. But it’s a surprise.”

“I’m not sure if I can—”

“Just go with her, Astrid,” Caspian said to me. “She’s excited.”

I shook my head slightly at him. I had no clue what Mom’s surprise was, and didn’t know if I was in the mood to find out.

“Go,” he said sternly. “Come
on
. Look how happy she is.”

I sighed. I knew when I was beat. “Okay, yeah, I’ll go,” I said to Mom. “Homework can wait.”

“Oh, good!” she squealed.

“Just let me take my stuff upstairs and get changed, okay?”

She nodded, and I trudged toward the stairs. Caspian followed behind me. “You are in
so
much trouble,” I said to him quietly.

He just grinned.

When we got upstairs, I threw my book bag onto the bed and went to change my jeans. “If she ‘surprises’ me with a bad prom dress again, you’re going to have to make it up to me in a major way,” I called out from my closet. “I am totally serious.”

“Just humor her,” he replied. “I’m sure it won’t be like that.”

“Are we talking about my mother here? Because I thought we were.”

“I know, I know. But if she does, then you have my permission to take it back.”

I laughed loudly. “Your permission? Oh, I’m so glad.” I switched shirts and came stalking out. He was still grinning in a maddening way. Like he knew something I didn’t. “
Major
sucking up,” I reiterated. “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll think of something.”

He came over to me. “You are being a very good daughter,” he said softly. “Think about how happy your mom will be. This is a good memory for her. For when …”

For when I’m gone.

I sighed and looked up at him. “You’re right. But I’m totally doing this for you, you know.” He nodded, and I grabbed my phone. “All right, all right. I’m off, then. Wish me luck.”

“You won’t need it,” he said. “How bad can it be?”

Mom was waiting for me downstairs, and we both hurried out to the car. “Where are we going?” I asked, getting in.

“Still a surprise,” she said. “Are you hungry? Do you want to grab a snack somewhere first?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Gelato?” she suggested. “We can stop at the new place downtown.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

We both buckled, and Mom pulled out of the driveway.
Halloween decorations were up at each house that we passed, straw-stuffed scarecrows and pumpkins at every corner. White trash-bag ghosts hung from the lampposts that lined the town streets, and ghoulish, grinning orange papier-mâché masks filled shop windows.

“You know tourism is up by thirty-three percent this season,” Mom said casually. “It looks like it’s going to be a great holiday.”

“Good for business.”

“It
is
good. You can’t overestimate the importance of customer traffic. It’s all about location, location, location. That’s an important thing to think about when you’re a business owner.”

We came to a little Italian ice stand with a red, green, and white striped awning, wedged in between a shoe repair store and a bank. It advertised Momma Mia’s Icy Treats.

“They have gelato here?” I questioned. “Are you sure it’s not just Italian ice?”

“How can they have one and not the other?” she said.

“True. But I’m really in the mood for gelato now, so if they don’t have it, I might not get anything.”

Mom laughed. “If they don’t have it, then I’ll take you somewhere else. Okay?”

“Okay.”

We moved to get in line, and I squinted to read the tiny, almost illegible hand-printed menu sign. “Frozen ice, frozen slushies, frozen fruit bars …,” I read out loud.

“Aha! Gelato!” Mom said.