Текст книги "This Is So Not Happening"

Автор книги: Kieran Scott

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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

november

Did you guys see Chloe in gym this morning?

           Uh, yeah. What is with the man sweats?

And did you notice her, um, gut?

Looked more like a bump to me, if you know what I’m sayin’.

No. What are you saying?

A bump. You know. Like a baby bump?

No!

YES!

Shut up! Are you serious?

           Who do you think the father is?

           Hammond Ross. It’s gotta be.

I dunno. I’ve noticed Will Halloran

watching her from afar with his mope on.

Please. Like Queen C would ever allow a Norm to enter her crystal palace.

              What about Jake Graydon?

What? No.

           You said it yourself. They have been spending a lot of time together.

OMG, poor Ally!

           You mean poor Chloe.

Right. Her too.

ally

“It’s official,” Chloe said. “I’m going to have a baby.”

Never had those words been uttered in such an unenthusiastic tone. Chloe sat down at the end of our lunch table, bringing with her a cloud of her rose-scented perfume, and placed a stack of lavender envelopes down in front of her. I closed my laptop, which was open to my mom’s latest ten bridesmaids dress options, and looked at Jake. Shannen and Faith went silent. At the far end of the table, the Idiot Twins, Connor, and Josh were too distracted by their game of “can you squeeze juice out of an apple by wedging it in the crook of your arm and flexing superhard?” to overhear.

“Um, I thought we already knew that,” Jake said.

Chloe hooked her bag strap around the back of the chair. “Yeah, but now it’s definitely happening. My parents are one hundred percent against abortion, which I was dreading anyway, so … it looks like I’m about to get seriously fat.”

She put her hand on her stomach under the table. She was wearing a cable knit tunic and leggings, which had become kind of her signature look lately, and she, of course, rocked it so well that some of the underclassmen were now mimicking it.

I stared at Jake, frozen. His right eye twitched, and from what I could tell he wasn’t breathing. Did this mean …? Was she saying she was going to keep the baby? I had this awful feeling I was about to see my boyfriend faint or explode.

“Wow. So … wow,” Jake said, lowering his fork. He’d already wolfed down half of his cafeteria mac and cheese and looked to be regretting it.

“Don’t worry. I’m giving it up for adoption,” Chloe said. “My mom’s interviewing agencies today, actually.”

I blew out a breath and Jake did too. I saw Shannen and Faith exchange a relieved look. Talk about burying the lead.

“Oh, thank God.” Jake exhaled, collapsing forward so fast his head almost hit the table.

“Wow. Tell me how you really feel,” Chloe said with a touch of sarcasm.

“Oh.” Jake blinked, sitting up straight. “Sorry. Are you … I mean, you’re not upset, are you?” I saw him swallow when she didn’t say anything, his Adam’s apple bobbing over the collar of his rugby shirt. “Are you?”

“Yeah, I mean … this is a good thing, right?” I said, trying to help him out. “Some couple will get a baby they really want and it’ll have a good home.”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just so weird,” Chloe said. Her eyes unfocused as she stared at a random point on the table. “The first baby I ever have … and it’s not going to be mine.”

Her hand was on her stomach again and I felt as if my own organs were turning to rock. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be inside her brain, inside her body. Not even the tiniest bit. I looked over at Shannen, and Shannen looked from me to Faith. Clearly none of us had any clue what we were supposed to say.

This was one of those rare moments when I completely forgot she’d gone after the guy I liked and I just felt bad for her.

“But at least I get to stay in school,” Chloe added. “My parents wanted me to drop out and get a tutor and try to keep the whole thing a secret, but I said no. I’m not ashamed,” she said, her eyes shining. “And I’m not gonna miss my senior year.”

I swallowed hard. I always knew Chloe was brave, but this was a level of strength I hadn’t seen before.

“So. What’re those?” Faith asked. She pointed at the envelopes, effectively changing the subject.

“Oh, invites to my birthday,” Chloe said, slipping a few from the top of the pile. “I don’t feel like having one, but Mom and Dad are all about keeping up appearances, so it looks like I’ve got a party to plan.”

She placed an envelope down on the table near the top of my tray and I picked it up with both hands. She’d written our names out in swirly cursive with a pink glitter pen and stuck a rhinestone star in the corner. It seemed so wrong. So incongruently optimistic.

“Oooh! Pretty!” Faith cooed, tearing into her envelope and pulling out a sparkling pink card.

“Your dad’s renting out the Hayden Planetarium?” Shannen asked, looking up from her own invite.

“Yep. The theme is ‘Catch a Rising Star!’” Chloe said, spreading her fingers wide with a bright, fake smile. “Like I said, appearances.”

“Do you need any help?” Jake asked, tucking his invite away without opening it. “I mean, I know how you guys plan parties. It’s like a full-time job. And your doctor said you should be resting as much as possible….”

I looked down at my congealing macaroni and cheese and my eyes blurred. Why? Why did I suddenly feel so sad? I should say something. Offer my help too. But I felt like Chloe’s invitation had wedged itself inside my throat, preventing speech. From the corner of my eye, I saw Hammond approaching our table—something he hadn’t done once this semester. His timing couldn’t have been more awful.

“Thanks for the offer, but I had to beg on hands and knees just to be allowed to invite you,” Chloe said.

“Aren’t you grounded, anyway?” I said quietly. Jake hadn’t been able to so much as go out for a run since they’d told his parents about the baby, so I wasn’t sure how he was supposed to help out with the party of the century.

“Right,” he said reluctantly. “Forgot about that.”

“It’s okay,” Chloe assured him. “Honestly, I think the less my parents see of you right now, the better.”

“Aw! Couple of the Year having trouble?” Hammond teased, pausing just off Jake’s right shoulder. His blond hair had been cropped into a spiky ’do and he wore his varsity jacket over a white turtleneck sweater, which made him look twice his size—more shoulder, more chest, and more neck. Why did I get the feeling this was intentional?

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Hammond, please don’t start.”

“Sorry.” And he actually did look sorry. For a second. “Do you need help with something?” he asked Chloe.

“No. I’m good. Jake was just offering to help plan my birthday party,” Chloe replied. She tugged out Hammond’s invitation and handed it to him. “But my parents …”

Jake shifted in his seat. He curled his fingers around the corners of his tray.

“Oh, well, if you need someone, I’m around,” Hammond offered. “And last I checked, your parents still liked me.”

He laughed in this obnoxious way and slapped Jake on the back. Jake shrugged him off violently, which just made Hammond smile wider.

“Yeah?” Chloe said, brightening slightly. “You’d do that?”

“Maybe not, like, picking out the flowers or whatever, but if you’ve got any heavy lifting or driving or need me to pick something up …”

“Since when are you Mr. Helpful?” Shannen said suspiciously.

“Just trying to pick up the slack for my friend here,” Hammond said, kneading Jake’s shoulders now.

Actually, it was pretty clear he was just trying to get under Jake’s skin. And even clearer, by the severe clench of my boyfriend’s jaw, that it was working.

“Hammond, that’d be great,” Chloe said. “Thanks.”

“Sure. Of course. Just text me,” Hammond said. “Whatever you need.”

Jake’s glare could have stopped a runaway train. Was he jealous or something? Mad that Chloe was choosing Hammond’s help over his? Wasn’t it enough that he went to every doctor’s appointment with her now and carried her bag and made sure she always had a water bottle on her? What the hell?

Hammond turned sideways to slide behind Jake’s chair, jostling it purposely with his knees so that Jake was shoved forward, and joined the guys at the other end of the table. Again, for the first time this semester.

“That was weird with a capital W,” Faith said. “Has he even spoken to you since the big reveal?” she asked Chloe.

“Not at all,” Chloe replied. “Maybe he’s finally realizing what a jerk he’s been.”

“Like that’s possible,” Shannen muttered, pushing her fork around in her noodles.

Chloe lifted a shoulder as she stood. “Miracles do happen.” It was amazing how she could still be all bright-side-focused with everything that was going on. “I’m gonna go get some food. Anyone want anything?”

“I’ll get it.” Jake jumped up like he’d been launched from a slingshot. “What do you need?”

Chloe laughed and touched his arm. I couldn’t help staring at her dainty, manicured fingers on the sleeve of his blue sweater. “It’s okay. I can handle a tray.”

“I’ll come with you,” Jake said, turning up the aisle. “In case you need me to carry anything.”

Chloe rolled her eyes but realized it was pointless to argue. “Okay, fine. We’ll be right back,” she said over her shoulder. It made me cringe, the way she said “we.”

I watched as she walked away with my boyfriend, their heads bent toward each other in conversation. I watched as dozens of other people marked their progress toward the food line too. Some of them even looked back at me curiously, wondering what was going on. I caught Annie’s eye across the aisle and she raised one eyebrow at me like, Told you so. I clenched my hands together under the table, telling myself not to care. Annie was wrong. Chloe didn’t like Jake that way. They were just in this together. There was no getting around it.

Then Lincoln strolled past Annie, munching from a candy bag as always, and she very slowly licked her top lip. Suddenly I was both blushing and nauseous. When he saw me, he winked, and I was just grateful his back was to Annie when he did it.

“Don’t let them get to you,” Shannen said, knocking my arm with her elbow. Clearly she’d noticed the looks Chloe and Jake were grabbing. “People are morons.”

“Yeah. I know,” I replied, averting my eyes from Annie, who was now making kissy-faces. I watched as Jake’s hip bumped Chloe at the food line and neither one of them flinched away.

Shannen was right, of course. It didn’t matter to me what anyone else thought. What mattered was what I thought. And I thought Jake Graydon and Chloe Appleby looked like a perfect couple.

ally

“You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

Lincoln stood so close to me I could smell the gummi bears on his breath.

“Me? No.”

I took a deep, calming breath, but it caught on an itch in the back of my throat. My hand slapped over my mouth as I attempted to hold back the cough, my eyes burning with tears as the spotlights bore down on me.

“Well, I’m nervous,” he said.

I held up a finger and turned around to cough my brains out. Nice. Very attractive. When I was done, I turned to him hopefully. “Really?”

He smirked. “No.”

Yeah. Should have seen that one coming. I flicked a tear from the corner of my eye and sighed.

“Okay, people! Let’s block this scene!” Mrs. Thompson clasped her hands together as she walked to the center of the auditorium. “I want Hermia and Lysander stage right. Demetrius and Helena right next to them. And the Duke should be center stage. Bottom, you stay where you are.”

We glanced over at Kevin Parsely, who was playing the part of Bottom. He’d been curled up on the stage floor for almost an hour.

“Are we gonna get some pillows, ever?” he whined, tucking his arm under his ear.

“I know. I know. I apologize,” Mrs. Thompson said. “You’ll have pillows to fall asleep on at the next rehearsal.”

The cast cheered. I’d never realized how often the characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream passed out until I started rehearsing the play on the dusty hardwood floor. I guess that was why the word “dream” featured in the title.

“Okay, we’re going to do Demetrius’s big speech now,” Mrs. Thompson said, gesturing up at Lincoln. “And from what I understand, Mr. Carter here has gone professional on us and memorized it.”

“I have,” Lincoln said, preening slightly.

“That’s the spirit,” Mrs. Thompson said, shaking one fist. “Now, as the speech draws to a close, you’re going to share your first kiss with Helena.”

A bunch of people in the wings hooted. I felt like I was going to melt from the humiliated heat my body was generating. Lincoln was clearly amused by my flesh-eating blush, so I glanced over my shoulder at Faith, who just grinned back merrily. I loved how everyone enjoyed seeing me uncomfortable. Too bad Annie was missing this. She wanted me to hook up with Lincoln? Well, I was about to finally grant her wish. With an audience.

“You truly believe you’re in love with her, but more than that you want to sell it to the Duke,” Mrs. Thompson said. “So sell it! And … begin.”

Lincoln reached for one of my hands and began his speech to the Duke, who was played by Tyler Dross, a junior from the wrestling team who was about double the size of anyone else on the stage. I tried to watch Lincoln with loving eyes as he explained his shift of admiration from Hermia/Faith to my character/me, but I could think about only one thing.

Lincoln and I were about to kiss. Lincoln and I were about to kiss. The lights were burning a hole in the back of my neck and I felt sweat prickle my underarms. My hand was growing clammy in Lincoln’s and I hoped he didn’t notice. What if I had bad breath? What if our tongues touched? What if we bumped noses or I stepped on his foot or, God no, slipped and bit him in front of everyone? Before I knew it, Lincoln was coming to the end of his speech.

“‘But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food,’” he said. Then he turned to me, and his eyes were so full of love, my heart actually skipped a beat. “‘But, as in health, come to my natural taste.’”

He lifted his free hand and cupped my face. His fingers were soft and long and warm. I knew I should do something. Tilt my cheek into his touch, or at the very least smile, but I was frozen.

“Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,” Lincoln said. He turned fully toward me, toe to toe, and released my hand, holding my face between both his hands now. “And will forever more,” he said with a dramatic pause, “be true to it.”

No one breathed. No one moved. No one spoke. Slowly, Lincoln lowered his face toward mine. Just before his eyes fluttered closed, he gave me the teeniest, tiniest smirk. And then, he parted his lips ever so slightly, and kissed me. I wasn’t sure whether it lasted five seconds or ten or a hundred, but I do know he tasted like sugar, and his lips were perfectly moist, and by the time it was over I couldn’t see straight.

“That was great, Lincoln!” Mrs. Thompson cheered. “Just great! Now let’s do it again, and this time, Ally, try to not look as stiff as a corpse.”

Everyone laughed. I felt like dying. “Sorry,” I muttered.

“She was nervous,” Lincoln explained, taking a step away from me. “Maybe I should slip her the tongue this time.”

The laughter grew and there was more hooting and hollering. I hit Lincoln’s arm with an open hand, but the embarrassed smile was stuck on my face.

“No slipping of the tongue will be necessary, Mr. Carter,” Mrs. Thompson said in a warning tone. She looked up at me and curled her script into a tube. “Now, come on, Ally. You’ve been after this guy the entire four acts. This is the greatest moment of your life. You’ve finally snagged the guy you love! Show me that!”

Faith took a step toward me from behind. “Just think of Jake,” she whispered.

A chill went down my back. The last thing I wanted to think about was Jake. Thinking about Jake would make me seriously tense. Like what if he walked in right now and saw me and Lincoln kissing? How would he react? Would he be pissed?

And then I thought, probably not. He’d be too busy wondering where Chloe was and whether she needed a foot rub or something.

Huh. Maybe I should let Lincoln kiss me with tongue.

“Okay, let’s run the speech again!” Mrs. Thompson directed.

This time, I turned to look at Lincoln with stars in my eyes, and this time—with Jake and Chloe in the back of my mind—I kissed him back.

jake

“All righty, then! Just a few small adjustments and you’ll get to see your baby!”

I looked at Chloe. She quickly looked away. Sometimes it seemed like all she did anymore was go to doctors. At least my dad had dropped the whole paternity-test idea once he’d heard the baby was being given up for adoption. That meant one less needle Chloe had to deal with.

The woman running the sonogram machine was so big I didn’t know how she balanced on that little stool, but her personality was even bigger. She hadn’t stopped grinning or humming since we’d been brought into this tiny room. Not while squirting that gross gel crap onto Chloe’s stomach. Not while checking her chart. Not even when I stepped on her foot getting around the end of the table. She just kept smiling at me, but I was so tense I couldn’t even fake-smile back. Chloe’s mom had wanted to come to her first sonogram test thing, but Chloe had wanted me to be here, so both of us had lied to our parents about where we were going this afternoon. I kept waiting for her dad to burst in and throw me out on my face.

“Ya ready?” the woman asked finally.

“Um, I guess,” I replied.

“Well, all righty, then! Here goes!”

The woman whipped out a wand with a ball thingie on the end and put it on Chloe’s stomach. I didn’t know what to expect to see on the screen, but it was nothing but a bunch of scraggly green lines. Chloe craned her neck to see and the woman tilted the screen in her direction.

“There you go, hon,” she said, moving the wand around the whole time.

Suddenly a baby-shaped thing appeared on the screen and my heart flip-flopped like a dying fish. I saw a head. I saw a nose. I saw a belly. I even saw an arm and a hand.

“All righty, now! And there’s your little one!” the woman announced happily.

“Oh my God,” Chloe said shakily.

“That’s really in there?” I said, glancing at Chloe’s small stomach. “How does it fit?”

The woman laughed as she hit a few buttons on a keyboard. “Well, it’s only about the size of a chicken nugget, hon, but it’s in there!”

Chloe tugged her hand out of mine and tears seeped out the corners of her eyes. She put her head down again and turned away from the screen, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off the baby. It lifted its arm and put it down again. It was moving around in there.

I leaned forward. The tech’s free hand flew over the keyboard, making beeping noises and a sound like a picture being snapped. I stared at the baby’s profile. That baby was part me. How freaky was that? Did it look like me? Was it going to be tall like me or short like Chloe? Would it have her green eyes, or blue ones like mine?

And then I realized I was never going to know. Because I was never going to meet this kid. My stomach suddenly felt like it was full of needles. For the first time I got it. I got what Chloe meant the other day at lunch. This was my kid. My kid. But it wasn’t going to be mine. My eyes prickled and blurred. What the hell was wrong with me? Was I going to effing cry?

Suddenly the baby rolled over. The humming lady and I both jumped.

“Whoa!”

“What? What is it?” Chloe asked, her head popping up again. “Is something wrong?”

“No, no, hon,” the humming lady said with a laugh. “Baby’s just real active right now.”

Suddenly my eyes were clear again and I couldn’t stop staring at the screen. If it moved again I didn’t want to miss anything.

“I didn’t feel anything,” Chloe said, blinking down at her stomach.

“You probably won’t for a couple of weeks now, but baby’s definitely awake in there. Have you eaten recently?” she asked.

“I had some ice cream about an hour ago,” Chloe replied.

“All righty, then! That’ll do it! Lot of sugar will always get ’em moving.”

She went back to pushing the wand around, humming what sounded like “Joy to the World.”

The baby kicked out a leg and I laughed. “Gonna be a soccer player like me.”

Chloe stared at me. Her lip was kind of trembling and she looked pale.

“What?” I asked.

“I just …” she said, her voice wet.

“What?”

There was a long pause. A long, long pause filled with nothing but beeps and clicks and humming.

“Nothing.” Then she looked away again, chewing on her thumbnail.

Oooookay. But I knew better than to press it. Chloe had been all over the place with her emotions lately.

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or a girl?” I asked the tech.

“I don’t want to know,” Chloe exclaimed, so loud my heart stopped for a second.

The woman smiled and looked a little sad. “We can’t tell that yet anyway, hon.”

I cleared my throat. “Oh.”

The baby lifted its hand to its mouth.

“This is so cool,” I heard myself say under my breath.

Chloe gave me this look, like she didn’t know who I was.

“Isn’t it, though?” the humming lady said.

She gave me one of her huge smiles, and this time I couldn’t help smiling back.

jake

The day I had been dreading was already here. SAT score day. I wished I was one of those kids whose parents were so busy they had no idea when these things were happening, but I wasn’t. My mother’d had it circled on the calendar for weeks, even before our big baby announcement. Ever since I’d told my parents Chloe was giving the baby up for adoption, they’d chilled out on the safe sex and responsibility lectures and I’d been allowed to hang out with my friends again, but that just meant they were back to focusing on college and my probable failure. So I wasn’t surprised that my mom was waiting for me the second I got home from our latest game (we’d pulled a win out of our asses and were now going to the district semifinals—no thanks to me and my two left feet). She was standing in the doorway between the foyer and the kitchen, the family computer screen glowing behind her.

“I’ve already got the website booted up,” she said, clinging to her coffee mug.

Ironic, right? This was a perfect example of why I wanted to get the hell away from here and go to college—the fact that she was so effing obsessed with me getting into college that she wouldn’t leave me alone about it. At least I think that’s irony.

“Can I get something to eat first?” I asked, putting my duffel bag and backpack down on the floor. We won, by the way, thanks for asking, I wanted to add, but didn’t. My mom had never been much for what she called “back talk” and these days it made her nuts.

I hoped whoever my baby’s parents ended up being, they would be cooler than mine.

“It’ll take thirty seconds, Jake,” she said, turning sideways to let me through the doorway. “Let’s just get it over with.”

“Fine,” I said with a huge sigh.

I tromped past her and over to the computer, flopping down into the chair, which was four inches too high for me. My knees hit the granite-topped desk, and I reached over to lower the seat. The chair let out a hiss as I dropped down. My mother put her cup down and pushed up the baggy sleeves of her even baggier gray sweater. Her diamond bracelets clicked together as she leaned over my shoulder and pressed her hand into the desk next to the mouse pad.

I so didn’t want to do this with her here. This past summer I’d had an SAT tutor, and my last couple of practice tests had been pretty good. My mom was so excited about those scores that she actually started looking at me differently. Like she was proud of me for something other than sports. I knew that I was about to let her down big-time.

Or maybe not. Maybe Chloe was right and miracles do happen. Maybe some of what I’d learned over the summer had made its way onto the test sheet without me realizing.

“What are you waiting for?” my mother said.

A time machine? I thought. Maybe my future self was about to come back to rescue me from this moment. Of course if he was gonna do that, I could think of some other big moments he could’ve saved me from first.

I slowly typed in my password and hit enter. Our state-of-the-art super Mac lived up to the high-speed hype. I hadn’t even blinked before my numbers were right there on the screen.

My low numbers. My just-as-low-as-last-spring’s-dismal-ass numbers. My heart dropped so fast I slumped a little. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. It was even worse than I’d thought.

Now I was hoping that whatever the baby got of mine, it didn’t get my stupid-ass brain.

“Oh my God,” my mother said. She stood up straight, put one hand over her mouth and the other on the kitchen island, and stared at the screen. “Oh my God, Jake.”

“Mom, it’s not that bad,” I said lamely.

Her eyes got scary-big. “Not that bad? Are you seeing something here that I’m not seeing?”

“I could get into a state school,” I hedged, spinning the seat only halfway around so I wouldn’t have to face her completely. “Or I could maybe get a scholarship.”

“A scholarship? You haven’t scored a goal all season, Jake!” my mother said, raising her palms.

Oh, so she was paying attention. Joy.

“What about swimming? And lacrosse?” I said.

“Great! That’s just great! Let’s wait until May and just see what happens!” my mother ranted, pacing around to the other side of the island. “What happened to you, Jake? You were doing so well this summer!”

“I’m sorry, okay!?” I snapped, shoving myself out of the chair. “I kind of had a lot of things on my mind that day.”

The color drained out of her face as she braced her hands on the countertop. “Things? Like Chloe?”

“Yes, like Chloe,” I replied. “Like Chloe and the baby.”

She hadn’t said the word “baby” once since finding out. She just called it “it” the few times she talked about it.

“Well, that’s just fantastic!” she shouted, throwing her hands up. “I hope you’re proud of yourself, Jake, because you can forget about college now.”

I opened my mouth to respond. Because lots of people went to school with scores like mine. They just didn’t go to schools like Fordham, where my dad had gone. Where my parents wanted me to go. But I couldn’t get a word in. My mother was on a tear.

“You can forget about playing college sports, you can forget about getting a good job. You threw away your entire future just because you couldn’t keep it in your pants!”

My jaw dropped open. Even my mother looked stunned. I couldn’t believe she’d just said that. My mother got uncomfortable when characters in movies started undressing.

She recovered herself quickly, though, and looked me in the eye. “Go to your room!” she shouted. “You’re grounded until further notice.”

“But Mom—”

I’d just gotten ungrounded.

“Go!” she screeched, pointing toward the stairs behind me.

I rolled my eyes, but turned around and went. I didn’t want to be anywhere near her anymore anyway. I snatched my bags off the floor of the foyer and took the stairs three at a time to my room, where I slammed the door as hard as I could. Then I flung both bags at the wall and let them drop with a thud. Standing in the center of my room, I tried to regulate my breathing. I tried to tell myself everything would be okay. That it would work itself out somehow. But one thought kept repeating itself in my mind.

Just because I couldn’t keep it in my pants. Just because I couldn’t keep it in my pants.

ally

I was beaming nonstop over the standing ovation and the third curtain call when I burst into the backstage area with the rest of the cast. Everyone was laughing and shouting—whooping it up, screaming out their relief, exhaling the last of their nerves. The performance had gone off without one hiccup. Well, unless you count the fact that Puck had his wings on backward for the first act and kept knocking trees and bushes over with them. But I couldn’t believe I hadn’t forgotten a single line—that I hadn’t tripped over my gown once, or slid off that fake rock I had to sleep on—something I’d done way too many times in dress rehearsal.

“We did it!” Lincoln shouted, grabbing me up and spinning around. “You were amazing!”

“So were you!” I said, reaching back to keep my floral wreath from slipping off my hair. “But you almost made me laugh!” I hit his arm as someone jostled me from behind trying to get to their parents.

“I know, I know! I’m so sorry!” He put his hands over his eyes for a second. “My little brother came running down the aisle and started making faces at me. You couldn’t see him from where you were standing, but I almost lost it and then you almost lost it and … yeah. That was no good.” He looked around at the already packed backstage area, which was rapidly becoming more crowded with friends and family, boyfriends and girlfriends. “Where is that little bugger? I have to kick his scrawny ass.”

I laughed, my face stretched tight from all the smiling. I felt like I was never going to stop smiling.

Over Lincoln’s shoulder, I saw my mom, Gray, Quinn, and my dad elbow their way into the mayhem. My dad held a huge bouquet of colorful flowers. Behind them were Annie and David, who had a single rose. I stood on my toes, looking for Jake. Had he brought me flowers too? But the next person through the door was an elderly man, being helped along by a younger guy. Then a mom I’d seen lurking around during rehearsals some days. Then Faith’s mom and her little brothers. But where the heck was Jake?

“So, where’s the crown prince of Orchard Hill High?” Lincoln asked, apparently noticing his absence as well.

“He’s here,” I said confidently, but my brow knit. “Some-where.”

“Ally!” my mom shouted, finally singling me out in the crowd.

“I better go,” I told Lincoln. “I’ll see you at the party!”

“I’ll be there,” he replied.

“Really?” I said.

He started to say “no,” but caught himself and pointed at me as he backed away. “You almost got me!”

I giggled as I slipped past him, dodged Puck’s wayward wings, ducked as Janine Cantor flung herself at her boyfriend, and found myself in my mom’s arms.

“Ally! You were unbelievable! I’m so proud of you,” she said, kissing the top of my head.

“Who knew we had two stellar actresses in the family?” Gray commented, referring to Quinn and her community theater experience. He reached out for a one-armed squeeze around my shoulders. I saw my dad’s jaw clench at the contact and quickly slipped out of it.