Beauty (22 page)

“We were just talking,” Kemper said casually. We grabbed our pudding cups, making our way to our table, where Hayley was already sitting with yet another plate full of raisins in front of her. “You know, with his arm touching mine the entire time.”

I let out a little squeal. “I knew it! So, has he said anything yet about prom?”

Kemper shook her head. “
Nada
. But I’m hoping …”

“It will happen,” I assured her. We dropped our trays on the table. “I know it will.”

“What will happen?” Hayley asked.

“Josh pledging his eternal love to Kemper,” I said with giggle as Kemper proceeded to hit me repeatedly in the arm.

“Someone might hear, Molly!” she hissed, making me laugh even harder.

“Hey, Mol.” Ashley’s familiar voice rang out behind me. “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to sit with us?” I turned around to see Ashley waiting expectantly next to our table, a pouty expression on her face. She was wearing the same cuff bracelet from Haute that I’d been wearing the other day.

Hayley grabbed her tray, standing up eagerly. “Yeah, let’s go, Mol.”

Ashley glanced over at her table. “Sorry, Hayley,” she said with a flick of her hair. “It looks like there’s only one extra seat left. You know how it is,” she added with a smug smile. “We fill up fast.”

Hayley opened her mouth, like she wanted to say something, but then quickly snapped it shut and sat back down. “No problem,” she said coolly. She pulled her purse onto her lap and began rummaging through it, until her hands landed once again on that small rectangular book. I leaned in a little, trying to get a closer look.
Don’t Get Even …
the cover said. But before I could make out the rest of the title, Hayley caught me looking and quickly snapped her purse shut.

“You coming or what, Mol?” Ashley said, starting to sound impatient. “It looks like there’s someone else who wants you to also… .” Ashley gestured to the table and I saw that, once again, there was an empty seat next to Hudson. He smiled at me and patted it, like he was saving it just for me. I thought of the conversation we’d almost had at my locker this morning. The question he’d possibly almost asked.

“Actually, you mind if I go today?” I asked Kemper and Hayley. “There’s something I want to talk to Hudson about.”

Kemper fiddled with her fork, glancing over at Hayley. “Sure, if you want.”

“Hayl?”

Hayley gave me a look that made me think she couldn’t care less. “Whatever.”

“Thanks, guys,” I said. I stood up, grabbing my tray. “I’ll see you later.”

“Look who I brought,” Ashley sang out when we reached the table.

“Saved a seat for you right here,” Hudson said.

I smiled happily. “Thanks,” I said, settling in.

“So,” Hudson said as I dug into my mystery meat. “After witnessing the showdown at your locker earlier—”

“Ugh.” I cut him off with a groan. “So embarrassing.”

Hudson laughed. “Well, after that, I decided to get you something.” He reached into his backpack. “I mean it’s no Godiva, but …” He tossed me something wrapped in blue tissue paper. My breath caught in my throat as I looked down at it. I coughed a little, clearing my throat.

“It’s a nose ring, isn’t it?”

Hudson laughed. “Nope.”

“Hmm … an eleventh finger?”

“Ew. No.” He nudged me with his knee. “Just open it.”

With everyone at the table watching, I peeled back the blue tissue paper to find a big red Ring Pop nestled inside. A piece of paper was stapled to the base of the ring.
Will you ring in the prom with me?
it read.

Hudson grinned at me. “I figured I had to step up my game. What with the gummy bears and chocolates and all …” He swallowed a little, looking nervous. “So the dance? You want to go?” Our whole table was quiet as they waited for my answer.

I slid the ring onto my finger. “I want to go.”

“So cute!” Ashley exclaimed. She held up her iPhone. “Say cheese!” Hudson let out a little groan, but he smiled as the flash went off. “Perfect,” Ashley proclaimed. “Here, look.” She passed the phone over to me.

I stared at the picture for several seconds. Hudson and I were smiling widely in it, our heads bent close together, my ringed hand held out on display. Ashley was right: it was a perfect picture. And it wasn’t just that we both looked great—Hudson’s dimple showing, my eyes sparkling. It was more than that. It was how right we looked together. Like we were a real couple.

I wore my Ring Pop all day long. Every so often I’d look down at it, remembering how Hudson had asked me to the dance. In French class, Blair wanted to try it on, but I held it high in the air, out of her reach. “No way,” I declared. “This baby isn’t coming off my finger.” I barely paid attention during most of the class, but a few minutes before the bell was due to ring, dismissing us for the day, Mr. Segal, the vice principal, slipped into the room and handed Madam Loire an envelope, whispering a few words in her ear. Madame Loire nodded eagerly at whatever he was saying.

“
J’ai une annonce à faire
!” Madame Loire said after Mr. Segal left. She gripped the envelope from Mr. Segal tightly in her hands.

“What did she just say?” someone whispered behind me.

“She has an announcement to make,” someone else supplied.

At the front of the room, Madam Loire rolled her eyes. “I will speak in English for theez,” she said in her heavy accent. “For those of you still unfamiliar with zee French language.” She shook her head slowly, like she was wondering why she even bothered. But then she cleared her throat and waved the envelope in the air. “Zee nominations for zee sophomore prom king and queen have arrived! I will pass zem out now. Please check off one name for zee king, and one name for zee queen.”

An excited buzz filled the classroom. Prom court was a huge deal at Miracle High. Last year Ashley won freshman queen, and everyone assumed she would win again this year. If you won all four years, you got a special crown your senior year, with the signatures of the entire senior class on it. It had only happened five times in history: to three guys and two girls. But Hayley kept insisting that Ashley was a shoo-in to be the third girl.

Madame Loire passed out the ballots, and I ran down the list for queen. It was all the usual suspects: Ashley Coolidge. Blair Duncan. Brittany Crawford. Molly Davis. Wait—
what
?

I blinked several times, but my name stayed put. I couldn’t believe it. I was nominated for prom queen? I ran my finger over the dips and curves of my name: the jagged peaks of the
M
, the rounded arch of the
D
. I knew I shouldn’t care. I knew I should be like Kemper and scoff at the whole thing, just a silly popularity contest—a beauty pageant, really. But I couldn’t help it—I cared.

“You’ve got my vote, Molly,” Tommy Button said next to me.

“Mine too,” someone else said from behind me. I didn’t want to pull my eyes off the ballot long enough to look and see who it was.

My pen trembling in my hand, I made a careful check next to my name. It was one of those moments I wished I could freeze-frame and hang on my wall, like the time I won my first pageant or the time Jerry Hamilton surprised me at the eighth grade dance by kissing me out of the blue. One of those moments you wished were tangible, so you could touch it and feel it and stare at it for hours until finally—
finally
—you believed it was real.

The Magic Touch—Ahem, Face

I WAS HALFWAY to the Cahills’ house to babysit when I remembered my plan to visit Dharma at the fairground. Could it really have been only that morning that I’d chased after Dharma on my bike? It felt like a lifetime ago. I glanced down at my watch. The fairground wasn’t that far from the Cahills’ house. I could make a pit stop and only be a few minutes late to babysitting… . But when the turn came up for the fairground, I found myself going straight instead.

This morning I’d wanted so badly to know who Dharma was and what she’d done to me. But now I couldn’t even remember why. Who cared what Dharma did, or why? I wasn’t the Molly she’d met anymore. I was a new Molly. Hudson’s date to the dance Molly. Prom queen–nominated Molly. Beautiful Molly. And I had no interest in changing back.

I pulled over in front of the Cahills’ house and dug through my backpack until I found what I was looking for. The yellow ribbon from Dharma’s bike. It felt soft and silky in my hands as I untangled it from my textbooks, pulling it out. It was made of an unusual material, thick but sheer. Dangling from my hands, it caught the sunlight, scattering it onto the Cahills’ driveway in hundreds of tiny diamonds. I couldn’t help but stare at it for a minute, enchanted. The way the diamonds of light danced on the driveway … I had a sudden flash of the neon lights of the fair, spinning in the sky above me. I shook my head, tearing my eyes away. It was just a ribbon. From a bike I’d probably never see again. Balling it up, I tossed it into a trash can in the driveway, then headed resolutely toward the Cahills’ front door.

I loved spending time at the Cahills’ house. Unlike my house, which was all white and glass and chrome, the Cahills’ house was bursting with color. There were bright walls and painted furniture and vases filled with fresh flowers in every room. I’d been babysitting their toddler, Hannah, for two years now, but tonight Hannah was at a sleep-over, and I was supposed to watch her new baby sister, Olivia. I was excited to have the night to myself, with just a snoozing baby and an empty couch to spread out on … it would be the perfect relaxing night. But when I stepped into the Cahills’ cherry-red entryway, I was greeted by the sound of loud shrieking wails.

“Molly?” Mrs. Cahill’s usually cheerful voice sounded hoarse and weary. “We’re in here.” I followed the piercing wails to the kitchen. Mrs. Cahill was attempting to bounce Olivia on her hip while simultaneously slipping her high heels on. Olivia was wailing with all her might, her tiny face beet-red and scrunched up. Mrs. Cahill looked exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes and a Cheerio stuck to the front of her black dress.

“Do you want me to take Olivia while you finish getting ready?” I asked.

“That’s okay.” Mrs. Cahill sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “I can’t leave you with her anyway when she’s having this kind of nuclear meltdown. I’m just going to rock her and see if I can get her to calm down. Would you mind running upstairs for me and grabbing my black pashmina off my bed, though?”

“Sure,” I said, running upstairs. When I came back with the pashmina a minute later, Olivia was crying harder than ever. Her eyes were screwed up tight and she was flailing her little balled-up fists through the air as she howled at the top of her lungs.

“Is she teething?” I asked.

“I wish.” Mrs. Cahill sighed. “She has colic. Nothing helps. She’s been crying twenty hours a day.”

“That’s awful.” I’d babysat enough to know just how miserable a few hours of a crying baby could be. I couldn’t imagine twenty straight hours, day after day. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, sweetie. You might as well just sit down for a minute. If she doesn’t calm down soon, I think I’ll just cancel dinner and stay home.”

I sat down on a stool, leaning my elbows on the breakfast bar. “Isn’t it your and Mr. Cahill’s anniversary?”

Mrs. Cahill nodded, then burst into tears. “I’m so sorry, Molly,” she choked out. “I’m just a mess. I haven’t slept in days and …” She trailed off mid-sentence, wiping several tears from her cheek as Olivia’s crying grew even louder.

I stood up and walked over to Olivia. “Poor little baby,” I cooed, reaching out to touch one of her fists. Olivia looked up, her watery eyes meeting mine.

Out of nowhere, her crying stopped.

Mrs. Cahill sucked in a breath, freezing in place.

“That’s right,” I murmured. “That’s better.” Olivia kept her eyes on mine. Slowly, her lips curved into the tiniest of smiles.

“What’s she doing?” Mrs. Cahill murmured.

“She’s smiling.” I made a funny face, and Olivia let out a happy gurgle.

“I can’t believe this.” Mrs. Cahill was speaking stiffly, like she was afraid to move a single muscle in her body. “Olivia only stops crying when she’s asleep. And she hardly ever goes to sleep.”

Olivia stretched her arms out toward me. “May I hold her?” Wordlessly, Mrs. Cahill handed her to me. I cuddled her to my chest. She looked up, her eyes still on my face, and wrapped a tiny hand around my finger.

“This is amazing,” Mrs. Cahill breathed. “You’re a miracle worker, Molly.”

“You go,” I told her. “Have a good time with Mr. Cahill tonight. I’m fine here.”

Mrs. Cahill grabbed her wrap and purse from the countertop and kissed Olivia on the top of her head. “Promise you’ll call me if she starts again?”

I nodded as Olivia snuggled against me. “I will. But we’ll be fine. Oh, and Mrs. Cahill? You have a Cheerio stuck to your …” I reached over and plucked the Cheerio off her dress with my free hand.

“You’re a lifesaver, Molly.” Mrs. Cahill blinked suddenly, like she was seeing me for the first time. “Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. You look beautiful tonight, Molly! Did you do something different?”