What's Your Status? (17 page)

“Okay, just a couple?” Ginger asked, flipping her phone open. “Smile, Mad….”

I looked pointedly away from Sarah and smiled, trying to do my best fifties-prom-queen expression, as the camera phone clicked.

Two hours later, I headed out to the junior parking lot. After she’d finished taking pictures, Ginger had become all business and had put Sarah and me to work taking the costumes to the vault. The costume vault was off the blackbox, and Ginger was the only student who had keys to it. It was a huge room where all the costumes from all the past shows were stored, in the hopes that they could be used for future productions. It was like being in a candy store, and I would have been content to wander around it for hours, but after we were done, Ginger hustled us out of there and locked up.

I was completely wiped out, and the thought of going to the Hyatt now and dealing with the hotel’s concierge was incredibly unappealing. From the depths of my bag, I could hear the sound of the French Kicks—Lisa’s ring. I dug my phone out of my bag and answered. “Ah,
bonjour.
”

“Mad,” Lisa said, and I could hear her sighing. “The French
never
answer the phone that way.”

“Oh,” I said. “What do they say?”

“
Allô
,” Lisa said firmly. “And nothing else.”

“Got it,” I said. “I’ll remember that the next time I’m in France. And answering a phone. What’s up?”

“
Rien
,” Lisa said. “Just wanted to catch up.”

“Me too,” I said, suddenly remembering the incident at the hotel that morning. “Have you talked to Schuyler much today?”

“
Non
,” Lisa said. “Which is kind of weird, since we had the same lunch, and I never saw her. Why?”

“Well, this thing happened at the Hyatt this morning that was really strange….”

“What?” Lisa asked eagerly.
“Dis-moi.”

I had made it to my car, and pulled the phone away from my ear to check the time. If I hung up with Lisa now, I could still make it to the hotel before I had to be home for dinner.

Or…I could just bring the crown tomorrow. I wanted to talk to Lisa, not just to try to figure out what had been going on with Schuyler but because I’d become aware that friendships—even best friendships—could end. And between Lisa’s call and Schuyler’s coming with coffee, I was feeling really lucky in the friend department these days.

“Mad?” Lisa asked. “Are you busy or something?”

“Nope,” I said. “Totally free.” I unlocked Judy and got behind the wheel. “Meet you at Stubbs in fifteen?”

“
À tout à l’heure!
” Lisa said, and hung up.

I smiled, started the car, and headed out of the parking lot.

CHAPTER 9

Song: I Saw It On Your Keyboard/Hellogoodbye

Quote: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”

—W. C. Fields

“So then,” Nate said to me from my computer screen, “I said, ‘You can threaten to take away my parking permit, that’s fine, but I still have no information to give you.’ And then I did my best Nicholson and told him that sometimes, pal, it’s just better not to know.”

“You didn’t,” I said, smiling. I was sitting on my bed, laptop on my lap, and I leaned back against my headboard. “Really?”

Nate was smiling, too, looking a little embarrassed. “I did,” he said. “But it’s okay. I don’t think the headmaster is much of a
Chinatown
fan.”

Nate and I hadn’t been able to get together at lunch, or after school, or after dinner, so we had resorted to late-night iChatting.

“I can’t believe they’re getting this upset over the prank,” I said, taking a sip of my CFDDP—that is, Caffeine-Free Diet Dr Pepper. I didn’t touch the hard stuff after eleven.

“I know,” Nate said, his smile fading. “I have the feeling that I’m on pretty thin ice these days.”

“But you’ll be fine,” I said as confidently as I could, especially since I didn’t like how worried he was looking. “Right?”

“Right,” Nate said, giving me a small smile. “Here’s hoping. How was your day?”

“Oh,” I said lightly. I wasn’t about to burden him with Kittson’s demands or the Schuyler weirdness or the possibility that I might have tried on a cursed tiara. “It was fine. But I have a favor to ask you,” I said, suddenly remembering the fairly dire music situation.

“Yes,” Nate said immediately.

I smiled at him, feeling it take over my face. “I haven’t even asked yet,” I said.

“What, like I’m going to say no to you?” he said. “I don’t see that happening.”

“Anyway,” I said, trying to stop smiling so wide. I could see myself in the small window that showed my side of the conversation in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and it was a little ridiculous. “Here’s the thing—”

“Yes,” Nate said again, cutting me off.

“Stop it,” I said, laughing. “Okay. So. The DJ—”

“Ah, the estimable DJ Tanner,” he said, his smile widening. “What now?”

“Well, he’s asking me for prom playlists so that he can get an idea of what to play. He’s never been to a prom. He’s just a sophomore.” I wasn’t entirely sure that Tanner would have gone to a prom even if he had been a senior, but I left that out for the moment.

“That’s a quality DJ you’ve got there,” Nate deadpanned.

“Well, he’s what we could afford,” I said. “Kittson spent the music budget on flash drives.”

“What?” Nate asked, looking perplexed.

“Oh, you’ll see on Saturday,” I promised. “So anyway, since you’ve been to a prom…” I took a deep breath, trying to push past the thought of what he might have done after his prom with a girl named Melissa. “I wondered if you could make me a playlist of prom music? Just to give Tanner something to go off of?”

“Sure,” Nate said easily. “I’ll do it tonight and e-mail it to you.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling at my boyfriend, feeling incredibly lucky. Though it would have been preferable to be with him in person—when there could have been kissing—I liked seeing him in his room, a tiny bit rumpled. I felt like Nate sometimes had his guard up, and it was nice to get a glimpse of him totally relaxed, in his own environment. “So, um,” I said, trying to begin to broach the questions that had been haunting me. “About your prom last year. Was it…fun? Um, memorable?”

“Sure,” Nate said with a shrug. “It was fine.”

“You went with Melissa, right?” I asked. I was using
all my acting ability to try to say her name with as little weight as possible.

“Mad, you okay?” Nate said, leaning forward, looking concerned. So much for my acting skills. I hoped this didn’t mean that the reviewer was onto something with the “adequate” comment.

“Fine!” I said brightly. “I was just trying to um…find out about your prom. We haven’t really talked about it.”

“We can if you want to, I guess,” Nate said, leaning back in his computer chair.

“Okay,” I said, trying to marshal my thoughts and decide how best to approach this. “So…”

Just then, my iChat dinged. I looked away from Nate and saw that I had an invitation from Kittson. Normally, I would have ignored this, but I was happy to have a moment to figure out what I wanted to say. “Can you hang on a sec?” I asked. “It’s Kittson.”

“Sure,” Nate said. “I’ll be here.”

I minimized Nate and accepted Kittson’s chat. “Hey,” I said. But there was nobody looking back at me. I was staring at an empty—and very pink—bedroom. “Kittson?” I called.

“Here,” she said, coming into view.

In the upper left-hand corner, I could see my jaw drop. Kittson’s hair was up in a towel, and she was wearing a light blue mask that covered her entire face, except her eyes and lips. “Wow,” I said, not sure what else to say. “You look really…”

“It’s my pre-prom beauty regimen,” Kittson said, as
though this should have been obvious. “I started doing this
months
ago. Anyway. How’d it go with the tiara?”

“Oh, fine,” I said, looking down at my keyboard. It had gone fine, after all. The task just hadn’t been completed. But, technically, she hadn’t asked about that.

“Good,” she said. “And the music?”

“I’m working on it,” I said, glad to be able to tell the truth. “But actually, I’m chatting with Nate right now, so I don’t have much time—”

“I’ll wait,” Kittson said.

“No,” I said, “that wasn’t what I meant….” I wasn’t about to rush to finish up a conversation with my boyfriend so that I could keep talking prom matters with Kittson. But she had disappeared from view again, and I sighed and clicked on the Nate conversation.

“Hey there,” he said as I returned. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, the usual craziness,” I said.

“You mean the ush craze?” he asked, teasing me.

“Right,” I said, smiling at him. “Exactly.” I took a deep breath and tried to start again. “So. Last year, your prom. Well, actually, after your prom. Your prom night…”

“Oh, that’s right,” Nate said. “You wanted to…Wait.” He stopped. “Did you say my prom
night
?”

“Did I?” I asked, trying to stall. “Um…I don’t know if that’s what I meant….”

“Then what did you mean?” Nate asked, looking genuinely confused.

I saw that while I’d been talking to Kittson, Nate had
changed location. He wasn’t at his desk anymore. He seemed to be on his bed now; I could see a pillow in a blue case to his right. My heart began to beat a little bit faster. I was seeing Nate’s
bed.
He was looking at me while he sat on his bed. I was practically in his bed with him. For some reason, this was all I could focus on. And it was making it harder for me to gather my thoughts. Or speak clearly. “Well,” I said, wondering why I suddenly felt so warm, “I just…of the…”

Suddenly, Nate looked away from me for a moment. “Mad, can you hold that, uh, thought?” he asked. “I’ve got another chat.”

“Sure,” I said, glad that I could have a chance to collect myself. I was about to go back to the Kittson conversation when my iChat dinged again and I saw I had an invitation from Lisa.

“Hey,” I said, accepting, as Lisa appeared on-screen. She was wearing her glasses, which she only did when there was no chance of being seen by anyone who wasn’t Schuyler, Ruth, or me. Though it occurred to me that the Ruth part was probably no longer true.

“Alors,”
Lisa said, looking worried. “
OMD.
So I just spoke to Schuyler….”

Nate’s chat flashed again, and I looked down at it. “Lise, can you hold on a moment? I’m chatting with Nate.”

“D’accord,”
Lisa said, waving one hand in the air.
“Je t’attends….”

“Be right back,” I said. I clicked on Nate, who seemed a little more stressed than when I’d left him. “Hi,” I said.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “Melissa’s having a bit of a meltdown. I’m trying to talk her off the ledge. Can you hang on a minute longer?”

I felt my stomach drop.
Melissa
was who he’d been talking to? “Oh, sure,” I said as breezily as I could.

“Thanks,” he said, and disappeared again.

I stared at the screen, shocked, as my chat dinged again, and I clicked it to go back to Lisa. “OMG,” I said. “You’ll never—”

“Where have you been?”
I looked at the screen and saw that I’d accidentally pulled up the chat with Kittson—who I’d forgotten about completely. “I’ve been
waiting
here—”

“Oh. Sorry,” I said. “I was just…give me one second.” I clicked on Lisa’s chat. “Sorry,” I said. “That was Kittson, and she’s being a—”

“I can imagine,” Lisa said.

“Being a
what
?” Kittson snapped, and I saw that I’d accidentally brought up both chats. She folded her arms, and I saw that she was now wearing some sort of weird plastic mitts on her hands.

“Being an effective leader, as always,” I said as quickly as possible. I turned to Lisa. “I’ll be back in one second.”

“Non!”
I heard Lisa cry as I minimized her chat.

“What?” I said, going back to Kittson. But she wasn’t saying anything. She was just staring offscreen, sullenly. “Kittson?” I asked. She continued to sulk, refusing to make eye contact with me. “Look,” I said, a little more gently, “I’m sorry I forgot about you….”

“Whatever,” she said, looking a bit hurt. “I kind of wanted to talk to you about Glen, but never mind. You seem busy.”

“Let’s talk tomorrow,” I said hurriedly, seeing that my other two chats were now flashing and I had an invitation for a new chat—this one from Schuyler. “At the prom meeting?”

“Fine,” she said. “And please try to be on time for once!”

Before I could defend myself, she disappeared from view, and I accepted Schuyler’s chat. “Hey, Shy,” I said. “Can you hold on one second?” Schuyler, staring down at her keyboard, just nodded, and I minimized her chat.

I clicked back to Lisa. “Hey,” I said. “So Shy just chatted me. But I’m chatting with Nate, and he’s chatting with Melissa!”

Lisa leaned forward. “
Sex
Melissa?” she asked.

“We don’t know for sure,” I said. “Please don’t call her that.”

“But ex Melissa, right?” Lisa said, and I nodded. “
Zut alors.
Why is he chatting with his ex?”

“I don’t know,” I said, feeling incredibly stressed as I looked at the chats flashing at the bottom of my screen. I was beginning to realize that I wasn’t really capable of this level of multitasking. “I mean, they’re friends.”

“Bof,”
Lisa said. “He doesn’t need friends who are girls, who are single.”

“We don’t know she’s single,” I said, a little desperately. “Maybe she’s in a very committed relationship.”

“If she was, then she’d be talking to her boyfriend,
not her ex,” she said knowingly. “Do you bring your problems to Justin?” I shook my head mutely, and Lisa nodded. “
Et voila.
Trust
moi.
I’ll find out if she’s single. I’m going to Friendverse Stalk her.”

“Okay, I’ll see what Nate says.” I was hoping he would say Melissa’s problems all revolved around her very long-term boyfriend. “But I should get back to him. And then see what’s up with Shy….”