What's Your Status? (37 page)

“Thanks,” I said, straightening the gloves.

“You know who else looks great?” she asked as she hung my real prom dress over the back of a chair. “Ruth Miller.” Then she seemed to realize what she’d just said and looked at me, stricken. “Um, sorry, Mad.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said. “We’re friends, after all. Kind of.”

“Well, her dress is fantastic,” Ginger said as she straightened up the wardrobe area and made her way to the door. “Though I guess it makes sense that she can afford a dress like that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The betting website,” Ginger said, sounding surprised I didn’t know what she was talking about. “The one you showed me yesterday. It’s registered in her name.”

CHAPTER 23

Song: Prom Theme/Fountains of Wayne

Quote: “Every exit is an entry somewhere else.”

—Tom Stoppard

The door slammed behind Ginger, and I turned to Kittson, stunned. “What?” I asked her.

Kittson typed rapidly for a few moments, then nodded and looked up. “Ginger’s right,” she said. “It is registered in her name. That is so weird.”

“Why would Ruth rig the election so that
I
would win?” I asked.

“Maybe she thinks that it would make you two friends again,” Kittson said. She shook her head. “Oh, I’m going to kill her.”

“But how would she even have gotten to the voting program?” I asked. I started to sit on the edge of the table, before realizing that the length of my skirt made that problematic.

“Or,” Kittson said, still typing, “maybe she thought you’d get in trouble. Maybe this is, like, her revenge.”

“Why would I get in trouble?” I asked.

“Well, come on,” Kittson said, looking up long enough to give me a small smile. “I think once
you
and
Dave
were crowned, there might have been an investigation into what the hell had gone wrong. Not to mention the fact that Lisa would probably kill you.” She hit a key and smiled. “Done,” she said.

“Really?” I asked as she closed her laptop.

“Yes,” she said. “All votes are now going to go to the people they belong to. Which means that if there’s any sense in the world at all, I’m going to win.”

“And Justin?” I asked as we headed for the door.

“Probably,” she said, shrugging.

“Is Glen still going to beat him up?”

“Probably,” she said with a small frown. “He’ll be dancing with me, plus there’s the fact that he’s my ex. Not sure that’s going to go over too well.”

“Poor Justin,” I said.

“Poor me,” Kittson said. “I almost had my rightful title taken away from me.”

I shook my head and checked the time on my phone. “Okay, you go first,” I said. Kittson nodded and slipped out the door. I waited a moment, looked down at my ridiculous outfit, and sighed. Nate was probably wondering what had happened to me. Either that, or Melissa was keeping him company. I tried to push that thought away, but it wasn’t going easily.

I hit the lights in Conference Room B and slipped out the door, looking around the deserted hallway. I walked quickly around the corner, holding my strands of pearls in one hand so they wouldn’t click together. I
pushed the door to the service stairs open and ducked inside. I walked up one flight and pushed the door open slowly, stepping into the area by the Rosebud Ballroom. I crossed toward the staircase and started to climb it.

“Hey!” I heard someone say. I turned and saw the hotel employee who was checking Putnam bracelets looking at me. “Where are you going?”

“Up to my prom,” I said, holding up my red bracelet, pulling my glove over my blue one, to cover it.

“Well, you shouldn’t be down here,” he said. “Try to stay in your area, okay?”

“You got it,” I said, heading up the staircase quickly. I showed my red bracelet to the employee on the staircase, who was busy texting and appeared very uninterested in me. I walked to the landing, and my ears were immediately assaulted by screeching that sounded a little bit like a dying cat. I smiled, very proud of Tanner. Before I entered the ballroom, I took out the phone and updated my status.

promgirl → the crew
I Love The 80s. Looking for the Package.

Dave Gold → the crew
Ready with the Pickup Truck.

Shy Time → the crew
All Quiet on the Putnam Front.

I pulled open the doors to the Lily Ballroom and looked around. It was a nicer ballroom than ours, and clearly the Hartfield budget had been bigger than ours. The decorations were fancier, but they also seemed a little overdone. Maybe it was all the hours I’d spent making streamers, but I thought that ours had more charm than these clearly store-bought decorations. There were white and gold balloons everywhere and white and yellow roses on every table, and
Top Gun
played on a screen, silently, behind Tanner’s DJ station. Nobody was dancing, and the few people who had ventured near the dance floor were covering their ears and glaring at him. But if Tanner noticed, it wasn’t apparent. He had his headphones on and a goofy smile on his face, moving to a beat that only he seemed able to hear.

I looked around the room, searching for Mark. In the back of the ballroom, I saw Dave with his cart, organizing the hors d’oeuvres that were set up along the back table. He caught my eye and shook his head. On the other side of the room, I saw Sarah sitting very close to Isabel’s former date. I had to admit that even at this distance, he did look pretty cute. And it looked from Sarah’s expression like she was pretty into him.

“There you are!”

I turned around and saw Andy smiling at me.

“Oh. Hi!” I stammered. I’d almost forgotten about him.

“Did you change?” he asked, frowning at my dress.

“Oh, well,” I said, tugging at the bottom of it as much as I dared, “I just thought…since your theme is the eighties…”

“Where did you even get it?” he asked.

“Gift shop,” I said quickly.

“Wow,” he said, smiling at me, looking impressed. “So, do you want to dance?” he asked.

“Um,” I said, looking at Tanner. This song was even worse than the last one, since now there was someone wailing tonelessly along with the screeching. “I’m not sure this is really dancing music.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” Andy said, looking at Tanner as well and shaking his head. “I don’t know why they hired this guy.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s weird. Hey,” I said, gesturing to the back, where Dave was still standing with his cart, “let’s get something to eat.” I pulled Andy toward the tables at the back and pretended to be examining the bruschetta as I leaned close to Dave. “Did you get it?” I whispered.

Dave straightened a platter. “Nope,” he murmured.

I checked my phone. We weren’t out of time yet, but the clock was certainly ticking. “Mark,” I muttered under my breath, taking out my phone and updating my status.

promgirl → the crew
SELWIDGE. Where’s the package???

I waited a moment for a response, but nothing came. I looked around the ballroom but didn’t see Mark anywhere.

“Did you want something, Madison?” Andy asked, holding a plate filled with appetizers.

“Who is that?” Dave muttered to me as he passed Andy a stack of napkins.

“My date,” I muttered back.

“Your
what
?” Dave asked at a normal volume.

“You know, I don’t think I want anything after all,” I said quickly as Andy looked over at us.

“Oh,” Andy said, looking down at his plate. “Okay…”

“But you should sit and eat. It’s, um, better for your digestion. Find a seat and I’ll join you in a minute.”

“Okay,” he said a little doubtfully. “Well, when you do, there’s something I wanted to ask you….”

“Sure!” I said as brightly as I could. “In just a minute!”

Andy nodded and wandered away with his plate, looking for an empty seat.

“Your
date
?” Dave asked as soon as Andy was gone.

“It’s a long story,” I said, scanning the ballroom for Mark again. I finally saw him sitting at one of the biggest tables, next to Isabel. I tried to catch his eye, but he seemed to be involved in telling a story, making lots of hand gestures. Isabel’s smile was a little fixed, but she appeared to be listening. “What is he
doing
?” I asked. He looked up and caught my eye, but he must have stopped midstory, because Isabel followed his glance and looked at me, eyes widening.

“You’ve been made,” Dave murmured.

“That’s okay,” I said. “Now Mark can tell us what’s going on. But you might want to get out of here so that the Pickup isn’t compromised later on.”

“If he can get it,” Dave said, grabbing his cart.

“He has to,” I said, realizing that perhaps a plan that gave Mark so much responsibility was not the best way to go. Dave nodded and wheeled his cart out of the ballroom.

Isabel stood up and started walking toward me, and to my dismay, she took her purse with her. As soon as her back was turned, Mark took out his phone and began typing frantically on it. Isabel was moving toward me at a rapid pace, her face set.

“Madison,” she said, frowning at me, taking in the fingerless gloves and the pearls. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m attending your prom,” I said, holding out my bracelet for her to see.

She blinked at it for a moment, then looked at me, eyes narrowed. “How?” she finally asked.

“My date,” I said, pointing out Andy, who was sitting at a table by himself. “Really nice guy.”

“What about Nathan?” she asked.

“What about him?” I asked pleasantly.

Isabel didn’t seem to know what to say to this. “Well…fine,” she said after a moment. “I’m glad you got to see how a
real
prom is run.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “It’s very enlightening. Interesting DJ you’ve hired.”

Her face darkened. “Did you have something to do with this?”

“With what?” I asked. “I happen to love this song.”

“I think there was a mix-up with the DJs. And I tried to get down to your prom to see, but they wouldn’t let me in without a bracelet.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” I said. “You know, I did hear that
they’re cracking down on people trying to jump proms. Now, who told me that?”