by J. J. Howard
I’d told Frankie the truth: It wasn’t my kind of thing. I preferred planning things behind the scenes. And I was truly annoyed that Frankie had made the decision for me.
But when I walked into the lobby at school the next morning and saw Autumn’s latest tactic, I decided on the spot that I would run.
She’d put posters up all over the lobby—very fancy ones that she must have gotten made by a professional. Her new slogan was TRUE QUEEN? IF YOU WANT A QUEEN THAT DOESN’T ACT LIKE A PRINCESS, THEN VOTE FOR AUTUMN.
A princess? As if!
I wanted to rip all the posters down, but I knew I was way too much of a “good kid” to risk getting in trouble for doing something like that. Although at that moment, I wished I weren’t.
Instead, I fumed all through first period, making lists of ideas for counter-slogans in my notebook.
Finally, just before the bell rang, I thought of a way to maybe turn the word princess around a bit.
Frankie was in my second-period class, so I went right up to his desk before class started. “Do you think you could get your brother to make some more posters?” I asked. I threw my notebook down on his desk. It was open to the page on which I’d written my new slogan idea in big block letters. VOTE EMMA WINTERS: THE PLANNING PRINCESS.
He raised an eyebrow. “So, I take it you are running?”
“It’s a moral imperative now,” I said. He looked a little confused. “It means Autumn basically dared me,” I explained.
“Remind me to get you to help me study for our next vocabulary unit test, genius. And to never get you mad,” he added with a grin.
I kind of wanted to point out that he had already gotten me mad by starting this whole queen business, but since I needed him to make the posters, I just nodded and took my seat.
* * *
“I can’t believe you’re actually going through with this,” Hallie said to me at lunch. “You were really mad when Frankie signed you up to run!” I’d filled in Hallie on everything via text last night.
“I know … but Autumn … I just can’t let her get away with this. Acts like a princess? She’s the biggest princess of all time.”
Hallie put down her sandwich. “I know she’s a lot sometimes, but she’s also one of your friends. We both went to her birthday party the last two years.”
“Well, that was before. This is war now.”
“Geez. You’re taking this whole thing super seriously.”
“It’s the Valentine’s dance!” I said, my voice going a bit shrieky. “It’s practically the most important event of the year.”
Hallie shrugged. “I’m not sure I’m even going to go.”
“Wait, what? You have to!” I put down my milk, and a little sloshed out.
“I’m just not sure I’m into it this year.”
“But you said you were looking forward to dancing this year at the dance.”
“When did I say that?” Hallie asked.
My jaw dropped. How could she not remember?
“It was New Year’s Day! The day Cupid fixed up Annie and Mateo.”
“Em, that was weeks ago.”
“Yes, but I was counting on you going.”
“You don’t need to go with me like the old days. I sort of assumed you’d take a date this year. Hasn’t Frankie asked you?”
I frowned. “Um, sort of?”
Hallie narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, sort of?”
“He mentioned it and implied that we could go together …”
“What did you say?”
As soon as Hallie asked the question, I realized that I’d been kind of considering it. Especially with all this queen race stuff, I really didn’t want to go to the dance alone, or even just with a friend, like Hallie and I had done last year. It seemed that Frankie still would be open to going with me … maybe.
“I guess I haven’t really answered him,” I said at last.
“Well, maybe you should just ask him,” Hallie said.
“Do you think so?”
“Emma, if you want to go with him, then, yes, you should. There’s no law that says you can’t.”
I knew she was right, but something was still holding me back. When Frankie came to join us at our lunch table, as he did most days, I didn’t bring up the dance. And neither did he.
* * *
“Cupid, I need your help. Just one more time—you need to do your magic!”
I held my pug up in front of my face and looked deeply into his eyes as I explained my dilemma to him. “I need you to convince Hallie to go to the Valentine’s dance. I cannot go alone. Which means you need to find a boy to ask her!”
Cupid blinked at me. I could only hope he understood. We sat on the carpet in my bedroom and I’d pulled out the HMS yearbook from last year. I plonked Cupid in front of its pages and waited to see if he would put a paw or a nose on one of the pictures. But as he snuffled around, coming back to me as though confused about what I wanted, he only put a paw on one photo: Vice Principal Jericho.
I would have to do the picking part myself, and then, if I chose well, maybe Cupid would work his magic. Which meant I’d need to get both Hallie and the boy I chose to come to my house.
* * *
I flipped through the pages for both seventh and eighth grade—people in my class or Theo’s—over and over. The only boy who seemed like a decent possibility was Chris Thompson. After all, with the dance coming up so soon, a lot of boys had already asked someone. But Chris would do.
First, I texted Hallie to see if she was free the next day. Next, I went into the kitchen and found our school directory, then took a deep breath before calling Chris.
“Hi, Chris? This is Emma from school. Listen, I’m having a really small party tomorrow after school. I was hoping you could come.”
“Ummmm,” he mumbled. “At your house?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it your birthday?”
“Kind of … it’s not really a birthday party, but I just wanted to have some people over.”
“Sure, I guess I can make it.”
“You can? Great! See you then.”
I hung up. Now I just needed to invite enough other people to make it plausibly seem like a small party and not just a fix-up for Hallie and Chris.
I texted Theo, and then my friends from class Izzie and Christina. Unfortunately, Izzie responded right away that she and Christina were both going shopping with Izzie’s older sister, who was home visiting from college.
Just me and Hallie and Theo and Chris would be much too weird. I could invite Frankie, I supposed. I sent him a text.
One other idea came to mind, but it wasn’t a great one. But maybe it was smart to keep your enemies close and all that. After all, even more than not losing to Autumn, the main thing I wanted from this whole queen contest disaster was for people not to see me as a snooty princess. Inviting my competition to my house seemed like a very non-princess thing to do. Right?
When both Autumn and Frankie texted back that they’d be there, I sat down to start planning. Cupid had fallen asleep with his head on my leg, so he was of course too cute to move. I reached out and grabbed a notebook from my desk and began to make a list of snacks to buy.
After we’d had snacks, I would get everyone playing games. And then, busy being the hostess, I would ask Hallie to walk Cupid for me, and of course she would need someone to keep her company … and there would be Chris! I smiled as I imagined the perfect match being made right there at my little party.
* * *
The next morning, I searched through my board games. I was determined to find one that would distract everyone, but also allow two players to leave in the middle. Nothing was quite right. I sat back on my heels as Cupid came snuffling over. Suddenly, I remembered a fun night with Theo’s family last summer. We’d done the perfect thing: karaoke!
I just needed Theo to bring over his machine. I texted him and got back a thumbs-up sign. I texted him again:
But yo
u have to come over early and set it up. The party starts RIGHT after school
Finally, after a ridiculously long wait, long enough for me to get dressed and begin eating my cereal, Theo texted back.
As you wish.
I’d take that as a yes.
Satisfied, I resumed eating my cereal with a smile. Cupid sat at my feet, waiting for his bite, and I realized I’d forgotten to save him a bite of dry cereal. I reopened the box.
“That dog is terribly spoiled,” Dad said as he walked into the kitchen.
“No, he’s lucky,” I said.
“He certainly is. He has quite the doggy life.” Dad poured himself some coffee. “You remember I have a department meeting tonight? I’ll be late.”
I stood up in alarm, nearly spilling my cereal. Cupid gave a short bark of worry. “But you said I could have friends over this afternoon!” I cried.
Dad frowned. “I did?”
“You did,” I said.
“Shoot, Emma. Maybe another day … ?”
“There is no other day—everything is set. Dad, it has to be today.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Emma, the meeting must have slipped my mind when you asked. But I’d like you to have an adult here if you have a big group of friends over …”
“What if we got Annie? I could pay her from my allowance …”
Dad had his thinking face on, considering my idea. “I suppose if Annie is willing to babysit, that would be all right.”
“Babysit! Do we have to call it that?”
“It’s just a figure of speech,” Dad said. “The crucial thing here is that Annie is old enough to drive and has a car.”
“Well, if that were the whole thing I could always call an Uber …” I saw Dad getting ready to object, so I jumped in and said, “But as long as you’re saying yes, I’ll go call Annie!” I raced upstairs.
“Emma Elizabeth Winters!” Dad called. “Your cereal bowl is just sitting here!”
“I’ll be right back down!” I shouted.
Annie was a little confused that I was calling her to be my party babysitter, but she said she’d be happy to help. She said she still owed me for helping her meet Mateo.
“You don’t owe me,” I told her, although I privately thought that it really was down to me and Cupid that they’d met in such a romantic way.
* * *
When I found Theo before school, I reminded him to bring his karaoke machine to my house, and then at lunchtime I went over to his table to remind him again.
“Geez, Emma, I said I’ll bring it.”
I froze in surprise. Theo was never snappy like that. At least not to me.
“I’m sorry,” he said right away, seeing my face. “I just … I wish you’d trust that I’ll bring it after the first time you asked.”
Autumn walked by our table and gave me a bright smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Oh, hello, Emma. I’m really looking forward to your party. Thank you for inviting me. Maybe you should invite Tara Duncan, and then it can be a gathering of all the people running for queen. I didn’t know you were interested in that,” she added, her voice sounding less bright.
“I didn’t either.”
“Frankie signed her up for it,” Theo said. He turned to me. “In fact, I kind of expected you to drop out.”
“Well, he went to all that trouble with the posters and everything,” I said, and the explanation sounded lame even to my own ears. “And the Valentine’s dance is my very favorite event of the year,” I added, which was true.
Theo gave me a strange look and then abruptly stood up and started taking his tray over to the trash cans.
Feeling confused, I turned back to Autumn. “Anyway, I’m so glad you can come today. Should be fun. Hopefully it won’t rain.” I waved goodbye to her as she walked away, and then I looked down and realized that I hadn’t even started my lunch, Theo had left, and Hallie was nowhere to be found. Neither was Frankie.
“Hey, Emma,” Travis said as he and Hallie came up to join me. Hallie set down that same giant art notebook I’d seen them working on at Morning Mugs.
“Hey,” Hallie said. “We were working on our project. It’s due soon.”
“Cool,” I said, just glad not to be sitting there alone, especially now that my face was on a flyer or a poster all over the school, calling myself the Planning Princess. Suddenly, that slogan, which had seemed so smart at the time, felt pretty embarrassing. Luckily, neither Hallie nor Theo had said anything about it to me.
All of a sudden, I was stuck with a terrible thought. Was Hallie going to invite Travis to the party? Had she already invited him? That would ruin everything.
“You’ve got my vote,” Travis said, and it took me a few seconds to figure out what he was talking about.
“For queen—oh, thanks, Travis.”
“Sure.” He turned back to Hallie and showed her something in the large notebook. “So, the latest thing is I’m thinking of adding straps here,” Travis told her, and Hallie leaned forward to see where he pointed.
“Oh, that’s even more awesome. You’re so talented, Travis!” she exclaimed.
I looked down at the notebook. I was surprised to see a very good drawing of a bright pink gown with an interesting, asymmetrical hemline.
“That’s really good,” I told him.
“Thanks,” Travis said, looking pleased and maybe a little bit embarrassed. He folded up the notebook and launched himself off the bench. “Gotta go, I’ll see you both later.”
“Bye, Travis,” Hallie called.
I watched Travis walk away, surprised by his hidden talent of designing dresses. “So, are you excited for later today?” I turned back to ask Hallie.
Now it was her turn to look confused. “Oh, the thing at your house. Sure.”
I eyed Hallie’s outfit as I unwrapped my chicken-and-avocado sandwich. She was wearing a pink T-shirt and jeans: a little plain for a party, if you asked me. But she did look nice in pink with her pale skin. And I didn’t want to make her nervous by commenting on her clothes. “Shana and Stella are sending over some snacks from Morning Mugs,” I told her.
“Yum,” Hallie said as she unwrapped her sandwich.
I smiled, imagining Chris and Hallie walking hand and hand down the lane beside my house, my magical Cupid walking between them.
* * *
After my last class, I raced home, excited. Not even the damp and cloudy weather could ruin my mood. I’d gotten so many snacks, and that was even without whatever Shana and Stella were sending over.
Tearing open the back door, I greeted Cupid in the usual way, by crouching down to kiss and hug him.
Annie came up to the back door just moments after me. “Hi there,” she said, walking in and smiling down at me and Cupid. “It’s been so long since I sat for you! I forgot the drama of your daily reunion with Cupid, after being so cruelly separated for seven whole hours.”
“It felt like longer,” I told her as Cupid kissed my ear. “Thank you again so much for coming over, Annie. You’re the best.”
“No problem,” Annie said. “Shana and Stella sent over a bunch of stuff—you can help me bring it in from the car. And best of all—cupcakes!”
“Thank goodness!” I said, laughing. Annie is well-known as a cupcake mega-fan.
In the driveway, we met Theo, who walked up holding a box that I assumed contained his karaoke machine. “Delivery for Emma Winters,” he intoned. “Where do you want this thing?”
“What do you think? In the dining room? Or maybe the den.”
“Your call. You are mistress of the house.” Theo grinned at Annie. “We’re reading Charles Dickens in English class,” he explained. Annie had babysat both of us plenty of times, so she and Theo also knew each other well.
“Ooh, I love Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities?” Annie asked as she balanced a couple of boxes in her arms and headed into the house.
“No, Great Expectations. That poor Pip.”
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“No spoilers!” I told him. “I’ll be reading it next year.” I turned to Annie. “He’s impossible; he completely blew the endings of To Kill a Mockingbird and Ender’s Game for me last year.”
“Don’t complain to me, I usually skip to the end first. I don’t like surprises,” Annie said.
“That’s fully insane,” Theo said.
“But you’re the one who spoilers me,” I told him.
“Spoilers is not a verb,” Theo said, setting up the machine in the den. I helped him plug it in. “Hey, could you bring me a cupcake?”
“So much for me being mistress of the house,” I grumbled.
“That’s what the mistress of the house does. She’s the hostess.”
I laughed, realizing he was, as usual, right.
Annie and I had just finished arranging the mountain of snacks when Hallie arrived. As soon as she stepped in, Autumn appeared right behind her.
“Welcome, everybody!” I called. “Come on into the kitchen, we have so much food.”
“Who else is coming?” Hallie asked me.
“Just two more,” I said, and the doorbell rang. “Come on, Hallie and Cupid, let’s get the door.” I was hoping it was Chris and not Frankie. That way, he would be the obvious choice to accompany Hallie on her walk with Cupid.
I opened the door, and it was indeed Chris. Whew! He looked pretty cute in his blue polo shirt. And Cupid even ran to the door to see who it was and started wagging his tail. Everything was off to a good start.
“Thanks for inviting me, Em—aaaa-CHOO!” Chris doubled over in a giant sneeze. And then he tried to say my name again and sneezed three more times.
“Bless you!” I said. “Do you have a cold?”
Chris shook his head. “I—I didn’t know you had a dog,” he said, sneezing again loudly. “I’m—I’m allergic.”
I looked at Hallie, and she seemed to be trying not to laugh. Poor Chris’s nose was already turning red. This was not the way things were supposed to go.
Frankie walked in through the front door behind Chris, said, “Gesundheit,” as Chris sneezed again, then walked around him and into the foyer.
“Where’re the snacks, Emma?” he asked. “I totally skipped lunch.”
