News Flash

by Liz Botts

  By the time we’d pulled up to the Abbey, I had worked myself into quite a snit. Being professional would be a big stretch for me this time, I knew, but I would do my best. I peered out the window at the orange-y red brick façade decorated with various saints and scenes from the life of Christ. The place looked a lot like my church, well, when I went anyway. Somehow that made me feel the tiniest bit better, even though I still felt like I’d be punished for being a lapsed Catholic.

  “So, you ready?” The cameraman hoisted his equipment bag up onto his shoulder as he talked to me. He and the sound guy still hadn’t introduced themselves, and I felt oddly shy around them. Like a kid. Maybe it was their demeanor. My last crew had been so warm and welcoming; it had put me at ease. Everything about this assignment made me nervous.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, gripping the file folder tighter in my hand.

  We entered the cool, dark lobby of what looked like an office building. I tried to tamp down my surprise, but my jaw did drop a bit. The starkness was something I would definitely associate with the religious life—what I knew of it anyway from my brief visits to church and from movies—but the sterileness of it seemed more appropriate for a hospital. As we left the lobby, the harsh glow of fluorescent lights blinded me temporarily.

  A young woman in a pink pant suit greeted us from a desk. She had her hair back in a bun, which made her look officious at the very least.

  “You must be from Channel Eight? The Sisters are expecting you. I’ll show you the way.” She spoke in a lilting voice that seemed to fit nicely with the environment.

  Still, I giggled a bit, perhaps from nerves or perhaps because I found her funny. At the time I wasn’t sure. “The Sisters. It sounds like a rock group.” The young woman shot me a puzzled look, and I saw the cameraman exchange a glance with the sound guy.

  Three nuns sat around a long oak table in what I could only assume was a dining room. All three stood up when we entered the room. I took a deep breath, pulled up a smile, and introduced myself. If ever there was a time to “fake-it-till-I –made-it” it was now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jake had continued to avoid me, especially at school, where he made a point to hang out with Mary Beth every spare second. I couldn’t figure out if he was mad at me or if he was uncomfortable with me because of the whole Rory situation.

  His silence made Rory’s silence feel all the more dramatic. Ever since I had called my boyfriend out on his bad behavior he had been avoiding me at work, and he hadn’t called or texted since then either. The lack of attention from the men in my life made me feel like I had the plague or toe fungus or bad breath or something equally nasty.

  Every day before Special Events Planning class I had to steel myself to seeing Jake with Mary Beth, but when I walked into class on Friday she wasn’t there. I breathed a sigh of relief as I took my seat. Perhaps we’d get something done today without the incessant yelling about how bad we were at prom planning. I almost smiled because the feeling of glee that bubbled up in me was hard to contain. A day without Mary Beth was like Christmas coming early.

  I sat down at my desk in the front corner of the room. Despite the fact that we didn’t have assigned seats, I had made sure to sit in the same place every day so it had become my seat. In my mind, the fact that I could bolt out the door after class ended was a definite perk. The less time I had to spend watching Jake and Mary Beth fawn all over each other, the better. At the memory, a sour taste filled my mouth as the rest of my classmates entered the room. For a moment I considered changing things up and switching seats, but I felt too awkward to sit next to Jake.

  As soon as the bell rang, Mr. Carson shut the door, and began to pace back and forth in front of the room. He kept rubbing the back of his neck and shaking his head. A fine sweat had broken out on his brow, but he didn’t seem to notice. I glanced around the room to see how everyone else was reacting. On the one hand I wanted to laugh because he looked ridiculous, like an oversized penguin waddling about the room. But on the other hand, I felt a kernel of unease lodge in my throat. Whatever had our teacher worked up like this must have been serious. From the faces of the others around me, I could tell that concern was overriding any humor in the situation.

  “Okay, class, we have a problem. A big problem.” Mr. Carson stopped by his desk, and leaned back on the cold metal to support himself. More head shaking. “Mary Beth’s mother called me right before class, and informed me that our fearless leader broke her ankle last night while she was figure skating. She’s scheduled for surgery later today, and then she’ll be out of school for several weeks while she recuperates.”

  Mr. Carson paused, and even though I knew I should feel a sense of dread or foreboding or whatever he was trying to instill in us over the dramatic turn of events, all I felt was relief that bordered on elation. Several weeks without Mary Beth dictating how each of us did everything? Yes, please. And as an added bonus I wouldn’t have to watch her with Jake. That probably made me a horrible person, but I didn’t care. I was just so tired of them together, and I couldn’t even say why.

  “Alright, so where does that leave us?” When he turned toward the chalkboard I actually wondered if he was looking for the answer to be written there. He ran a hand along the top of his bald, sweaty head. “We need to move ahead with this prom planning. And that means…that means we are going to need another person to be in charge, even if it’s only temporary. We need a leader. I’ll open the floor for nominations.”

  I could barely contain my disgust at the whole process. The same thought just kept recurring. Why couldn’t Mr. Carson just take over? He was the teacher, but what was he teaching us? For a special events planning class, all I had really learned was that he was a wuss who needed to grow a backbone. As soon as the thought sprang into my head, though, guilt flooded me. The meanness of it was really ugly. For all I knew, Mr. Carson might be dealing with some kind of hard issue in his personal life. A little compassion might be nice, I snarked at myself.

  “I nominate Allison.”

  I spun in my seat to face Jake, whose face was a mask I couldn’t read. He arched an eyebrow at me, but his jaw was set in a grimace so I wasn’t sure if he was joking or serious or trying to stick it to me somehow. As all the thoughts raced through my head, I settled on the fact that he must still be irritated with me. There was no other reason he’d try to inflict something like being head of prom planning on me. Sometimes he could be such a jerk.

  Mr. Carson looked visibly relieved. His face relaxed, and his body sagged against his desk. “Anyone else? No? Perfect. Allison, we look to you now to be our fearless leader.”

  My jaw came unhinged, and I just stared at my teacher. When the reality of what he’d just said sank in, I shot a glare in Jake’s direction. What could I say? My grade in this class would depend on my response. I needed this class to graduate. Ergo, I had no choice but to say yes.

  “Um…okay,” I said. “Can I have a minute to think about what we should do first?”

  “Of course, of course.” Mr. Carson waved his hand at me as he rummaged around in his desk. “Take a few minutes to get your thoughts together. Here, this should help.”

  A three ring binder landed on my desk with an unceremonious thud. I flipped open the front cover, and was confronted with a sticky note from Mary Beth warning anyone reading it that they better not be a spy. For a moment I actually feared that the whole thing might be booby-trapped. My second thought was that the whole thing was absurd. I would never understand why she took this whole event so seriously.

  “Well, just off the top of my head, I’d say the first thing we need to do is pick a theme. It seems awfully late not to have one. Doesn’t a lot of our other planning require us to know our theme?” The words spilled from my mouth. I wasn’t sure I cared but my fear of not graduating in May overrode any disdain I felt for prom planning.

  Mr. Carson gave me an ear-to-ear smile. His mustache twitched as he said, “That sounds like a fin
e idea. Why don’t you come up to the front of the class?”

  ****

  After fifty minutes of writing people’s ideas on the board, my brain felt like pudding. How I’d survive an afternoon at work was beyond me. I wondered if Marika had approved any of my ideas. A few of the ones on my most recent list were great. I had taken time to research each prospect, and had included contact information so that she could see how relevant each idea was to our viewing audience. The only problem was that I had spent most of my night doing that instead of my homework. I couldn’t let my grades slip.

  I picked up the giant binder, and trudged toward my locker. My mind boggled at how much I had to do. Adding prom planning would only add more stress to my life. My cell phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out. I had a text from Rory. Only one word: sorry. Not such a great apology, but at least it wasn’t silence anymore. I’d deal with him later.

  “Congrats on your new role.” Jake’s voice dripped with condescension as he appeared next to my locker.

  “Yeah, thanks for that.” I wouldn’t look at him as I tried to stuff the binder in my locker. “I mean, I’m a little befuddled, you know? What were you thinking?”

  “Befuddled?” The expression on Jake’s face softened. “Old fogey.”

  I shot him my best look of annoyance. “No, really. What were you thinking? I can barely handle all the things I’ve got going on. Why would you do something so mean?”

  “It’s not mean.” Jake shrugged, and leaned against the locker next to mine. “I think you’ll be good at it. You’re a natural leader. Besides the whole thing is going to be at your grandparents’ place, so it’s only natural that you should plan the rest of it too.”

  “I don’t know why that would be natural,” I said, shoving my math book into my bag. “I have zero interest in the prom. Especially after that tacky tropical prom or whatever crud that was we were forced to attend.”

  “You were probably too wrapped up in Robby to notice.” The tone in Jake’s voice made me flinch, and I couldn’t look up at him. Something in the way he spoke made me feel almost ashamed of my relationship, but the harder truth that hit me in the head was that if I was feeling this way it was because something was wrong. I just didn’t know what, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out.

  “His name’s Rory. You know that. And I wasn’t too wrapped up in him. The whole thing was just ridiculous. Why on earth would you attend a prom that isn’t yours? All that work for what? Let me tell you it wasn’t fun.” I zipped my backpack, stood up, and hoisted the bag to my shoulder. The weight made me grunt slightly. Not so long ago Jake would probably have grabbed it for me, but our friendship seemed to be drifting away from us faster than I wanted to admit. There were so many issues layered into our situation that I was afraid to start dealing with them for fear that everything would unravel at once. I didn’t want to lose Jake.

  He crossed his arms, and stared down at me, his mouth pulled into a frown. I knew he wanted to say something, but I could see him struggling against it. Whatever it was must have been pretty bad because normally Jake would just let it spew out.

  “I think you’ve got your priorities messed up,” he said after what seemed like an eternity. The most disturbing part about being stared at was not the silence, but the way his dark brown eyes seemed to see right into me, but hid all his secrets.

  “Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean? I’m working, getting ready for college, going to school.” My voice held all the righteous indignation that I hoped it would, but my annoyance flagged as I realized the one rather large area of my life that I had been neglecting in favor of the others. I looked away so Jake wouldn’t see that I had recognized he was right.

  “Whatever.” Jake pushed off the locker, and stepped away from me. He narrowed his eyes slightly and shrugged. “You know I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately. Everywhere I look I think I see glimpses of my best friend, but then I look closer and I realize it was just a mirage. I don’t know where she went.”

  I opened my mouth to answer, but he’d already turned away. As he walked down the hall, I felt tears well in my eyes. I knew what it felt like to have my heart break, and what if felt like to lose my best friend all at the same time.

  Not wanting anyone to see my moment of weakness, I swiped the heel of my hand over my eyes, and drew a sharp, stuttering breath. My phone buzzed again in my pocket. Hoping for relief from the aching loneliness that was spreading through my chest, I pulled it out. Rory again. Calling me baby. A raw, sour feeling curdled in the pit of my stomach. What had I done to my life?

  Chapter Fourteen

  I stepped off the bus, and instantly felt the nerves return. After our argument earlier, I wasn’t sure Jake would want to see me, let alone go anywhere with me. Our best friend status had fallen so far that my whole world fell out of step. I wondered if we would ever be able to get back on track again. I flinched as the bus pulled away from the curb. Ever since I was mugged down town made me nervous.

  Even though the stretch of sidewalk from the bus stop down to the river court was short and well lit, I checked, and then double checked that I had my phone in one pocket of my jeans and my money in the other. I also did a quick sweep of the area to make sure no one was around. Still, I hurried.

  As I descended the steps that lead down to the court I could hear the shouts and laughter of enough people that I could guess that a pick-up game was going on. Jake’s mom had assured me that I would find him here, and she had even offered to drive me. Obviously either Jake or my mom had told her about the mugging, but I had declined because I knew I had to get on with my life.

  I paused on the soft grass at the bottom of the stairs. Sure enough Jake was in the center of a pack of guys running up and down the court. He grabbed the ball as it was passed to him, and took a jump and sank the shot without blinking. I had always been impressed watching him play basketball, but seeing him do that gave me a strange fluttering in my stomach.

  When he looked in my direction, I felt my breath hitch. Feeling like an idiot, I gave him a self-conscious little wave, put my head down, and made my way to a picnic table on the edge of the court. I hopped onto the tabletop. The hazy purple of dusk wrapped long fingers across the inky blue sky. A soft, warm breeze blew across the river bringing a faint smell of fishiness. I lay back on the table, staring up at the sky overhead. The first star of the night winked back at me.

  I closed my eyes. My grandmother would have told me to make a wish, and I promptly would have rolled my eyes. And possibly have told her that I wasn’t Brooke. The rhythmic thump of the basketball on the court set my nerves on edge. I knew the bulk of my anxiety was waiting to talk to Jake, but I couldn’t figure out what else was pushing at me. I wished that I could talk to Jake about all of it. That would have helped, but we didn’t have that relationship anymore.

  Maybe that wish wasn’t such a bad idea. I looked up at the star, which seemed brighter now. “Star light, star bright,” I whispered. Then I squeezed my eyes shut tight as I wished that Jake and I could be best friends again.

  “What are you doing here?”

  I gasped, and sat up too fast as Jake dropped onto the table beside me. The lights around the court made a halo around him as he looked down at me. His hair curled, matted to his forehead with sweat. I glanced away so he wouldn’t realize that I was staring at him.

  “Your mom told me you were here.” I shrugged, still not daring to look at him. What was wrong with me? This was Jake. I couldn’t figure out how to be around him anymore. If I had realized that our friendship was slipping away, maybe I could have done something before we got to this point. The empty, lonely feeling that filled me at that moment chilled me to my bones. I had never realized how much I relied on Jake as my support system. As pathetic as it was, I really had no other good friends, no one that I was close to.

  The silence stretched between us, a big, yawning chasm of things unsaid. I couldn’t believe that nothing could be so loud or
speak so much. I was about to tell him that I had been stupid to come down, that I’d leave him alone, when I felt his fingers dig into my ribs. A short gasp of air escaped my throat as laughter bubbled up inside of me. Seconds later I was flattened against the table in hysterics as Jake tickled the life out of me.

  “Stop. Stop. Please.” I pushed the words out between gulps of air and laughter. When the tears cleared from my eyes, I found myself looking up at Jake. His face was just inches from mine. Our eyes locked, and I had no thoughts in my head except that this felt right.

  We came to our senses at the same moment. I could see it in his gaze when he blinked. One second he was hovering on the edge of something different, something new, and then the next he was just Jake again. He sat up, grabbed my hand, and pulled me with him.

  I squeezed my hands together between my knees to stop the shaking that was racking my body. Words tangled on my tongue as I tried to figure out what happened. It would have been nice if I could have talked to Jake about it, but obviously that was part of the problem. I almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

  “So why did you come down?” Jake asked, his voice softer now.

  With a deep, steadying breath, I said, “I wanted to know if you’d crash a prom with me tonight.”

  Jake laughed. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, I know. It sounds absurd, but I mean it. We have so much work to do, and no time. Kelly Hills is having their prom tonight. It’s Eighties themed. What do you say?”

  I glanced over at him, and felt a little jolt as I found Jake staring at me, almost pensively. He shrugged. “Sure, why not? I need to grab a shower first.”

  When we met in front of our houses an hour later, I figured the Kelly Hills prom had been going for at least two hours. All of the dinner stuff had been done for quite a while, and there was a good chance we could slip in without ticket takers sitting at the door.