“Hey, Apple. You look gorgeous,” Happy said, giving Apple another hug.
Apple was about to argue, but she stopped herself. She needed to learn to just be confident again.
“Thanks, Happy. So do you—as always” she said. “Hi, Zen.”
“Hey, Apple. Great party, huh? Glad you made it,” he said.
“Me too,” Apple said. She meant it.
“So, Apple, I have a question for you,” Happy said.
Apple felt her stomach drop. “Yes?” she asked. Were they going to get back into everything that Apple had done?
“Is that your Aunt Hazel over there dancing with Mr. Kelly?” Happy asked.
“What?” Apple shrieked. “Where?”
Apple turned her head toward the spot Happy was pointing at. Sure enough, there was her Crazy Aunt Hazel slow-dancing with Mr. Kelly. Her aunt was resting her head on Mr. Kelly’s shoulder and Mr. Kelly had his hand on the small of her aunt’s back.
“Oh my God,” Apple said, looking back at Happy. “Oh my God!”
They burst out laughing. It had been so long since Apple had laughed like that. Brooklyn walked over with Hopper and joined them.
“What are you guys laughing about?” Brooklyn asked.
Happy and Apple looked at each other and burst out laughing again.
“What, you guys? What?” Brooklyn insisted. “You’re not laughing because I’m with Hopper, are you? I know I should have told you guys sooner that I liked him. Okay, I like him. Fine, I’ve liked him for a long time. Now you know everything!”
Happy and Apple looked at Brooklyn and then at each other and burst out laughing yet again.
“Don’t be so paranoid, Brooklyn,” Happy finally said.
In a giggling fit, Apple pointed toward her aunt and Mr. Kelly.
“Look!” Happy said. “Over there! That’s what we’re laughing at. But,” she added, “I’m glad you told us about Hopper.”
“No!” said Brooklyn. “Is that who I think it is? Is that Crazy Aunt Hazel?”
“Yup!” laughed Apple.
“How did that happen?” Brooklyn asked.
“All I know is when we got here, Crazy Aunt Hazel thought he was cute and asked me to introduce them. I have no idea how they wound up like that!” Apple said, wiping her eyes. “But my aunt does move quickly.”
“I’ll say she does. Well, maybe you are a better matchmaker than you seemed,” Happy said. “Maybe it’s not always so bad when you meddle.”
Apple and Happy exchanged looks, but it was okay. Or at least Apple knew it would be okay, one day soon enough.
Apple felt other eyes on her. Sure enough there was a guy hovering around them.
“Oh, right. Apple, speaking of introductions, have you met Lyon? He’s a friend of Sailor’s. He wanted to meet you,” Happy said, waving Lyon over.
“Me? Why me?” Apple asked.
“Oh, he’ll tell you,” she said.
Happy made the quick introduction. “Apple, this is Lyon. Lyon, this is Apple.”
They shook hands.
“Hey,” Apple said.
“Hey,” Lyon said.
“Well, I’m going to go dance,” said Happy. “Let’s go, Zen. Catch you later, Apple?”
“Absolutely,” Apple said.
“We’re going out there too,” said Brooklyn, holding onto Hopper. “Have fun, Apple!”
Suddenly Apple was alone with Lyon. She had seen him around, but they had never spoken, in large part because he was older.
“So,” said Lyon. “Having fun?”
“I guess so,” Apple said. She suddenly felt very thirsty. Her mouth was dry.
“Well, I’ve seen you around,” said Lyon.
“I’ve seen you around too,” Apple answered.
“But then I just happened to be at home the other day and my sister had on Queen of Hearts, and I really saw you,” Lyon said.
“Oh, God, that. I guess everyone saw it,” Apple moaned.
“Hey! I didn’t mean to upset you. I thought you were very brave,” he said. “I thought what you did was awesome.”
Apple looked at him. He seemed to be sincere. He didn’t seem to be making fun of her.
“Really?” she said. “Because most people would have thought what I had done was really crappy. It was really crappy.”
“No, not what you did, but what you did about it. Most people would never have admitted it if they had done something like that, and so publicly. I think it’s very admirable,” Lyon said. “I think you think you came off way worse than you actually did.”
“Thanks, I think,” said Apple.
“Take it as a compliment,” he said. “I was very impressed. And you looked really pretty too,” he added. “And that’s important in television-land.”
Apple felt her lips turning up in a smile. Who was this guy who was making her smile and even feel at ease?
“So, do you want to dance?” Lyon asked.
“Yes, I very much would like to dance,” Apple answered.
“Great,” he said, holding out his hand to take hers. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, but there’s just one thing,” Apple said, pausing.
“What?” he asked, looking a little worried.
“Just let’s stay away from that area over there, where Mr. Kelly is dancing,” Apple said.
“Mr. Kelly? Why?” Lyon asked.
“Because he’s dancing with my Crazy Aunt Hazel,” she explained.
“With whom?” Lyon asked.
“It’s a long story,” Apple said, gazing up at Lyon. He was quite handsome. She could start fresh with Lyon, she thought.
“Well, the night is young,” he said. “I hope there will be plenty of time for you to tell me everything about this woman you call Crazy Aunt Hazel. And maybe a bit about you.”
“Yes,” Apple agreed, smiling up at him. “The night is young.”
Dear ED,
I’m so glad to be writing to you again. I’ve missed you! I’ve decided to trust people a little more and go back to writing to you, ED, my dear electronic diary. So, Aunt Hazel, if you are reading this, just stop it right now. You know how wrong it is. And be forewarned. I will be writing about you! So if you don’t want to know my honest thoughts, don’t read any further. Well, ED, I just got back from the Valentine Ball. And it wasn’t awful. In fact, it was almost awesome. Happy and I are going to be okay. We made plans to go to Gossip together next week. I’m not saying we’re back to where we were just yet, but I’m hopeful. I wonder if I can ever get over what I did? I just do not ever want to end up in that place again. Also, Brooklyn admitted she likes Hopper. Hopper! Who knows why we like the people we do? Speaking of which, Crazy Aunt Hazel was seen leaving the school dance, looking very cozy with Mr. Kelly. Forget about him being a chaperone tonight. He sucked at being a chaperone. He was too busy sucking my aunt’s face. I saw them, along with many others, when I was leaving in the parking lot. Remind me to thank Crazy Aunt Hazel for that—all my classmates started talking about Mr. Kelly kissing some lady, and stopped staring at and whispering about me. The spare bedroom, too, I noticed, was empty again tonight, which means my parents are sleeping together again. That’s something else I don’t really want to think about. But it means they are getting along, at least. And my mother was so proud of me after I went on her show! I’m not sure if it’s because I finally opened up, and in such a dramatic way, or because Guy told her afterward that it was one of the highest-rated shows they’ve had in months. I don’t really want to think about how many people saw me cry on television. What I do want to think about is Lyon. Happy introduced us tonight, and we spent the next couple of hours together basically just talking and laughing. And he asked me out! My first real date! I’m so nervous. But I’m going to be ME. For better or worse, I’m going to be myself and follow my mother’s advice about not playing games. I also received an interesting e-mail from an editor at B-Grrl Magazine—only the best magazine out there!—who says she might want to use
me as a professional advice columnist for the magazine. I’d get paid and everything! She, of course, watched me on The Queen of Hearts. So more than one good thing came out of that whole crazy plan. In her e-mail, it says she believes I’d be the perfect person to dole out advice, since I’ve probably learned from my mistakes and also since I’m the daughter of the Queen of Hearts. Me? Giving professional advice and getting paid for it? Can you imagine, ED? Maybe I AM my mother’s daughter after all!
Copyright © 2008 Rebecca Eckler
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-37232-1
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited
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