What Are You Hiding, Tory? (9781771275347)

by Ann Apel, Melanie

  “To tell one interesting thing about ourselves,” Zoe said, without waiting to be called on.

  “That’s right,” Mrs. Jason said. “Well, your assignment for the break is to tell one interesting thing about yourself again. Only this time you have two weeks to think about your answer, and I want it written. In January, you will report to the class about yourself.”

  Kelly raised her hand. “Do we have to tell the same interesting thing we said on the first day of school?”

  “That’s up to you. If you still think that’s the most interesting thing about yourself then go ahead and elaborate on that.”

  “What do you mean ‘elaborate’?” Scott Linus asked.

  “I mean tell more, use more details. Does anyone else have any questions?”

  I raised my hand and asked Mrs. Jason how long the report had to be.

  “At least two pages,” was her answer.

  * * * *

  When the bell finally rang, Kelly asked me what I was going to write about.

  “You’ll see,” I told her, with a secret smile. She grinned back, and I had a feeling she knew what I was going to write in my report.

  Kelly and I walked to her house after school so she could get her things for the evening. We had made plans for Potter’s dad to drive Potter and Jimmy to my house, and then pick Kelly and me up and drive us all to school for the dance. After the dance, my father would drive the boys to Potter’s house. Kelly was sleeping over at my house. She had packed all her things the night before so we went right to my house. Her mom made her promise to let my mom take a picture of Kelly going to her first dance.

  We stopped in the kitchen for a snack before heading up to my room to get ready. Both my parents had brought Christmas cookies home from their offices. Jenny and I had baked sugar cookies in the shape of snowmen and gingerbread cookies the weekend before. There was plenty to snack on, and I made us both hot chocolate with little marshmallows.

  “Is Alec home?” Kelly asked, as she always did.

  “Kelly, Jimmy is going to be here in a little while! Why are you still thinking about my brother?”

  “Because he’s cute,” she said, as if it didn’t matter that she was going to the dance with Jimmy. Her cheeks were pink, though.

  In my room we put on our new dresses. Kelly’s mom had taken her shopping for a dress the week before. Hers was long, and there were big, red poinsettia flowers all over it. Kelly looked very grown up in it.

  “I’m surprised your mom let you have a dress like that,” I said, still admiring Kelly in her dress.

  “Me, too!” Kelly said. “You look really nice, Tory. I bet Potter thinks so too!”

  “I hope so.”

  “Look what I brought.” Kelly pulled a small pink bag from her overnight bag.

  “What’s that?” I was curious.

  “Look,” Kelly said. She started to take things out of the bag one at a time. There was an eyeliner pencil, mascara, blush, four shades of eye shadow, and three different lipsticks. “I borrowed them from my mom. She never uses this stuff.”

  Somehow I had the feeling that Kelly had “borrowed” the makeup without asking her mom if it was actually okay. But I didn’t ask. I looked at the lipsticks and chose a pale shade of red I thought would look nice with my dress. Kelly chose the dark red lipstick. I put on a little bit of blush and looked at myself in the mirror. My tan from the summer had completely faded. The blush made my cheeks look rosy, like when I go outside in the cold. Kelly put on a full face of makeup.

  “How do you know how to do all that?” I asked.

  “I’ve watched my mom do it lots of times.”

  “I thought you said your mom never uses this stuff,” I said, annoyed that I had caught her in a lie.

  “What I meant was, she never uses this stuff. It’s all old. My mom has all new stuff.”

  I hoped she was telling the truth.

  My parents were waiting for us in the den when we came down the stairs.

  “Who are these two lovely young ladies, Claire?” Dad asked Mom.

  “Daddy!” I said.

  “Is that my little baby girl? My little Tory?” Dad said, smiling at me.

  “I’m afraid not, Ed. That’s your very grown-up daughter, Tory,” Mom said.

  “Come on you guys,” I begged. “You’re embarrassing me!” Kelly was giggling. I was so glad Potter and Jimmy hadn’t arrived yet.

  Mom said, “Mrs. Conrad made me promise to take some photos of you.”

  She positioned us in front of the fireplace in our living room. Alec and Jenny and I had already hung our Christmas stockings, and Mom had set a row of tall, fat, red candles on top of the mantel. Our Christmas tree was up, and the little white lights were sparkling behind us. Mom got the camera ready, but then she just stood back and looked at us.

  “You girls look beautiful,” she said.

  “You sure do,” Dad added. His voice sounded funny. Kind of like mine does when I’m trying not to cry. The doorbell rang, and Dad excused himself to go answer it while Mom took a few photos. He returned with Potter, Jimmy, and Mr. Murphy. Potter and Jimmy were wearing dark suits and ties. A quick glance at Potter’s shoes told me that they were as new as mine. I would have to be extra careful not to step on his toes when we danced. Potter’s hair was combed a little bit differently than he normally wears it. He looked very handsome.

  “Do you know these two young men?” Dad asked.

  Kelly even looked embarrassed this time.

  “Yes, Dad,” I said. “This is Potter, and this is Jimmy.”

  “It’s nice to meet you boys,” Dad said, and he held out his hand. Jimmy looked at Potter, who immediately took Dad’s hand and shook it.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Richards.” Jimmy shook Dad’s hand and mumbled the same words Potter had said. Mom took a few more photos of the four of us in front of the Christmas tree. After that, we started to head outside to Mr. Murphy’s car. I stopped for a minute because I had to cough. Why now? How annoying. I coughed pretty hard, and while I did, Kelly started chatting about something to try to distract everyone from me. But it wasn’t working. Potter and Jimmy kept looking at me, and I couldn’t stop coughing.

  Finally I had to turn my back and duck into the bathroom. I pulled a bunch of tissues from the box and spat out the stuff I coughed up. I was out of breath, so I sat down on the toilet lid. I looked in the mirror. The reflection in the mirror looked back at me. Aside from my cheeks being a little bit redder from coughing, I still looked okay. My lipstick wasn’t messed up, either. How could I look so normal on the outside, yet still be sick on the inside?

  A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. I assumed it was Kelly or Mom, so I said, “Come in.”

  The door opened slowly. It was Potter. I was sure he was coming in to tell me he didn’t want to take me to the dance.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. He looked so worried.

  “Yes. I’m fine now. Thanks.”

  “Do you still want to go to the dance?”

  There it was. He didn’t want to take me to the dance. Seeing me in the hospital had not bothered him. But watching me cough was a different story altogether.

  “Why? Don’t you want to go? Now that you’ve seen me coughing?”

  “No, no! I mean, I want to go. I mean…I want you to go with me. I just thought, well, I thought maybe you didn’t feel well. I just don’t want you to go if you’re going to feel too sick to have any fun. I mean….” he stammered, his cheeks turning red again. “I mean, we could like, stay here and watch a movie or something. You know, just hang out. But if you’re feeling up to going to the dance, I mean…I do really want to take you.” Potter smiled when he said that. He has such white teeth.

  “Oh. I’m sorry if I was mean. I really feel fine, and I want to go with you, too.”

  Potter smiled again. He reached out his hand and pulled me up from the toilet lid.

  Mom was holding my coat for me when Potter and I came out of
the bathroom. She looked like she wanted to ask me if I was better, but she didn’t say anything.

  “You kids have fun tonight,” Dad said. “I’ll be there to pick you up when it’s over.” There was a loud bang as Alec slammed his bedroom door upstairs. A moment later, he came running down the stairs. He was wearing his good suit and a tie. He looked pretty handsome for a brother. I glanced at Kelly to see if she was looking at Alec. She wasn’t. Her eyes were glued to Jimmy, whose eyes were glued right back on Kelly. I guess her crush on my big brother was finally over.

  “Hi, everyone! Bye, everyone! I’m late!” Surprise, surprise! Alec grabbed his coat and was out the door before anyone could say a word. Mom didn’t even get a chance to take a picture of him all dressed up. I hoped Amanda knew Alec well enough to know he would be late picking her up.

  Mr. Murphy unlocked the doors to his car and got in behind the wheel. Kelly, Potter, Jimmy, and I climbed into the backseat.

  “Isn’t anyone going to sit up front with me?” Mr. Murphy asked.

  No one answered, but Kelly and I giggled.

  “I’m not a taxi driver, you know.”

  “We know, Dad. We just want to sit together, that’s all,” Potter said.

  We were completely squished in the backseat and there were only three seatbelts, so it was a good thing our school was so close.

  * * * *

  The gym looked like a winter fairyland. Huge snowflakes were hanging from the ceiling, and a giant banner taped to one wall read:

  WELCOME TO THE SIXTH, SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE WINTER DANCE

  As if we wouldn’t know where we were. The big Christmas tree that had been inside the main entrance of the school all week was now part of the gym decorations. The tree was covered in ornaments that kids from every grade had made in art class. Mine was a three-dimensional gingerbread house. I used white puff paint to make the frosting. It looked pretty realistic, as far as gingerbread houses go. Kelly’s ornament, a tiny red and green Christmas stocking she crocheted, hung near mine.

  In another corner of the gym there was a big snowman made of Styrofoam balls the eighth graders put together. The snowman wore a black top hat and a red scarf wrapped around his neck. On the floor around the snowman was a sheet of snow. I couldn’t tell what it was made of, but it looked a lot like real snow.

  “Hi, Kelly. Hi, Tory. I love your dresses.” Zoe was standing with Ryan Polonsky, her date for the evening. “I know where you got yours, Tory.” I was sure she knew exactly where I had gotten my dress because I knew where she had gotten hers. She was wearing the red dress with white lace my mom had made me try on. The one I thought made me look like a six-year-old!

  “Your dress is so cute, Zoe,” Kelly said. I wanted to elbow her!

  Shayna was wearing a long, black dress that had a low back and a huge black bow at the back of her waist. She looked beautiful. A moment later, I was wishing I had brought my camera for the look on Shayna’s face when Diana walked in wearing the same dress!

  It was hard to tell who was more embarrassed, Shayna or Diana. Diana looked as beautiful as Shayna. But they stayed far away from each other for the rest of the evening. Lily and Nicolle were both wearing plaid taffeta skirts and fuzzy red sweaters. They were dressed alike on purpose. They didn’t have to stay on opposite sides of the gym. Isabella came in with Jake McMahon. If there had been a king and queen of the Winter Dance it definitely would have been Isabella and Jake. They looked perfectly great together. Isabella left Jake with a group of boys and came over to where I was standing with my friends.

  “Tory, can I talk to you for a minute?” Isabella asked. She looked nervous. I wondered what was up. I also wondered why Sara wasn’t with her.

  “Sure,” I told her, and to Potter and Kelly I said, “I’ll be right back.”

  We walked over to the corner where the Christmas tree was, and Isabella said, “I just wanted to tell you I’m really sorry.”

  “What for?” I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure if I was right.

  “For, um, well, after Kelly’s Halloween party, when we found out that you have CF, well....”

  I could tell this was difficult for Isabella, but I didn’t try to stop her.

  “Sara and I told some of the kids in our class.”

  I knew it! I had been right about whom Potter had heard the rumor from when I was in the hospital.

  “It was Sara’s idea.” Isabella continued, “I didn’t want to tell anyone. I didn’t think it was very nice of Sara not to keep your secret. But she said she wouldn’t be my best friend anymore if I didn’t go along with her.”

  I was curious, so I had to ask her, “Where is Sara tonight?”

  “I told her I was going to apologize to you. She said if I did our friendship was over, and she wasn't going to be seen at the dance with me.”

  I started to feel sorry for Isabella. Losing your best friend is definitely one of the worst things that can happen. Isabella sure was brave to risk losing her best friend just so she could apologize to me. That took a lot of guts.

  I didn’t know what to say so all I said was, “Oh.”

  “Do you accept my apology? If you do, I promise never to do anything like that to you again.” She sounded sincere.

  “I’ll accept your apology if you promise never to treat anyone badly again, not just me.”

  “I promise. I really do.” I was sure Isabella meant it.

  * * * *

  Potter and I danced every dance except one, where we were told to switch partners. For that dance, I was with Jimmy, and Kelly danced with Potter. We switched back as soon as the song ended. The chaperones put out some snacks in the middle of the dance. Their timing was perfect. I was starving from all the dancing.

  Potter, Kelly, Jimmy, and I walked over to the table. I slipped my hand into the pocket of my dress and felt for the pills I had put there before I left the house. I didn’t think I should try to sneak off to the bathroom in the middle of the dance. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if I took my pills in front of Potter. When I took them in front of Liza and her mom, nothing bad happened. Potter had seen me in the hospital, and now he had even seen me coughing. If he still liked me after all that, taking pills in front of him probably wouldn’t be a big deal either. Potter handed me a paper cup full of eggnog. I took three pills out of my pocket and swallowed them with a sip. Potter didn’t say a word! Instead, he held out a small red plate full of Christmas cookies.

  “Want a cookie?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled and took one shaped like a candy cane.

  “I thought we could share the plate,” Potter said.

  * * * *

  We did the Lightning Show, and the foxtrot and a few more dances. Before we knew it, it was time for our last dance. They played a slow Christmas song, and Potter and I danced the whole dance. It felt nice being close to him, and he smelled so good. I think he was wearing some of his father’s aftershave.

  Mrs. Jason said we could wait inside until our parents arrived to pick us up, but Potter wanted to wait outside for my father. Snow was starting to fall lightly, though it wasn’t sticking on the ground yet. I didn’t want to ruin my new shoes, so I was glad the snow was still light.

  “I had a really nice time tonight,” Potter said as we stood in the falling snow.

  “Me too.”

  “I’m glad you came with me.”

  “I’m glad you wanted me to. I was afraid—” but I couldn’t finish my sentence because Potter leaned over and kissed me. It was quick and over before I knew it. But, oh, my gosh! There it was. My first kiss. I knew exactly what I would write about first in my journal from Liza.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Kelly slept over at my house after the dance. Before we went up to bed we stopped in the kitchen for another snack. There were a lot of Christmas cookies left, and Kelly wanted hot chocolate, so I made some for both of us.

  “Do you have any whipped cream?”

  “Let me check,” I said, yawning. I mo
ved some things around in the refrigerator. “Found some.” I handed the can to Kelly, and she sprayed a huge swirl onto the top of her drink.

  “Want some?”

  “Sure. But just a little.”

  Kelly squirted about as much whipped cream on my hot chocolate as she had on hers.

  “I said ‘a little,’ Kelly.”

  “I know, but it’s more fun this way.”

  I was too tired to argue.

  Mom came into the kitchen and sat with us. “Hi, girls. How was the dance?”

  “The dance was good.” I thought about telling Mom Potter had kissed me, but I wasn’t sure if I should. When you’re almost twelve there are some things that you just don’t want to tell your mom anymore.

  “Kelly?” Mom asked, wanting to know if Kelly had a good time, too.

  “Yeah, it was a great dance. You should have seen the decorations in the gym.”

  “Mom?”

  “What is it, Tory?”

  “I’m really tired. Can we skip my therapy tonight?”

  Mom looked at me for a long moment. “Do you think that’s smart?”

  I sighed. Mom was right. “No,” I said.

  “I didn’t think so,” Mom said. “Let me know when you’re ready to go up.”

  “Well, I guess I’m ready now,” I told her. I turned to Kelly. “Do you want to come up with us?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Kelly drank the last of her hot chocolate. I put our mugs in the dishwasher. I scooped up all my nebs from the kitchen counter where they’d been drying since Mom washed them this morning.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  Mom didn’t stay the whole time I did my therapy, since Kelly was there to keep me company. Kelly lay in her sleeping bag on the floor, flipping through one of my teen fashion magazines.

  “Aren’t you tired?” I asked her.

  “Nope!” Kelly said with a smile. I got the message: She was waiting for my therapy to be over and the machine to stop making noise so she could talk quietly. She was also waiting for my mom to stop popping in and out of my room. Kelly had something to tell me. It was late when I was finished.