Limos, Lattes and My Life on the Fringe

by Nancy N. Rue

  I opened my eyes and held RL out in front of me. “Is that it? Or did I just talk myself into that?”

  It didn’t answer. And I sure didn’t have anything else to go with.

  I tucked RL back under the cushion and started the search for Graham’s email address. If this wasn’t a risk, I didn’t know what was.

  Sunny was in a surprisingly good mood the next morning, and I actually was too, for me. Tomorrow was the dress shop, and that would tell us how much support we could expect for the rest of the plan. When we got to her classroom, two more girls were waiting with dresses and purses and a pair of Pradas I could just see Candace in. If she showed up the next day. I hadn’t heard a syllable from her since the assembly, or any of the Kmart Kids for that matter. I was starting to regret emailing Graham. He probably wasn’t going to respond anyway. Wrong.

  He appeared outside my math class about two minutes before the bell rang and motioned for me to come out into the hall. I was surprised he didn’t have his tuba with him. Although judging from the look on his face, he probably would have hit me with it.

  “I can’t believe you sent me an email to ask me to take you to the prom,” he said.

  “Hi, Graham, nice to see you,” I said.

  “Oh, don’t even try to take me there.” He looked down at me from his giraffe-ish height and scowled until his brows nearly met his lashes. “You act like I have herpes every time I see you and then all of a sudden you’re asking me to prom.”

  “Not as my date,” I said. “Just as my escort. For the prom queen thing.”

  “You are unbelievable.” If his voice had gone any higher, only a bloodhound would have been able to hear it. “I’m not good enough to be your date, but I’m okay to walk across the stage with you and get laughed at by those hyenas. Why’d you ask me? Because I’m the only brother you know?”

  “No. Because it’ll make my parents happy.”

  His mouth came completely open. “Woman?” he said. “Do you have any feelings at all?”

  All of my blood rushed to my face. All of it. What on earth was I doing?

  “Graham,” I said. “I am so sorry. I’m an idiot.” “You aren’t gonna get an argument from me on that.” “Really, I’m sorry. I don’t even know what to say. You’re totally right.”

  He relaxed the scowl. “I guess I could sorta see it. My mother’s always tryin’ to get me to ask you out and I know your mom’s on you about it. I just don’t wanna be used, you know what I’m sayin'?”

  “Yes — I get it.”

  Mrs. O’Hare came to the doorway. “Bell’s about to ring,” she said. She looked from me to Graham. “Two minutes,” she said and closed the door as the bell sounded.

  “I gotta go,” Graham said. “But, look — just so you know, I wouldn’t have minded taking you —”

  “If I hadn’t handled it like an insensitive stone,” I said.

  “No — if you hadn’t turned the whole prom into a pity-the-poor-kid thing. I’m not even going.” I groaned. “Not you too.” “Yeah, me more than anybody.”

  “You’re not even poor, Graham. I’ve been to your house — you live better than we do.”

  “Yeah, but it’s still rich kid reaching down to lend a helping hand to the ‘less fortunate.’ You don’t think that’s the way this makes Kenny feel?”

  “No!”

  “Have you even talked to him since you got up there and did your ‘I have a dream’ speech at the assembly?”

  “My what?”

  “You haven’t, have you?”

  “No.”

  “Well, he’s not goin’ either.”

  “No, he’d rather hang outside the mini-mart. And what’s with the ‘rich kid’ thing?” I said. My face was hot again, but this time it wasn’t from embarrassment.

  “I’m not gonna argue with you. Like I told you before, you try too much to talk like your do-good parents instead of —”

  “You know what?” I said. “I think you don’t like this because you just want to keep feeling sorry for yourself, and this doesn’t leave you with anything to whine about. I thought the same thing — just be a jerk because nobody understands me, but —”

  “Nobody does,” Graham said. “Least I don’t.”

  He turned and walked away just as the door opened again. Even after I was at my desk, staring at the Pythagorean theorem, I could still see the anger in his eyes. It was now official: there wasn’t a single group in the school I hadn’t ticked off.

  I bewailed that to Valleri when she met me after class.

  “I know it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks of me,” I said. “Except it does, because my face is on this whole project. I should’ve let you and Patrick be the spokespeople and I should’ve done the behind-the-scenes. Maybe it would go better if people didn’t connect it with me. I can’t even ask a guy to the prom without insulting him.”

  “There’s only one thing to do,” Valleri said.

  “Don’t say match dot com,” I said.

  She shoved curls behind both ears. “No. We need to pray.”

  “Believe it or not, I did that last night.”

  She didn’t faint like I expected her to. She didn’t even blink. She just said, “Let’s take a second and get quiet and each give it to God.”

  I didn’t automatically say I didn’t know what that even meant, because I almost thought I might. I leaned against the hallway wall next to her and gazed down at my feet and silently begged — not for an escort, not even for my parents to give me their blessing, or the Fringe to speak to me, or the Ruling Class to stop sending me threatening text messages. I just prayed that something I was giving would multiply into something good. I didn’t even know why I prayed that. It just came to me.

  “Hey. Prom Queen. Are you okay?”

  My eyes startled open. Ryleigh was standing there, head turned as if she were only looking at me with one eye. It was a something-is-really-weird-here look. And yet the eye I saw was shiny.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m okay.”

  “I think I’m going to start taking naps in the hallway too,” she said. “Hey — I just wanted to tell you.”

  “Tell me what?” I got ready for the next assault.

  “I was thinking about what you said at the assembly about people going to the prom in groups and everybody sharing the expenses instead of taking one date and putting all the burden on a couple.” She took a breath. I was needing one myself. “And so a bunch of us got together and decided to form our own, like, prom group?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And now we have twelve people.”

  “Seriously?” I said.

  Valleri put in a “That’s awesome.”

  “And the guys are like, ‘We have a surprise for you women.’ I don’t know what it is but it’s like, I don’t know, it feels good to be excited about something for a change. So anyway — “ Ryleigh fumbled with the strap on her bag. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry I gave you such a hassle about all this. It’s a great idea — and Noelle and I are totally going to be there tomorrow.”

  “I love it,” I said.

  She shrugged happily and took off. I felt Valleri looking at me. “Well,” she said. “That was a fast answer.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Freaky.”

  And then I looked at her. The blue eyes were waiting, as if they already knew what I was going to say.

  “I’m taking you up on your invite to church,” I said. “Sunday?” she said.

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll email you the directions,” she said. And then she full-out smiled. I was sure she wouldn’t have looked that happy if Patrick Sykes had asked her to the prom.

  Speaking of Patrick, he emerged from the cafeteria and made a beeline for us. Valleri said, “I have to use the restroom,” and melted into the crowd.

  “Just the person I wanted to talk to,” he said. His grin was kind of soft and mushy, which was different. “Let’s go out in the courtyard.”

  �
��I wanted to talk to you too,” I said, moving just ahead of the hand that hovered at my back. “Wait ‘til you hear this.”

  I told him about Ryleigh and the group thing — and the idea sounded better as I talked. By the time we got to a concrete bench in the courtyard, I’d made a decision.

  “I think it’s incredible,” I said. “And that’s what I’m doing. Maybe I’ll just grab one of them to be my escort — who knows?” I felt like I, too, must be grinning, not something I could ever have said about myself before. “It’s like this huge relief. Egan keeps bugging me, but I think that’s just because he figures nobody’s going to want to walk with me.”

  “I don’t think —”

  “It’s okay. There are times when I don’t even want to walk with me.” I nodded at Patrick. “You have no idea how much pressure this takes off. I actually want to go to the prom now.”

  “You didn’t before?”

  “That’s ironic, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  He grinned at me, but it didn’t show up in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “Here I am babbling, and you needed to talk to me about something. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything is — yeah, it’s okay. I just wanted to ask you …”

  His voice faded out. What was it I was seeing in his eyes? Now that I looked closer, he seemed — what? Disappointed?

  “How many dresses do you think you have?” he said finally. “Hayley’s mom wants to know.”

  I pulled out my notebook, still watching him. Why did I have the feeling that wasn’t what he’d brought me out here to talk about? I glanced at the list of items. “We have fifty,” I said.

  “Ya gotta love that,” Patrick said and stood up. “So — lunch?”

  “Sure,” I said. I didn’t point out that it was the only awkward thing I’d ever seen him do.

  Chapter Fifteen

  My father used to tell me — when we were actually communicating — that you couldn’t always determine success by numbers. That being said, I already considered the dress shop an outrageous success when, by 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, we’d outfitted twenty girls for the prom in exchange for offerings none of us — not even Patrick — had thought of.

  Ryleigh brought her mom with her — hello, she owned her own beauty shop in Castle Heights — who offered free updos the day of the prom and said if people brought their own polish they could give each other manicures there. We had more nail color than Walgreens, so that wasn’t going to be a problem.

  Izzy’s sister — who knew he had a sister? — brought some expense forms her bookkeeper mom had printed out for keeping track of prom costs. I started helping girls fill those out, calculator in hand, while Hayley, Sunny, and Valleri helped them put together their ensembles. Hayley’s mother had juice and fruit and croissants for everyone, and a couple of RC girls walked around with trays. I’d have killed for a latte.

  Alyssa and Joanna were conspicuously absent, no surprise there. I was surprised when my cousin Candace appeared with a photo album full of pictures of her mother’s garden.

  “She said anybody wants a corsage, they can pick whatever they want to make one prom morning,” Candace told me.

  I had totally forgotten that Lana had a major green thumb. What I hadn’t forgotten was what Graham told me.

  “I didn’t think I’d see you here,” I said when we were checking out, of all things, the jewelry display.

  “Why?” she said.

  “You know why. I know Kenny’s not going to the prom.” Her eyes flashed. “I ain’t Kenny, now, am I?”

  “No,” I said.

  “I been watching you, and I keep saying to myself, if Tyler is in charge of this, I need to get over myself and do it.” She lowered her eyes and toyed with a silver serpentine bracelet. “I never will forget what you done for me that day in the mall.”

  “Don’t do it for me,” I said. “Do it for you. You and Quinn.”

  She beamed at me. Totally glowed. “We are gon’ look good in that Camaro, me and him.”

  “Then you better get over there and pick out a dress,” I said.

  I was pretty much beaming myself as I watched her dart over to Sunny, arms open. Until I looked and saw Patrick standing there with a very triumphant-looking Joanna on his arm.

  She’d finally snagged him. Although, Patrick had never struck me as one to be with anyone he didn’t want to be with, especially if she didn’t need to be “worked on” to be there.

  I didn’t like the sadness that settled over me.

  I turned to go back to the group poring over their expense sheets in the dining room and almost tripped over Hayley, who shot past and disappeared through a doorway down the hall. It was decidedly slammed.

  “Do you know what that’s about?” I said to Valleri, who was suddenly there at my elbow.

  “She was starting to cry. I think we should go talk to her.”

  “You should go talk to her. This is not my core competency.”

  Valleri grabbed my arm anyway. “She needs a cool head. Let’s go.”

  She half dragged me down the hall to the door Hayley had just slammed. I was all for knocking, but Valleri just pushed it open and tucked herself, and me, inside the room.

  Hayley was lying facedown on a bed that had so many pillows it made my window seat look naked. She was beyond “starting to cry.” The child was practically convulsing with sobs.

  “I’m not good at this,” I muttered to Valleri.

  She, of course, went straight to Hayley and nodded for me to join her on the other side. I sat down robotically and watched in awe as Valleri stroked Hayley’s back until she rolled over and stopped sobbing enough to be able to speak. Personally, I would have just called 911.

  “Did you see him with her?” Hayley said to me.

  “Patrick and Joanna?” I said.

  The sob she gave was a definite yes. “I know he asked her to the prom, the way she was looking, like she’s all that.” “Did she tell you that?” I said.

  “No! She’s not even speaking to me because I’m helping Patrick with this — but she’ll speak to him!”

  “Yeah,” I said, “I don’t get that either.”

  I looked helplessly at Valleri, but she gave me a reassuring nod. I had no idea what I was doing.

  “So you don’t know for a fact that he asked her to prom,” I said.

  “No.” Hayley took the Kleenex Valleri handed her and honked. “Alyssa said he better, or he was going to have to answer to her.”

  “I’m so sorry your friends have dumped you over this,” Valleri said.

  “I don’t care about them! I just care about Patrick — and I thought he’d ask me if I helped him.” She looked miserably at me. “It’s been fun and I’m glad I’m doing it — but at first, it really was for him.”

  “All right,” I said, “let’s try to be rational about this.”

  “Okay,” she said hopefully.

  “Just because Joanna is with Patrick today doesn’t mean they’re going to prom together. I was in Scarnato’s with him one day and she came in, but I don’t think she assumed he was taking me.”

  Her hope sagged with her shoulders. “That’s different.” “How is it different?”

  “Because Patrick wouldn’t date you, and he would Joanna. She’s in our group, you know?”

  The sting went straight through my sternum.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I know.”

  Hayley tossed the Kleenex into the white wicker wastebasket and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I better get out there. I need to wash my face so Joanna won’t know she got to me.”

  Valleri offered to help her, but she shook her head and slipped into the bathroom adjoining her room. I was out the door before Valleri could catch up to me.

  “I don’t think she realized she insulted you,” she said.

  “I know. But that’s the point. I mean, maybe Alyssa is right. Maybe the whole class system is never going to change.�
�

  “Well, not overnight,” Valleri said. She turned her head toward the living room, where music was now blasting from a pretty impressive-sounding stereo system. “Sounds like there’s a party going on.”

  I tried not to look for Patrick when we arrived on the scene, but I did, and he and Joanna were gone. Egan had arrived, though, and he looked perfectly at home amid the ruffles and beads and giggles.

  “Hey, Tyler,” he shouted over the woofers and tweeters. “I thought I’d come by — see how it’s going. Chairman of the prom committee and all that.”

  He didn’t need to remind me that he — not I — was in charge of the prom. But the back of my neck didn’t prickle. He looked way too much like he was enjoying himself to irritate me. Even as I watched, Candace started to walk past him in a sleek cream dress and gold bracelets up both arms. Egan put one hand on her waist and the other in the hand she automatically slipped into his. Everyone had to get their skirts out of the way as the two of them danced in the middle of the room. Candace could definitely move. And Egan — not bad either.

  “See?” Valleri said to me.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Which meant maybe it wasn’t the class system that would make it unlikely that Patrick would ever ask me out. Maybe it was just me.

  I didn’t know until that moment that I even wanted Patrick to ask me, but now I couldn’t blot out the vision of him escorting me across the stage. A vision of us dancing — and greeting the dawn over lattes. A vision that was never going to be real.

  I tried to shake it off as I went back to helping with expense forms, but even after we ate the final croissant, counted only ten dresses left, and gave Mrs. Barr the gift of tea and chocolate Valleri had put together for her, the sadness was still there in wisps, like the cobwebs that are left when you think you’ve totally dusted your room, and then you lie on your bed and see them hiding in the corners of the ceiling.