The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth

by Shelley Adina

  Of course it was Derrik. I’d just never paid that much attention to the boys’ soccer team before. “He seems nice,” I said. “He came with us for coffee last night after prayer circle.”

  “Prayer circle?”

  I nodded. “Every Tuesday night at seven in Room 216. He’s come the last few times. You’d be welcome, too, if you felt like it.”

  “Oh, no.” The words sounded like a groan, and she actually moved a couple of inches farther down the bench. “I thought it was just a rumor.”

  “What? That he’s coming to prayer circle?” Wow. The rumor mill must be over Vanessa and hurting for new material.

  “No. That he’s going there for you.”

  I stared at her. “You lost me.”

  “Word is he’s going to ask you to Cotillion.”

  “That’s silly,” I said firmly. “First of all, he’s never said more than hello and good night to me, and second of all, I already have a date to Cotillion.”

  “You do?” Like a parched flower that has just gotten a shower of life-giving rain, Ashley straightened and the brightness came back into her face. “You don’t like Derrik?”

  “Of course I like him, the way I like everyone in prayer circle. But I don’t like like him. I like—” I stopped. I like Kaz.

  Well, of course I did. He was my best friend. But did you have to like someone as a boyfriend to go to Cotillion with him? Of course not. That would complicate things way too much.

  But all the same, I’d better shoot him a note to confirm who was going in which direction this weekend to celebrate his book deal. And maybe we’d find some time for a little talk. I needed to prepare him for what people would think if he came as my date. I mean, he’d pretty much saved my skin last year at the Benefactors’ Day Ball, turning up at the last minute so I wasn’t left standing partnerless and pathetic in the spotlight. So it probably wouldn’t surprise anyone to see me on his arm this time. But it might surprise him if people made assumptions about us that weren’t true. I didn’t want him to be embarrassed.

  And if a girl wanted to dance with a nice-looking guy like Derrik who seemed to appreciate her, well, it would be better if that was ironed out beforehand, too. I mean, technically I was a free agent.

  Not that I’d ever steal Derrik if Ashley were interested in him. We’d worked together enough that I’d come to like her as a friend. Her support on the Committee was half the reason I was able to lead it. And, let’s face it, my Public Speaking grade depended on her cooperation. Three very good reasons not to poach. But there was nothing wrong with a dance with him, was there? Or being friends? If there was one thing I was good at—besides shopping and organizing stuff—it was making friends.

  Ashley and I parted ways, with her looking cheery and promising to do everything she could to help with our video project. Guess I should have let her know I had a date to Cotillion ages ago. In any case, I was feeling pretty cheery myself by the time I got back to our room to face horrid chemistry.

  Gillian looked up as I came in. “Hey.”

  “Hey, stranger. I hope you’re in a coaching mood, because I’m going to need it.” I got my chemistry books out and thumped them on the desk, then fished out my Air. Through the open window, I heard someone down on the lawn give a high-pitched giggle, and the smack of a ball against a guy’s hands. Clearly they were not in my chemistry class.

  “Sure,” Gillian said. “Thirdterm prep, huh?”

  “Yes. And Milsom hates me, so that always makes it worse.”

  “You’d think five months of marriage would have mellowed him out.”

  “Marriage to Ms. Tobin?” I gave her an are-you-kidding face and we both laughed.

  For two hours I suffered through the prep sheets of questions Milsom had handed out that morning, and by nine thirty could take no more. “I’ll finish the rest in free period tomorrow,” I groaned. “Must seek chocolate. Do we have anything in the fridge?”

  “I ate it all while I was doing my Mandarin essay translation. Sorry.” Her apologetic expression told me all I needed to know about how difficult that had been.

  “Back in a minute.” I grabbed my change purse and headed down to the vending machines that lived under the staircase. Once I had a Snickers bar in hand, though, I decided that with thirdterms coming up next week, I’d better stockpile some more. In between the sounds of quarters dropping in the slot and candy bars thunking into the tray, I heard murmured voices out on the staircase.

  “Go on. Now’s your chance,” a guy’s voice said.

  “I can’t,” somebody else whispered.

  “The chick is never alone. It’s now or never.”

  By the time I’d straightened, hands full of chocolate in all its blessed incarnations, Derrik Vaughan stood in the doorway of the little room, his face beet red. “Hi.”

  Ashley’s happy face flashed in my mind’s eye. “Hey, Derrik.” I held up my treasure. “I’m recovering from chemistry burnout. I hope you weren’t looking for Snickers bars, ’cuz I just cleaned them out. Unless you want to work out a deal.”

  “No, I, um… I was looking for you.”

  I smiled at him. Poor guy—he looked so uncomfortable. Even though he was six two in his stocking feet and could call the captain of the rowing team one of his best buds, he was kind of cute when he blushed. “Here I am.” When he didn’t say anything, I filled in the silence. “Was Brett okay? Last night after prayer circle? I still feel kind of bad that I opened my big mouth about Carly’s plans.”

  “Yeah.” Then alarm flared in his eyes. “I mean, not yeah, you have a big mouth. Yeah, he’s okay. At least, he didn’t mention anything about it after that.”

  Of course not. He was a guy. Did guys ever talk?

  “He and Carly will work it out,” I said with confidence. “See you later.” I angled past him in the cubbyhole doorway.

  “Um, Lissa?”

  “Yes?” Now both of us were wedged into the cramped space. He needed to back up or go forward. “Why don’t you—”

  “I was wondering—”

  My armful of chocolate bars began to slip, like a fan opening.

  “Are you going to Cotillion with anyone?”

  “I—no, ack, help!” The bars tipped out of my hands and began to slap on the linoleum, one, two, three. We both bent to pick them up at the same time… my butt hit the doorframe by accident… I bounced off it, straight into his arms with my hands full of rescued candy.

  My foot landed on his and I lost my balance, staggering against his chest. “Oof!” His arms closed around me and I pulled back to apologize. I mean, could there be a bigger klutz in the entire school?

  I heard a telltale click as somebody’s camera phone went off in our faces, freeze-framing us for posterity locked in each other’s arms, gazing open-mouthed into each other’s eyes.

  I was so dead. Ashley Polk was going to murder me.

  By the time I’d gathered up the landslide of chocolate bars and gotten myself upstairs, a fit of the giggles had set in. Poor Derrik had vanished at top speed, not that I could blame him.

  I let myself into the room and dumped the candy onto the end of my bed.

  “It’s about time.” Gillian, in her pajamas, sat cross-legged checking e-mail. “Did you have to go all the way down Fillmore to find a shop that was open?”

  The giggles burst into a real laugh as I told her what had happened. “I doubt poor Derrik will be asking me to Cotillion again…. After all, if I can create a disaster in a four-by-six space, just imagine what I could do in a ballroom.”

  Gillian’s full-throated laugh was music to my ears. I’d missed that sound. “You know, Jeremy said something about Derrik and you, but I was rehearsing and he was talking and I didn’t pay attention. So he really asked you? What did you say? Before the chocolate bars escaped captivity, I mean.”

  “I didn’t get a chance to say anything. It would be lame to send him a text saying no, huh?”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “
I guess I’d better track him down tomorrow and apologize for being such a gumball. Hey, speaking of Jeremy, I take it you haven’t had The Conversation with him yet?”

  The smile faded from her face. “No. I have to do it, though, before he asks me to Cotillion.”

  “You mean he hasn’t yet?”

  “Why would he? I mean, if I didn’t have this hanging over my head, I’d assume we were going together. It would be natural, right?”

  I nodded. “But what are you going to do if you give him the talk and he asks someone else?”

  “That’s a risk I’ll have to take. Is it selfish to hope he doesn’t? I want to go like you and Kaz are going. As good friends. Though I’ve gotta say, it sure takes some of the sparkle out of it.”

  “Why should it? It’s going to be a very sparkly party.”

  A wistful look seeped into her eyes. “What’s a dance without romance? I’d have to skip all the slow songs, unless I wanted big gobs of awkward.”

  That had never occurred to me. But then, neither had I ever slow-danced with Kaz. Ballroom stuff, sure. But romance is the last thing on your mind when someone is counting out the beat in your ear and saying things like, “Get off, Liss. I need that foot.”

  Gillian eyed me. “Are you sure Kaz isn’t expecting a little romance with his dance?”

  “Of course not. You guys need to stop thinking that way.”

  “You are so weird. Kaz is hot. I just don’t get why you can’t see it.”

  “Hot?” Wow, she hadn’t even given Jeremy the speech and clearly the mourning period was already over. “Of course I know he’s hot. And he has a nice smile, which is even better.”

  “And eyes that adore you, and all that thick wavy hair to run your fingers through.”

  “Gillian!”

  “Well, he does. And he’s tall and toned and—”

  “If you want him, you should take him to the dance. Sounds like you’ve got enough romance on your mind for both of you.”

  “Temper, temper.” She was enjoying this, the rat. She held a hand to her ear. “Is that barking? Do I hear a dog in the manger?”

  “Shut up.”

  “We don’t want him for ourselves, but we don’t want anyone else to have him, no, my precious-s-s-s.”

  “It’s not like that at all!” I protested.

  Then what was up with this tight, angry feeling in my chest? And the sudden urge to growl at her for even thinking about Kaz’s surf-toned self? Huh?

  No, no. I couldn’t be this way. If I got all jealous and possessive now, just talking about it, what would happen if Kaz danced with someone else the way I had thought of dancing with Derrik? What if I made Ashley feel like this? How crummy would it be to do that to a girl I considered a friend?

  Grrr. Argh.

  I pulled my phone out of my tote.

  * * *

  TEXT MESSAGE

  Lissa Mansfield Hey. What’s the plan for this weekend?

  Kaz Griffin Just talked to Danyel. He’s on board. And he’ll let me drive his truck on I-5.

  Lissa Mansfield I’ll notify the CHP.

  Kaz Griffin Funny girl. We’re staying at his sister’s.

  Lissa Mansfield See you first thing Saturday? I’ll get with the girls and come up with plans.

  Kaz Griffin Sounds good. See ya.

  Lissa Mansfield xo

  * * *

  As soon as I hit Send on that last text, I wished I hadn’t signed off that way. Would he take it wrong? Then again, I signed off on e-mail that way all the time. He might think I was mad at him if I didn’t include a hug. Should I have just done the “o” and not the “x”?

  Should I stop overthinking now?

  I’d better get my feelings together before the weekend. Kaz was no dummy. If my emotions were bouncing all over the place, he’d see it and want to know what was going on. We’d always been honest with each other, and clearly I needed to talk things out with him.

  Just as soon as I figured them out myself.

  “Kaz and Danyel will be here Friday night,” I reported. Gillian had brushed her teeth and climbed into bed while I was texting. “We need to plan something fun.”

  “Then you’d better plan for Shani and Danyel to disappear. They haven’t seen each other since spring break.”

  True enough. “Okay. Nothing that requires tickets bought in advance. Or a car, since they’ll probably use his truck.”

  “We can rent a car. Even if Carly and Brett come with us, the Camaro can only take two extra.”

  “Three if you sit on the hump in the backseat.”

  “If anyone sits next to Kaz, it’ll be you.”

  “Why not you? You were all hot for him a minute ago.”

  “I wasn’t hot. I was just pointing out the positive.”

  “Hmph. Can we not talk about this?”

  She snickered. “Sure. Let’s talk about your second favorite subject. Vanessa Talbot. Please tell me the rumors aren’t true.”

  With a sigh, I took the bait. “What would those be?”

  “That you’re giving her Christian counseling so your mom and dad can adopt the baby.”

  An incredulous hoot of laughter shot out of me. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “That was the nicest rumor. I’m not passing on the other ones. You should be careful, Lissa. I really hate hearing stuff like this about you. It hurts.”

  My heart softened. “I’ve only had, like, three conversations with her. She’s going back and forth about getting an abortion. If I can convince her not to, then all this talk will have been worth it.”

  “I’m glad you’re talking to her about that. But where’s Dr. Vallejo in all this?”

  “Dr. Vallejo talks about vegetables. Vanessa needs a friend. And at the moment she seems to be listening to me.”

  “Have you ever asked yourself why?”

  “Uh… because I’m the only one in the school who’s speaking to her?”

  “I just think you should dial it back a bit, that’s all. I mean, what does she want? A friend to talk to? Or to latch onto your popularity and hope it spills onto her? How can anybody really know what that girl wants—or what she’ll do to get it?”

  I stared at her. Since when did Gillian care about popularity? Wasn’t she the one who was always telling me that people’s opinions didn’t matter, that it was who you were in God’s eyes that counted?

  “Who are you and what have you done with Gillian Chang?”

  Chapter 14

  ISHOULD HAVE KNOWN things could only go downhill from there.

  “Okay, so that was shallow,” Gillian said. “But, seriously, I’m only thinking of you. Hanging with Vanessa isn’t good for anyone—look at Emily and DeLayne. I’ve heard they were fairly normal before they got sucked into Vanessa’s group. DeLayne and Shani actually used to be friends when they were freshmen. I just don’t want to see you turn into a clone like they did, that’s all.”

  “If you think that would happen, you don’t know me very well,” I said. “And there’s more to it than this Public Speaking project we’re doing together… or the baby.”

  “The project I understand, but I’d really like to know about the baby,” Gillian said. “What do you mean, there’s more to it?”

  “I don’t know. This pregnancy thing makes her seem more human.” I amended that. “She is more human. I’ve seen her mocked and hissed at in the hallways, and I know at least twice it’s made her cry. I mean, yeah, she’s been horrible to me since the day I started here, but I’m trying to do the right thing. Not dish nastiness back, you know? After all, didn’t Jesus say we aren’t supposed to give someone a stone if they ask us for a fish?”

  “Vanessa isn’t asking.”

  “I think she is. She just doesn’t know how to do it without losing face. Anyway, she hasn’t even seen a proper doctor yet. I don’t know why. She’s got a private counselor; you’d think they’d be on her constantly about it.”

  Gillian slid under her brightly em
broidered quilt and pulled it up to her chin. “Okay, I get that she needs a friend. But I still think you should protect yourself in case she decides friends are overrated and she doesn’t need you anymore. I mean, ‘Come out from among them and be ye separate,’ not to mention ‘Touch not the unclean thing,’ are in the Bible for a reason.”

  “That was talking about Egyptians and food, not doing things for people out of the goodness of your heart.”

  “Was not.” Gillian sat up and took her Bible down from the shelf above her pillow. “That’s from Second Corinthians, and Paul was talking about the people of God hanging out with unbelievers. See?” She showed me the chapter and verse.

  “Oh.” Still. “Being kind to her will go a lot further than just pretending she doesn’t exist. Which would be hard, now that we’re doing this project together.”

  “I’m not saying don’t be kind to her. We all should do that. But my problem is with watching you go further and trying to be friends. I know it’s going to backfire and hurt you, and that’s what upsets me. You heard what Brett said. Vanessa isn’t capable of being a friend. She doesn’t do things out of the goodness of her heart. All she can do is look out for Number One, no matter who she climbs over in the process.”

  “She reads to underprivileged kids, Gillian. That has to say something.”

  “For community service credit. You might stick up for her now, but you know the first time push came to shove, there you’d be, out in front of the speeding bullet with her handprints on your back. I just don’t see how you can forget that she posted your make-out session with Callum on the school server for everyone to laugh at.”

  “I’m trying to forget it. But it’s not easy when you keep bringing it up.”

  “Can you honestly say you’ve forgiven her for doing that?”

  Okay, that wasn’t fair. “We never proved it was her.”

  “Of course not. She’s too smart to get caught. But we all know she set you up to use her room, and then accidentally on purpose left that webcam running.”

  “So now you don’t want me to forgive? You want me to disobey what Jesus said?”

  “Of course not,” she said impatiently. “Forgive her. Pray for her. I certainly do. Just don’t hang out with her and let yourself in for whatever her end game is.”