“Sorry, ma’am,” she heard Alex say politely “My friend here has a rare illness that makes him trip and fall onto strangers.”
The old lady glared at both boys.
Marcia thought quickly. She had to arrange things so that she was seated next to Alex. She couldn’t be feeding him pine nuts from three rows away. And she definitely didn’t want to be feeding him pine nuts only to have him fall in love with somebody else who by an accident of fate happened to be sitting closer to him.
Right now Marcia was wedged between Jasmine, Keeley, and Brittany, on one side, and Sarah and Travis, on the other, the worst possible place to be. Without offering any explanation, she got up and moved to the other side of Travis, knowing that Sarah, at least, would understand. Now she had to hope she would get Alex next to her instead of one of the other boys.
Dave was ahead of Alex, coming up the aisle, so that meant he’d be the one to sit closest to Marcia. Well, maybe she’d feed pine nuts to both boys and see who fell in love with her first. Sure enough, Dave plopped himself down next to Marcia, with Alex next to Dave, and Ethan and Julius next to Alex. Maybe Marcia would go ahead and feed pine nuts to everybody.
“Hey,” Dave said to Marcia.
“Hey,” Marcia said back.
Alex turned toward her. “Been drawing any more trees lately?”
Marcia took a chance. “Speaking of trees, the one at my house is going to be losing its leaves pretty soon.”
Alex looked puzzled at the remark, as if he had forgotten all about Marcia’s tree: the toilet paper, the broken branch, the promise to rake, everything. How could something that had meant so much to her mean so little to him?
She wished she had never made the remark now, but she’d sound like a lunatic if she didn’t explain. Before she could say anything more, Alex apparently made the connection himself. “Whoopee,” he said glumly. “Thanks for reminding me.”
“But it’s my leaves you’ll be raking,” Marcia wanted to say, “and I’ll be right there beside you, helping.” Stung by his response, she looked away, only to see Travis running his fingers through Sarah’s short blond hair.
It was pine nuts or nothing now
Dave gave her the perfect opportunity “I’m starving,” he complained. “Do we have time to head down to the snack bar before the kickoff?”
Marcia pulled out her plastic bag. “I have some pine nuts. Anybody want some? Dave? Alex?”
Dave squinted down at the bag suspiciously. “What do they taste like?”
“They’re good,” Marcia said. She should have tried one herself, earlier, but she hadn’t wanted to fall in love with the wrong person by mistake. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania the Fairy Queen fell in love by mistake with this guy named Bottom—that was really his name—who had a pair of donkey’s ears growing out of his head. What if Marcia had started munching away on pine nuts and then fallen in love by mistake with Elliot Abrams?
“They’re nutty,” Marcia went on, “and piney. Try one.
Dave held out his hand. To her relief, Alex held out his hand, too, and so did Ethan and Julius. It was funny to see them sitting there, all in a row, with their hands out-stretched.
Marcia poured a small pile of pine nuts into Dave’s hand, and then a huge overflowing heap into Alex’s hand. “Oops,” she said lightly. Then she poured a few each for Ethan and Julius. She waited while each boy chewed and swallowed his allotment. Alex swallowed all of his!
“What do you think?” Marcia asked.
“They’re okay,” Dave said. “Sort of greasy, maybe.” He held out his hand for more.
“Alex?”
He shook his head. “I’m fine.”
Marcia carefully doled out two more pine nuts to Dave. He stared down at his hand, seemingly surprised that his second helping was so stingy. Then Marcia put the bag back into her pocket. So far, so good. But now she had to make sure that Alex’s attention was on her, and not on the cheerleaders down on the field. Luckily, Dave, still hungry after his pine nut snack, wandered off in search of other refreshments.
“Alex?”
He turned his head. “Yeah?”
“Did you hear what Ms. Williams said about Oktoberfest?”
“It’s something at the nursing home, right?”
“She said it’s a big thing down there—all the residents go. She wants the West Creek kids to think of something special to do for it. It’s next Saturday, a week from tomorrow.”
And the dance is two weeks from tonight.
Alex grinned. “I guess I could yodel and wear leder-hosen.”
Marcia laughed. It was the friendliest thing he had said so far that evening. Were the pine nuts starting to work already?
“Maybe we could—I don’t know—get together some time and plan something out?”
As soon as she said it, she hated herself. Talk about a flimsy pretext for spending time with a boy! She had always scorned girls who stooped so low as to call a boy, pretending that they needed a homework assignment. But then again, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Alex hesitated. “Maybe sometime. Not tomorrow” He gave an exaggerated groan.
The hesitation was worrisome, but the groan was somehow encouraging. “What’s happening tomorrow?”
“My mom is having a party.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“It’s not just any old party. This one’s for ladies to come over and try on makeup, and perfume, and stuff like that.”
It couldn’t be. But it had to be. Was the Jay-Dub party Marcia and Gwennie were helping with tomorrow at Alex’s house? Was this the worst possible thing that could happen, or the best?
“And my mom wants me to be the butler. To answer the door, wearing a tie, and take everybody’s coats.” Alex groaned again.
“I’m going to be there, too,” Marcia confessed. “My mom’s the one who’s running the party, and I always help her with them.”
Something flickered in Alex’s eyes. Horror? Or amusement? “The butler and the butlerette,” he said.
“Shut up, you two. It’s the kickoff.” Dave, back from his expedition to the snack bar, whacked Alex good-naturedly on the shoulder.
Marcia sat back to watch the first half. She had done what she could. She’d offer Alex more pine nuts at halftime and hope for the best. The butler and the butlerette. It had possibilities.
eleven
Marcia slept till nine on Saturday Then she confronted her mother in the kitchen.
“The Jay-Dub party today—whose house is it at?”
Her mother looked surprised that Marcia wanted to know “Elaine Ryan’s, right here in West Creek. Doesn’t she have a son who goes to school with you?”
“Alex Ryan,” Marcia snapped.
“Oh, the boy who damaged the tree. The boy with the snake rattle.” For an instant her mother looked worried, then her forehead magically uncreased again. “Well, his mother seems perfectly lovely It goes to show that even the most caring parents …”
Her mother was missing the point altogether. First of all, Alex wasn’t some kind of juvenile delinquent, whose parents had suffered terrible disappointment in him. Second, it should have occurred to her mother that Marcia might be embarrassed to be helping at a Jay-Dub party at the house of a boy she liked.
“Don’t you think you should have asked me first?”
“Asked you what?”
“If you can do a party at the house of one of my friends?”
“Oh, honey, his mother approached me about doing the party. I’m sure Alex couldn’t care less about something like this. You know how boys are, utterly oblivious to anything that doesn’t concern them.”
“It does concern him. He’s going to be helping today, too.”
“All the better,” her mother said encouragingly. “Maybe he’s turning himself around.” Suddenly Marcia’s mother looked at Marcia, really looked at her. “Are you saying that this boy is someone special?”
It
was probably Marcia’s own fault that her mother didn’t know about Alex. Marcia was always telling everything to Gwennie and Sarah and her other friends; she hardly ever talked to her own mother anymore. What if she said now, “Yes, he’s someone special, and the dance is less than two weeks away, and he still hasn’t asked me yet?”
“Sort of,” Marcia said.
“Well, wear your new blue sweater. Blue is definitely your color. Have you lost weight? Your figure is looking very nice again. That little tummy bulge is almost completely gone now.”
Marcia had been about to make herself a piece of cinnamon toast, dripping with melted butter and heaping spoonfuls of cinnamon sugar. Instead she rummaged in the crisper for the last grapefruit.
“Thanks,” she said.
Marcia called Gwennie right after breakfast to tell her. At first there was a long pause as Gwennie digested the news.
“He’s probably more embarrassed than you are,” Gwennie said. “And sometimes you feel closer to someone after you’ve been through something like this together. The two of you can start a support group for survivors of Jay-Dub parties.”
Gwennie’s laugh made Marcia laugh, too. She told Gwennie Alex’s “butler and butlerette” remark.
“Perfect! It sounds like he has the right attitude here. And now I’ll get to meet him, too. We’ll both be able to observe him in his natural habitat.”
“Gwennie?”
“What?”
“What if he never asks me to the dance?”
There was another long pause. “We’ll know more after today And if he doesn’t ask you, we’ll start working on Plan B.”
“The plan where I sit at home all by myself in my ratty old bathrobe and do my nails?”
“The plan where you have a terrific evening, dance or no dance, and wonder why you ever bothered liking a boy who didn’t have the good sense to like you back. If he doesn’t like you back. Which we don’t know yet.”
“Gwennie?”
“What?”
“Have you ever heard that feeding a boy pine nuts will make him fall in love with you?”
Gwennie laughed again. “No. Where did you hear that?”
“Sarah.”
“Well, I guess feeding a boy anything makes him like you at least a little bit. But I wouldn’t put too much faith in Sarah’s pine nut theory Why? Are you planning to feed him pine nuts at the party today?”
“I fed them to him at the football game last night.”
“And? Did it work?”
“Not that I could tell. He acted about the same as always. Do you think maybe there’s a delayed effect? Like, if he ate them yesterday, he’ll fall in love with me today?”
“I think you’re crazy, and Sarah’s even crazier. And if Alex doesn’t ask you to this dance, then he’s the craziest of all.”
At his house, Alex answered the doorbell, wearing his jacket and tie, looking extremely handsome. Marcia was glad she had worn her blue sweater.
“Come in,” he said politely “Can I help you carry anything?”
“Yes, dear, thank you,” Marcia’s mother said. “There are seven more cartons in the back of the van, plus two folding card tables.” She shot Marcia a glance of approval. It was plain that she realized now that you shouldn’t judge a boy entirely on the basis of one toilet-papered tree and one snake impersonation.
“He is cute,” Gwennie whispered.
Alex looked even cuter than usual as he started carrying in the cartons, two at a time. When he stacked a second heavy carton on top of the first one, he grinned at Marcia, as if to make sure she was impressed with him. She was.
“Be careful, dear,” Marcia’s mother said. “You don’t want to hurt your back.”
“The Ryan family butler is very strong, ma’am,” he replied.
When her mother was out of hearing, Marcia whispered to him daringly, “She should have seen what you carried down a trail once.” It had been the most romantic moment of her life, when Alex and Dave had carried her back to the cabin after her accident at outdoor ed. Unfortunately, she had been in too much pain at the time to savor it to its fullest. Did Alex also remember the romance of it?
He didn’t reply You’d think at least he’d make some crack about how heavy a load she had been. Marcia didn’t particularly want to hear any well-worded jokes about her weight, but it was almost worse to have Alex say nothing.
Back inside, Alex’s mother came bustling over to greet them. She was very pretty—slim and young-looking, with the merest hint of makeup on her eyelids.
“Kathy!” She gave Marcia’s mother a welcoming hug. “And your two gorgeous girls. The three of you look like sisters.”
Marcia’s mother looked pleased at that remark.
To Marcia, Mrs. Ryan added, “I can see why my son is so smitten.”
Is he? Then why isn’t he asking me to the dance? Did Alex’s mother mean her comment to be taken seriously? Or was she just trying to give everyone some kind of friendly compliment? Marcia didn’t think she and Gwennie and her mother looked like sisters.
Alex’s father walked into the living room. He and Alex definitely did look alike, however much Alex had bristled at Marcia’s comment about their resemblance: same broad-shouldered build, same closely cropped light brown hair.
As Alex carried in the second card table, Mr. Ryan called out, “Easy there! Watch the paint on the doorways!”
Alex’s pleasant, obliging butler’s grin disappeared. And, sure enough, although he had carried in everything else without any problem whatsoever, one edge of the card table did bump into the wall by the front entryway, and yes, it left a noticeable chip in the paint.
“Teenagers,” his father said, to no one in particular. “The more you talk, the less they listen. It must be great to be thirteen and know absolutely everything.”
Alex’s mother turned to Alex’s father. “I think we have everything under control here.” She spoke pleasantly, but it was clear to Marcia that she was trying to get Mr. Ryan to leave.
Mr. Ryan turned to the assembled ladies to make a speech before departing. “I don’t see how any of you could possibly be made lovelier than you already are,” he said, with an apparent attempt at gallantry. “My son and I are both already blinded by the beauty bursting upon us. I should say, my son is especially blinded, right, Alex?”
He winked at Marcia. And then he was gone. Marcia shot a quick glance at Alex, but he was staring down at his feet.
“Let’s check on the snacks,” Gwennie announced brightly.
Marcia and Gwennie headed to the kitchen, followed by Marcia’s mother, who immediately began gushing over the gorgeous trays of refreshments that Alex’s mother had prepared. “Gwennie, Marcia, come look!” She popped one small shrimp into her mouth. “What was this marinated in?”
Alex’s mother brightened at the question. “Some olive oil, and a hint of red wine vinegar, and some pine nuts.”
Marcia and Gwennie exploded into giggles. The two mothers looked puzzled, which made the girls laugh even harder.
“Girls,” Marcia’s mother said again, more sternly this time. “The guests will be here in ten minutes, and we still have a lot to do.”
Marcia and Gwennie started the familiar routine of set- ting up the makeup mirrors and arranging the display tables. When the doorbell rang for the first guests, Alex reappeared and opened the door for them. Marcia noticed, to her amusement, that he had swiped a pair of false eyelashes from one of the display tables and stuck them on his own large brown eyes.
She made herself approach him in between rings of the doorbell. “Hi, butler,” she said softly. “I like your eyelashes.”
He smiled. “Hi, butlerette. I like yours, too.”
The wonders of Jay-Dub mascara, lavishly applied.
“Great game last night,” Marcia said, to say something. West Creek High had won, 24 to 14.
“Yeah,” Alex agreed. Then he hesitated. “Those snacks you were handing out? Those greasy nut things?
”
Marcia swallowed. “The pine nuts?”
“Did your stomach feel all right last night? I felt kind of nauseous.”
So not only had the pine nuts not made Alex fall in love, they had made him feel like throwing up. Marcia would have to give them the prize for “Sarah’s worst idea ever.”
“Me too,” Marcia said awkwardly Maybe he could take it as another basis for a bond between them: the butler and the butlerette, both with long eyelashes and stomach trouble from eating pine nuts. Or maybe not.
The doorbell rang again. Alex sprang into action. Marcia retreated to the display table where Gwennie was explaining to one lady the miraculous effect of “Baby Skin” wrinkle cream.
The lady studied the label. “I know I’m postponing the inevitable. I’m long overdue to have my eyes done.”
Marcia thought about Alberta Estes, and Mavis Getty, and Agnes Applebaum, and Mabel Thompson. They were long overdue to get their eyes done, too. But they were beautiful, anyway
“Your eyes look fine!” Marcia blurted out. Gwennie shot her a warning look. Marcia remembered that the whole point of a Jay-Dub party was to make people think that however fine they looked already, they could look still better with the help of some discounted just-for-this- party, top-of-the-line, all-natural beauty products. “That cream works great,” Marcia added lamely. “My mother uses it all the time.”
“I guess if it buys me another year or two … You lucky girls, still decades away from your first face-lift. Let me tell you, getting old is the pits.”
Marcia forced a sympathetic smile. Getting old was awful for Agnes Applebaum, but it wasn’t awful for Al- berta Estes. And whether or not it was awful had almost nothing to do with what you looked like outside and everything to do with what kind of person you were inside.
twelve
On the day of the Oktoberfest at West Creek Manor, Marcia went over to the nursing home an hour early so she could get “her” people ready for the big event; Lizzie was going to meet them all at the party. As none of the West Creek kids could think of anything better, they had decided, in an after-school meeting the previous week, that the Oktoberfest was going to be a dance, with music provided by the West Creek Middle School jazz band. Other kids were there early to move the tables out of the dining room and decorate it with a harvest theme: corn shocks, hay bales, and pumpkins.
Makeovers by Marcia Page 8
