“Sixty,” I whistled. “Feels a lot like I should have written a speech.”
Gabe shook his head. “Just focus on the camerawoman. She’s cute enough to make you forget how many people are watching.”
“Corny,” I muttered, but I glanced down at the center aisle where Sloane was busy readying the camera. I was totally going to take his advice, but I was totally not going to admit it.
“Come on,” said Landon brushing past his brother. “The more you think about it, the more likely you are to start pulling your shoes off and chucking them at the audience.”
“One time,” I muttered. “One time I threaten you with a shoe and it’s a life sentence.”
He smiled then stepped up to the microphone. “Welcome, Grover. As former Grover Police Department Intern and current boyfriend of the chief’s daughter, I am pleased to present Ms. Harper Huntington to share with you the learning curve behind her Gold Award project.”
The audience was full of smiling faces as I took my spot at the podium. All but my Dad, of course. He was giving Landon a particularly deathlike glare.
Taking Gabe’s suggestion, I focused all of my attention on Sloane.
“Some of you know me as Hunt’s daughter. To others I’m probably that girl you aren’t too sure about and definitely don’t want to bump into in the girl’s bathroom. “To at least one of you,” I said, locking eyes with mom, “I’m still about seven years old with pigtails.” She reached her hand over to cover Dad’s, and I had to look away to keep from getting embarrassingly choked up. “Until this summer, I wasn’t sure who I was. I thought I had to be an outlier if I wanted people to really see me. Maybe I thought if people were afraid of me it would feel less like rejection when they didn’t accept me. I don’t know...that’s like a lot of psychobabble to digest.”
Behind the camera Sloane stifled a giggle.
“But this summer, I made a bunch of dumb decisions I shouldn’t have and as a result I was forced to do community service with someone I thought I didn’t like very much. Only it turned out I liked him alot.” I glanced at Landon expecting to catch him with that cocky grin on his face, but instead he was studying me with a seriousness that steadied my racing nerves. “You see, when I acted like that girl who pushes people away to get attention, he leaned in instead of out. And honestly I don’t know how we got this project done because we spent most of it fighting.
“But I couldn’t have done it without Landon. I knew that I wanted to take something that had been destroyed and make it beautiful again, and I knew that I wanted to tell my favorite story in the process, but it was Landon that asked me to consider why The Outsiders was such a memorable story to me. Without him, these murals would have just been images from my favorite movie. Now, they’re images from my life, images from all of our lives,” I said, sweeping my arms out over the audience. “As you walk along the riverwalk tonight, try and read between the lines.
This town is full of different people, some you connect with immediately.” I smiled at Sloane who blew a kiss over the top of her camera. “But some you have to adapt to. It’s not easy to “Stay Gold” as Johnny said, but having people and things that challenge you make seeing the sunset a possibility.” I reached up to twist the chain of my necklace before spewing out, “And if you don’t get that reference you clearly haven’t seen the best ‘80s movie ever made.”
The crowd burst into laughter, and I stepped down from the podium just in time to enjoy watching Reagan talk Sloane down. I didn’t have to be in earshot to know she was halfway through a tirade on the “undisputable superiority of all John Hughes films.”
We could argue ‘80s movies later. The rest of this evening was for watching people stand in awe of the murals. I turned the key and unlocked the riverwalk to the public for the first time since the fire.
“Lead the way,” said Landon, before slipping his hand into mine.
Preorder Catching Johnny Castle…
A dancer who's afraid to take the lead...
They say senior year is the time of your life, but Reagan Reilly is hoping to just get through it.
Used to living in the shadow of her mother's unrealized dance dreams, Reagan's plan has always been to lay low and keep to the chorus line.
Too bad the captain of her dance team transferred school a week before classes start. Now Reagan is forced to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
The dancing she can handle, but leading a team? She's not sure she's cut out for that, especially not when Grover's newest male dancer is the hot french guy she hooked up with this summer.
Chasing Johnny Castle is the third book in a series of romantic comedies centering around everybody's favorite '80s movies.
Coming June 24, 2020!
Also by M.F. Lorson
The Squad Goals series:
Hot by Halloween
Nerdy by New Year
Promised by Prom
Sway
Off Center
Stage Kiss
The Exchange series
The Exchange
The Travelers
The Hunter’s Daughter
Delinquent
Also by Jessica Bucher
The Squad Goals series
Hot by Halloween
Nerdy by New Year
Promised by Prom
The Bohemians series
Notes of Magic
Grains of Fire
Twelfth Knight
The Hereafter
About M.F. Lorson
M.F. Lorson is the Director of a public library in eastern Oregon. When she isn’t writing, she’s reading, mostly The Wheels On the Bus, over and over again to her two littles.
To hear about future projects please subscribe to the M.F. Lorson author newsletter.
About Jessica Bucher
Jessica Bucher is a young adult author and teacher who loves coffee, traveling, and her rambunctious Goldendoodle.
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