Robin interrupted with, “That was me!”
“I was sitting in the booth by the window waiting for her,” Anne added.
“So, then you would have seen the entire thing.”
“It was hilarious!” Robin stated.
“I’m glad it was funny for at least one of us.”
“Two of us.”
“I wish I had been there to witness it,” Nathan chimed in.
Chapter Fourteen
“You cannot go to my party wearing that!” Robin exclaimed as she examined the dress – an actual dress! – that Anne had pulled out of her closet. “Except the shoes. You can wear those.”
“What’s wrong with this dress?”
“First,” Robin answered, holding up a single finger, “that dress screams middle school.”
Eyeing it carefully, Anne considered the dress. “It is possible that I did get it in middle school.”
Tilting her head to the side, Robin shook her head. “Oh sweetie,” she sighed. “There is no way that you could possibly still fit in that dress.” This time she held up another finger, “Secondly, there is no way I’m letting that cutie Derek see you in that pink monstrosity.”
“I don’t have that many other dresses. My mom and aunt bought me tons of dresses and skirts and stuff, but that’s all summer clothes. I can’t wear a sundress to a New Year’s Eve party.”
“No, you really can’t.” Flipping through the closet, Robin dismissed hanger after hanger after hanger of pieces of clothes hanging in the closet. Shirts. Skirts. Dresses. Pants. “You have nothing in your closet!”
“I tend to spend my money on art supplies and reading material,” Anne gestured towards the full bookcase and the desk loaded down with sketchbooks.
“I can see that.”
“What? I’m not shallow and superficial like my sisters!”
“I never said you were,” Robin protested. “But there is nothing wrong with putting any effort into your appearance. I’m sure you did over the summer and I’m positive you did the other day when we had that double date.”
“You’re right,” Anne mumbled.
“What was that?” Robin asked, grinning as she held a hand to her ear as if to hear Anne better.
“You. Are. Right.”
“A little louder for the people in the back?”
Playfully shoving Robin, Anne rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said instead. “Let’s go shopping.”
Squealing, Robin did a little hop. “I need to write this date down in my planner. I never thought I would hear those words come out of your mouth.”
Several hours later, bags in hand, Anne stared at the mess that had been her room. She had put everything away before going to the mall.
“What happened in here?” Anne asked herself. “Where are my shoes?”
“Hey! Anne!” Mary called from across the hall. “Can I borrow your sweater? The sparkly material is perfect to go over my black dress.”
“Yeah, sure,” Anne distractedly answered her sister. “Just clean up what you messed up.”
“Oh,” Mary drawled. “That wasn’t me. That was Beth. She borrowed your navy-blue heels and a matching cardigan. She needed it so that Dad would let her out of the house. Her dress was cut so low you could almost see her…”
“She has my navy heels?” Anne interrupted. “She borrowed my clothes without asking? My whole outfit is planned around those shoes!” From one of the bags, she pulled out a sleeveless dress that matched her now missing shoes perfectly. “Is she still here?” Sticking her head in the hall, Anne bellowed out, “Beth!”
“She left over an hour ago,” Mary informed her helplessly from where she was still inside Anne’s room.
Anne’s room had clothes scattered all over the place. Shoes that were tossed around on the floor radiating from around her closet. Somehow there was even a skirt that Anne had outgrown years ago on a lamp in the far corner of the room.
“She left. Without even asking me if she could borrow my clothes. Without even picking up the mess she had made in my room. Without sending me a text or calling me.” None of it was a question and Mary – as occasionally dense as she was – caught on to the expression on Anne’s face. “Father is not going to let me leave with my room a mess, even if I didn’t make it!”
Collapsing on her bed, Anne grabbed her phone and quickly sent Robin out a quick emergency text with enough details to explain the situation.
Staring at the dress, Mary started to think. “You have the same sized feet as Beth, right?”
“Yes,” her sister replied, staring at the phone, waiting for Robin to reply.
“Borrow Beth’s red heels. She can’t say anything because she took yours.”
“She will anyway. Besides, they are higher than mine were. I’ll be wobbling around all night like a newborn giraffe.”
“Not her old pair. The pair that looks identical to her new pair except it has a smaller heel. And you can wear your red cardigan over the dress instead of a coat. That will appease Dad. And red and navy look good together.”
Scanning the text that just came in, Anne noted that Robin had unknowingly agreed with Mary’s suggestion. She would never tell Robin that, but she did say, “That’s what Robin suggested as well.”
“Great minds,” Mary smiled before grabbing the sparkly silver and black sweater off of Anne’s bed and dropping it over her head. With the neckline falling off of one shoulder, revealing the wide strap of the dress Mary was wearing underneath, and the hem of the sweater stopping near her waist, Mary’s confidence pulled off the look in a way that Anne feared she never would be able to.
The only problem was that the black made Mary look sickly.
“Wait!” Anne found herself saying before Mary escaped. Scanning her bed, she pulled an emerald green sweater from out of the pile and handed it over. “It’s the same style as the one you are wearing, but I think it’ll add more color to your cheeks.”
“What’s wrong with this sweater?” Mary snapped.
Proceeding with caution, Anne diplomatically pointed out that so much black made Mary look pale.
“But it also makes me look skinnier,” Mary countered, ignoring the fact that the loose-fitting sweater actually made her look the opposite. Then she disappeared back to her room.
Anne took the opportunity to slip into Beth’s room and ‘borrow’ the red heels she found discarded haphazardly in the back corner of Beth’s closet. Even her older sister’s room was a mess of disaster-level proportions.
Once back in her room, she glanced at her clock. Nodding her head, she could only hope that she could get this mess cleaned up and herself ready before Derek arrived to pick her up in an hour.
A moment later, her mother popped her head into her daughter’s room. “What happened in here?”
“Beth borrowed my navy heels without asking,” was all Anne needed to say. “So, I borrowed her red heels without asking.”
“Makes perfect sense.”
“Father won’t let me leave with this room a mess, and I didn’t even make it.”
“I know,” Eliza responded. “I’ll talk to him. You just get ready for Robin’s party.”
An hour later, dressed in her borrowed heels – which, if Anne was going to be honest with herself, would not be returned until her own heels had been returned –, matching red cardigan, and strapless dress, Anne descended the stairs to face her father’s overprotective scrutiny.
Her father eyed her outfit carefully. If he had been aware of the lack of straps and the strapless bra underneath her sweater, he would have sent her right back upstairs to change. Only, this was Anne, the responsible and more conservative daughter. She would never wear something that was on his unapproved for high school girls list.
Although, those shoes looked a little too grown-up for his seventeen-year-old daughter.
“She’s eighteen, Walter,” Eliza helpfully reminded her husband, aware of the direction his thoughts were heading. “She can wear
those heels if she wants to.”
“Eighteen!” he exclaimed. “When did that happen?”
“August ninth,” she replied. “The same day ever since she was born.”
“But Elizabeth is…”
“Twenty,” Eliza answered for him. “And Mary is sixteen and has her driver’s license.”
Eyes wide, he shook his head. “When did all of this happen?”
“While you were in your office doing whatever it is you do in there,” Eliza replied, hinting to Anne that she needed to escape while she still could.
It took a moment for Anne to notice that her mother’s eyes kept darting to the door, but once she did, Anne called out farewells to her parents before grabbing Derek’s hand and tugging him to the door. “Come on,” she whispered. “If we don’t leave now, Father might enact an eleven o’clock curfew.”
“He knows it’s New Year’s Eve, right?”
“Derek,” Anne sighed, her voice louder now that they were almost to his car. “He didn’t even realize that he had missed all three of his daughters’ birthdays this year.”
Nodding his head, Derek opened the door for Anne. “Good point.”
“Now, let’s get to Robin’s so that everybody who thought you were made up can fawn all over you and try to convince you to give them your midnight kiss.”
Leaning down to where their faces were level, he whispered, “Never,” before giving Anne a quick kiss on the lips. “My heart belongs to you and only you.”
“Good,” she grinned. “Now, get in the car and get me out of here.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I wish I could have gone to your party and met Anne’s mysterious boyfriend,” Charlie grumbled as the girls were recapping their break over lunch on the first day back.
“You went skiing,” Nathan countered back. “I wish I could have gone skiing.”
“You would have missed my party,” Robin replied, poking him on the arm without looking at him.
“I could have come back before the party,” he shrugged. “Although, Derek was pretty cool. We talked about sports while the girls forced us to go shopping for Anne.”
“She needed a dress,” Robin interjected again. “It’s not like you had to carry our bags or anything.” Turning to Charlie she added, “We left them at the food court. When we came back there were uneaten pizza crusts, pretzel wrappers, no less than six drink cups, and a melting milkshake on the table.”
Shrugging, Nathan pointed out, “We got hungry.”
Anne added, “They did leave us brownies and some cookies from that place you like.”
Smiling softly, Robin nodded her head before leaning into Nathan. “That they did.”
But the look on Nathan’s face made Anne wonder if the girls had gotten the sweets only because the boys hadn’t eaten them before the girls had returned.
Chapter Sixteen
Things went surprisingly smoothly throughout the beginning of Anne’s last semester of High School. Research papers had been complained about by Robin. Major projects were discussed and worked on. Anne and Derek’s relationship progressed despite the difficulties of communicating while Derek was at the Great Lakes for Navy Boot Camp.
But most importantly, college applications had been filled in and mailed out. Acceptances and rejections were beginning to return.
Pulling the big envelope out of the mailbox, Anne scanned the return address before giving a little jump of excitement.
This wasn’t like the acceptance letter from one of the local colleges – her backup if Anne was honest.
This huge envelope from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago could only mean one thing. This was a big envelope, not a little envelope.
Robin had gotten a few little envelopes from her wild card schools that were rejections. Not that Robin really cared. She was going to Florida with Nathan. The college applications were a mere formality with her parents. The important acceptance – a school in Florida that they had applied to – had been an acceptance for both Robin and Nathan.
Walking to the front door, Anne slipped her finger under the seal and tore open the top of the envelope. Pulling out the papers, she hesitated, ignoring the wide-open door that Mary had left behind her.
Closing her eyes, Anne delayed the moment of truth. On the one hand, it was a big envelope. On another hand, some of her friends did get acceptances in small envelopes. On yet another hand, she hadn’t heard of anybody getting a rejection in a big envelope, but there was a first time for everything.
“Are you coming in or not?” Beth yelled from inside the house. “As Granny De Luca would say, quit letting the flies in the house!”
“When have you ever quoted Granny De Luca?” Mary asked from her place in the kitchen. “You consider her uncouth!”
Eliza Elliot said nothing as her daughters bickered back and forth between the rooms. She didn’t even care if they were insulting her mother. All she noticed was Anne was standing in the doorway with a big envelope in her hands.
“What’s the verdict?” she softly asked.
“I’m afraid to look,” Anne admitted, still standing there with her eyes closed.
“Just like pulling off a band-aid,” she replied.
“Mary, shut the door!” Beth yelled.
“I’m not the one standing in front of the door!” Mary yelled back.
“Do be quiet, both of you!” Eliza called into the house. “Anne?” she said, softer.
“I’m in!” Anne quietly exclaimed, looking over her acceptance letter. “I got in!” she shouted, loud enough that her sisters stopped bickering back and forth. “I’m in!”
Eliza smiled widely as her middle daughter entered the house, shut the door behind her – effectively ending the argument between Beth and Mary – and gave her a hug. She loved the feel of Anne’s arms circling around her.
“Well,” she whispered into her daughter’s hair. “We’ll just have to make certain that you go.”
Because that was the last thing that she was going to make certain of. Anne was going to have something for herself.
Derek,
I find it difficult to put pen to paper without drawing on it. Please excuse any doodles in the margins, even though I’m certain you’ll enjoy them.
I know that I can send you an email and it’ll arrive quicker. I’m certain I will at some point.
But today I need to write and draw. It doesn’t help that Beth is hogging my laptop looking up whatever it is she is looking up. Apparently, she spilled coffee on her keyboard and it is currently ‘at the shop’ getting repaired. As long as she doesn’t spill anything on my computer…
I’d like to say I had a choice in letting Beth use my computer, but unfortunately, she complained to Father instead of Mama.
And so you get a letter. And a doodle of a computer.
Mama took me school shopping today, but it ended up wearing her out. She insisted on going ahead and getting everything I might possibly need even though it’s April and there’s still several months before I’ll be going.
I know she’s afraid that something will happen and she won’t be able to be around to help me with these milestones. I heard her make Aunt Cassandra promise that she would take me to campus and make certain I was settled into my dorm room.
The good thing is in addition to countless sketchbooks, art supplies, and things I might need for my dorm room, Mama insisted on buying me a new laptop. When I protested about the price, she pointed out that Beth had received her own new laptop for college.
I can draw on the screen! Mama made certain that this laptop would be perfect for any graphics classes or any other classes I might possibly take over the next four years!
Six weeks!
I wish you could come to Prom with me. Some of my friends still doubt your existence.
I love you to the moon and back.
Anne
I wish you were stationed closer. I know they can move you somewhere else, somewhere further away, but I re
ally hope that they don’t. I’m just glad that Boot Camp is over so that you can reply quicker.
Counting down the days until Graduation, and the next time I get to see you.
Anne
Chapter Seventeen
Anne was the only daughter not loudly sobbing as soon as their mother’s heart monitor flatlined. She still cried. The tears rolled down her face in a stream that threatened to never end. But she was also aware of the hazards of the type of crying her sisters were doing.
She didn’t envy them the headaches they would soon have because of the scene they were making.
If, she thought bitterly, they really cared as much as they were currently claiming, they would have spent more time with Mama.
Instead, they went on dates and out shopping with their friends. They hadn’t been there when Eliza Elliot had been sick after chemo. Or when she needed a ride to her doctor’s appointments. Or when meals needed to be cooked so that everybody could have supper that night.
And still, they sobbed out their grief, or maybe their guilt.
She could see it now.
Mary would use their mother’s death as a means of getting endless extensions on assignments and who knows how much attention. “But my mother died!” she could hear her crying, fake tears rolling down her cheeks as she played her audience in a way that only Mary could do.
And nobody would call her out on her behavior because her mother had died.
Beth would do what Beth always did and use shopping therapy to help ignore the realities at home.
It started as soon as she realized that she needed a new black dress for the funeral. Then it was the new flats that were necessary to go with the new dress. She didn’t dare wear heels that might sink into the ground and cause her to face plant in front of the crowd.
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