by Samolu Pearl
"Love isn't fair?" I offer.
Mom laughs and smiles at me, "No joke." She sighs and runs a hand through her hair, looking tired. "When she mentioned that she always liked Pete I laughed a little and dismissed it, but when he was here every day helping and then after we found out about the accounts . . ."
"You finally realized how you felt?"
"Exactly."
"But I think I'll always kick myself for not realizing it sooner," she says.
"I think I can manager to forgive you for it." Mom and I both jump, startled by Pete's sudden presence in the room. He's in the doorway looking exhausted, yet completely awake as he stares at my mother.
I watch her smile and run to him. He catches her, but apparently wasn't expecting the force with which Joan Knight can hug, and they fall to the ground in a huge thump.
I'm laughing and falling out of my stool from the shocked look on Pete's face when Ryan, Emma and Darren come down the stairs, blocked by the laughing, hugging couple on the floor. Dan and Sean, still looking quite sleepy walked up from the basement and simply looked quizzically upon the situation.
"Mom!" Ryan exclaims, looking horrified. "What are you doing?" He looks from me to them to me again, looking for an explanation.
"If Joan would kindly stop smothering me I would be glad to explain it to you all," Pete grunts, though a wide smile is spread across his face.
I run around the kitchen fixing breakfast with Mom as Pete tells exactly what happened—the call from his friend, Jarrod, who had found out about Allen. Then chasing him into the next major city where he had been planning on taking the money to live in Europe. And we told Pete about our encounter with Adam Mason that had tipped us off to the fact that he hadn't been the one to steal the money.
By noon, almost two hours later, Mom had called Eleni, Sarah and Brent, and several other people, like the Milovich's and the Teigan's who had done so much for us, and filled them in.
We would have our money back, but we would still have to deal with a trial against Allen. Mom was prepared to handle it, especially with her kids and parents at her side and Pete now as well. Though I suppose he had always been part of the family—now there was no question about it.
* * *
Grandma Vi and Grandpa Sam went home a little after Dan and Sean went back to school, but made sure to keep even more in touch than they had before. I got emails from Dan and Sean almost every day and letters from Grandma Vi and Grandpa Sam once a week and I loved that we were working harder to be close.
Eleni was still reluctant to talk to any of us, but she was keeping in touch with Dan. She had told him that she was jealous of the majority of us and she felt left out. She also told him that she had been in a bad relationship that none of us had known about—he had asked her if he could tell us and she had said yes. We were learning a little about what was going on in her life and it was helping us understand. Mom and I hoped that she would come visit us soon so we could talk it out in person.
Back at school, Allison and Lily Parett are still close friends and have been sticking together, but they aren't bullies anymore. They still think pretty highly of themselves, but they haven't been shoving it in people's faces.
Patrick and Jessa have become a couple—the whole boyfriend/girlfriend package—though they don't do a whole lot of PDA at school. Neither of them are too willing to flash anything in Allison's face. They still talk to her, civilized-like, but they aren't friends anymore.
I came home with Darren more often than not and we studied together in my room most of the time. Though, it was getting a little harder to study if you know what I mean. We were taking it slow though, and I liked that a lot. The more time I spent with him, the gladder I was about agreeing to give dating a try—I was liking it a whole lot more than I ever thought I would. I had decided that, for now at least, I wanted none other than Darren Teigan by my side.
I looked into the local University and Darren was right, they did have a great dance program. The local scouts would be at my dance concert in April, the concert in which I would be participating in my own choreographed dance as well as several other girls' choreographed dances. I was praying that something I did would catch their eye.
I was still working at the café though, just to make sure I had money saved up in case I didn't land a scholarship.
When I talked to Bethany and Mason at work, they both shied around my questions about their relationship. All I could get from Bethany was that she had liked Mason for a while, but never though he could ever like her, and he had about the same idea, but with her. They weren't quite public, but I'm pretty sure they were dating.
It was nice to see Pete so happy now that he and Mom are officially together. They are taking it slow as well, so no guarantees yet on where the future will go, but Dan, Sean, Sarah, Brent and I have a bet going on how long it will take for Pete to propose.
I say within the year, Dan says within a month, Sean within four months, and Sarah and Brent agree in saying that within six months, they'll be engaged.
We hadn't heard from Adam or Kevin Mason, so for the time being, they were gone from our lives.
With how much we were communicating now and how much we realized we needed each other to run our lives smoothly, we were standing strong. And we knew, for sure now, that no matter how dysfunctional our family seemed and whatever life decided to throw at us, if we stuck together, we would make it through.
Epilogue
I walk onto the stage in the dark with Chelsea behind me. She stops in her spot and I continue walking, my head down, until I reach where I'm supposed to be. I face the back of the stage, my head down and my arms at my side feeling the cap on my head secure with bobby pins. The rest of my costume is consistent with the other girls; a flowy skirt, tank top, and scarf. My skirt is an olive green, my tank top a dark blue, my scarf dark blue and tan, and my hat a matching olive green.
The song begins, Marc Cohn's "Stranger in a Car." The light piano music moves Chealsea and I toward each other, spinning—our skirts flying out—but we never touch. Her fingers reach for mine as mine reach for hers, both of us just missing the other. The piano refrain repeats itself, and we repeat the cycle—just missing each other, never touching.
The words begin, "There's a stranger in a car," the low voice sings. I hold still and look up to the lights, my hand stretched toward the sky like I choreographed, a girl asking for guidance—which direction do I go?—as Chelsea bends in a kind of bow on the other side of the stage.
"Driving down your street." Chelsea leaps from her bow upstage and turns to the ground, rolling one leg over the other to stand again. "Acts like he knows who you are," she leans towards me, my face and arm still reaching upward, and beckons with a hand. I lower my arm and follow her slowly as she circles me, beckoning.
"Slaps his hand on the empty seat and says," She falls to the ground, her hands slapping the stage, and then she rolls gracefully up once more, "are you gonna get in?" she leans forward, her right hand outstretched to me and her body almost falling once more. I lean forward to meet her, arm outstretched and we almost touch, "or are you gonna stay out?" We both turn, to our respective "right" and stand up straight.
"Just a stranger in a car," Chelsea and I leap upstage on our opposite sides, reaching toward the audience, then stand and turn three times as the other twelve girls enter the stage, leaping and turning, as the music says, "might be the one they told you about."
The piano refrain plays once more, and all fourteen of us, Chealsea and I in front and the other 12 girls in the back, step forward, right arm outstretched, calling for guidance again, then turn to the right or left, and reach out to our partner. I reach out to Chelsea and she reaches for me.
"Well you never were one for cautiousness," I smile as I spin and remember why I chose to choreograph to this song. When I had heard it, I remembered Christmas Eve, when Darren had conned me into accepting his offer to drive me home. The girls are still frozen in their poses. "You o
pen the door," I sway towards Chelsea, wrap my hand around hers, and pull her so we are standing face to face in the middle of the stage. "He gives you a tender kiss," We grasp our hands around each other's wrists, our arms cross, and bend backwards, circling clockwise with our upper bodies before meeting upright again.
I had gotten into the car—or rather, was forced into the car—and thought it was just a car ride. "And you can't even hear 'em no more," the twelve girls start dancing again in pairs, reaching toward Chelsea and I as we circled each other, staring into each other's faces and our hands still grasping each other's wrists. "All the voices of choices," the girls fall in a ripple, left to right, "now only one road remains," and gracefully roll back to standing.
I had realized that night that part of finding love was taking that chance, getting in a stranger's car, so to speak.
"And strangers in a car," Chelsea and I let go of each other and spin to face opposite sides of the stage before the music's speed picks up once more. "Two hearts, two souls, tonight, two lanes," the girls split to either side of the stage, staggering, and leaving an open aisle in the middle. Chelsea and I dance through the aisle, tumbling, spinning, and reaching out to one another as the girls, all on different counts, look up, then down, downstage, and repeat.
"You don't know where you're going," the song says as Chelsea picks me up and spins me down the aisle, and it was true. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I had constants—my family, my friends; Darren. "You don't know what you're doing," Chelsea set me down and spun to the other side of the stage, the two of us still centered in the front as the girls spread out behind us once more.
"Hell it might be the highway to heaven," we all reach up with both arms, one foot still pointing to the ground as we hop off the ground, all fourteen of us in the air for one moment, "and it might be the road to ruin." We land on our pointed foot, using it to roll us to the ground as we tuck our other leg underneath it in a graceful movement, rolling onto our backs with arms and legs outstretched.
"But this is a song," Slowly, Chelsea and I stand up and walk slowly towards each other, "for strangers in a car," tentatively, we place our hands flat against the others. The girls behind us pair up again to help each other stand. "Baby maybe that's all, we really are."" Chelsea picks me up, as does one partner of each pair of the girls', with her hands on my hips and mine holding on to her shoulders, and spins me clockwise as the piano refrain repeats. "Stranger's in a car, just stranger's in a car," we are all set down at the same time, gently and slowly. "Stranger's in a car," everyone faces their partner, faces looking down at their hands as they places both palms against each other's.
The lights dim and a spotlight lands
The end could be happy, or it could be sad, but you had to take the chance to find out.
"Stranger's in a car."
"That was incredible!" Chelsea says as we get off the stage. We are both out of breath from dancing and she hugs me with all her might. "I'm going to miss performing your dance. It was some incredible choreography, Duke."
"Thanks," I say, smiling, as she heads out the door.
Mine was the last performance of the concert, so the girls are all heading out the backstage doors to meet their family and friends at the front of the auditorium. I make my way through the doors and hardly have one moment in which I see Darren before his arms are around me and I'm in the air as he swings me around.
"That was incredible, Ace!" he laughs. I can feel his smile in my neck as he hugs me close to him. "You choreographed that last dance, yeah?" I nod and he hugs me tighter. "Absolutely incredible."
I laugh along with him, my smile wide. "Thanks," I say. I'm still a little shy about accepting praise about my dances.
"Are you Delaney Rose Knight?" Darren sets me down and I turn to face the woman who addressed me.
"Yes, I am." She holds out her hand and I shake it, nervous. I knew there would be scouts at the performance, but I didn't think they would talk to me directly.
"I'm Ellie Stotts, from the local University dance program. I saw that you were the choreographer for that last dance, "Taking the chance," and I was wondering if you had received any information about our school?"
"I've looked at the program a little, but I haven't received anything from the program as of yet," I answer nervously. Darren places a comforting hand on my shoulder—he's become extremely good at telling when I'm nervous.
"Well, I think you should be hearing from us soon. I really enjoyed your performance." She smiled and shook my hand again.
I stuttered a "thank you," as she walked back down the hallway and out of the auditorium. I turn to Darren, my eyes wide. "That was as good as a scholarship offer, wasn't it?"
Darren grins, looking proudly down at me, "I'm pretty sure it was." I squeal delightedly and jump into his arms, hugging him again.
I couldn't be happier that I had decided to take that chance with none other than Darren Teigan.
The End