Becoming Harper

by Marlowe Blue

  “All right, guys,” Felix said as we weaved our way through the crowd. “One of our missions tonight is to find out where the senior afterparty is and to get an invite.”

  “Right,” Quinn said, squeezing my hand. I really want to go.

  I did too but I had already mentally prepared myself for the possibility of it not happening. The Triple Loop was always at the back of the carnival. As we walked, I made mental notes of where all the food stands were that I wanted to visit.

  We passed through the center of the carnival where all the games were set up. Most of them had silly-looking stuffed animals posted on the walls waiting to be claimed. I spotted some guys from the basketball team at the basketball booth, arguing with the operator about the game being rigged. We passed the giant slide where our classmates looked like overgrown kids coming down on sackcloth mats. I couldn’t wait to go. We passed the bumper cars which I always avoided because being jostled around like that gave me a headache. After we strode by the tents filled with souvenirs, the Triple Loop Coaster loomed over us eerily. I could hear screaming and the roaring of the cars on the track from where we stood.

  As usual there was already a massive line for the Triple Loop. I think everyone had the same idea, to get it out of the way first. By some curse, or some blessing, depending on how you looked at it, we ended up in line behind Harper, Tucker, and Harper’s best friend, Aria Michaels.

  One thing I liked about Harper was that despite her super-human perfection, she wasn’t a mean girl. She didn’t let her popularity go to her head and I’d never heard of her treating anyone poorly. As far as I knew, she didn’t gossip or make fun of people either. Her friends, Aria especially, made up for that. Aria was the exact opposite of Harper, ugly on the inside and out. Her freckled face was framed by shoulder-length red curls. Her hair wasn’t a pretty red, it was an abrasive Ronald McDonald red. The tragedy was that it wasn’t natural. She had dyed her hair that color. Underneath the chemical assault she was a dark brunette. Aria constantly bragged about being thin as a rail. In my opinion, her size didn’t work with her angular features. She had a long pointy nose and cheekbones that were just a bit too sharp. She was mostly popular because she just dressed right in all the designer labels and had a knack for clinging onto the right girls. When Harper chose her as her right-hand woman, Aria’s popularity sky-rocketed. Why Harper picked her, I couldn’t say but being the Queen B’s number 1 made Aria’s head swell even bigger than it already had.

  Aria cackled at something Cassie Barnes said and then whispered in her ear. I was one hundred percent sure they were saying something mean about the unsuspecting girl standing in front of them. They both gave her the side eye and laughed again. Whatever they’d said, I hoped she hadn’t heard. Why couldn’t they just have a good time?

  Gunner and Felix were having a hushed conversation and Quinn was on her phone with Josh. I was grateful he wasn’t there because I had no desire to be the fifth wheel.

  My friends being preoccupied with their loves left me with nothing to do but to stand there awkwardly and eavesdrop on Harper and Tucker in line ahead of me.

  Harper had on a pair of light blue jeans that looked practically painted on. That was paired with leather boots that looked sickeningly expensive, a t-shirt with the words ANGEL printed across it in red letters and a black-fringed leather jacket. Her inky hair was pulled up into a perfect ponytail that bobbed from side to side as she talked. Harper looked dressed to ride off into the sunset on the back of some hot guy’s bike.

  Tucker was Tucker. He always kept it simple. He wore a long-sleeved white top that averted my attention to his awesome pecs and black jeans. I could smell him from where he stood. Tucker’s scent was always a mix of pine, soap, and mint.

  “So,” Harper told Tucker, “I’m doing a horror theme for my party, but I don’t know about that bride of Dracula costume, babe. Don’t you think that beehive wig with the white stripes is going to look dumb on me?”

  Tucker stared at her all starry-eyed. “Nothing will look stupid on you, babe.” Wasn’t that the truth? I wondered what it would feel like to have a guy look at me that way—like I was the most beautiful girl in the world and he couldn’t believe that he was with me. If I were Harper, I would have melted into a puddle on the ground, but she was used to being adored.

  I cleared my throat. “Actually, it’s the bride of Frankenstein who has hair like that, not Dracula.” Brooke and I had watched The Bride of Frankenstein on Netflix not too long before.

  Harper smiled at me. Tucker looked at me to, but I refused focus on him. “Is that, so?” Harper asked.

  “Yeah. So, you could definitely rock The Brides of Dracula look. Or any look.” I cringed at the last part. Wow, Abby. Desperate much?

  “Thanks. It’s Abigail, right.” She called me Abigail because that’s what our chemistry teacher, Mrs. Landry insisted on calling me.

  “Yes.” This wasn’t the first interaction Harper and I’d had. We’d been lab partners once in chemistry, but I was still surprised she remembered my name.

  “Abby.”

  “Abby,” she repeated. Harper looked as if she were going to say something else, but then Aria grabbed her by the arm and spun her around, narrowing her eyes at me. “You never finished telling me about this party décor nightmare you were having.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Harper started talking about how she and her party planner were fighting over how to make cobwebs look realistic. Since Halloween was coming up, it really was the perfect time to throw a horror-themed party in that gothic-looking mansion of hers. Tucker flashed me his dazzling smile, then turned away too, sliding his arm around Harper’s waist.

  Quinn sighed and hung up, completely oblivious to the fact that the Queen Bee had just granted me a moment of her precious attention. I wanted to squeal and tell her that Harper had not only spoken to me outside of a school assignment, but that she had smiled at me. If Aria hadn’t rudely interrupted, I might have even scored us invites to Harper’s birthday party. However, sharing any of this with Quinn would have been a bad move. Not only would Harper, Tucker, and Aria have heard me, but Quinn wasn’t quite as taken with Harper as I was. She thought she was pretty and had been given a lucky strike at life, but other than that, she never really thought about Harper. Definitely not like I did. Whenever I was bored in school or at the pet shop, I would try to imagine what it would be like to be Harper Granger.

  Quinn leaned against me and sighed. “I wish Josh were here. This is the perfect night to spend with your boyfriend.” Tell me about it, I thought, staring at the back of Tucker’s handsome blond head.

  “Then where would that leave me?” I asked.

  Quinn gave me that pathetic look I hated. “I’m sorry, Abby. I didn’t mean that I didn’t want to spend the night with you, but most of the seniors are here with dates. Don’t you think it’s so romantic to go on rides together and walk through the carnival holding hands and winning prizes for each other that you’ll keep forever and then posting on Instagram about how you’re having the most perfect night ever with your love and adding all those cute emojis?”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled away from her. She clicked her tongue. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. It’s your fault you’re single. So many guys would love to date you, but you turn them all down because you’re holding out for . . .” Her voice trailed off as she glared at the back of Tucker’s head.

  She was wrong, though. I had given up on Tucker, but she was right about the other thing. Guys did ask me out, but I wouldn’t describe the amount as “so many”. It really wasn’t a big deal. All girls got asked out unless they were total dogs. I was no Harper Granger, but I wasn’t ugly. I turned everyone down because I didn’t like them. Maybe I was comparing them to Tucker and that was why, but I couldn’t help it. Who wanted to settle for a baloney sandwich when a steak was being dangled in their faces?

  Quinn was always telling me how Josh called her before the games when she wasn’t there because she was his g
ood luck charm. Although I didn’t turn around to see, I knew that Felix and Gunner were awfully quiet because they were busy making out. I pretended to listen to Quinn go on about Josh while trying to catch any pieces I could of Harper and Aria’s conversation. I heard things about food, music, and a dress code. No one would be admitted without a costume and Harper was sticking to that.

  At last it was their turn to board the roller coaster. Harper squeezed Tucker’s hand as the two of them stepped forward. My heart raced and I tried to keep my knees from shaking. Although I loved the thrill of the ride, it always terrified me. I wondered if I would be calmer if I had Tucker riding beside me. Probably.

  Quinn and I slid into the seats behind them and pulled the safety holds down over our chest. I knew Tucker and Harper were probably holding hands in front of us as we chugged our way up the ramp at an annoyingly slow speed. Everything after that was a blur, but we survived.

  Quinn and I stood at the exit of the ride waiting for Felix and Gunner to show up. I watched Harper and her crew float away. Soon a crowd surrounded her, and she disappeared.

  Gunner put his arm around me once he and Felix appeared. “How about the haunted house and then we pig out.”

  Quinn nodded eagerly. “Sounds good to me. We can go see the fortune teller while our food digests and then ride some more.”

  “It’s a plan,” I said. The fortune teller was another tradition of ours. There were usually two or three of them every year. For five bucks they rubbed their crystal balls and gave us generic predictions like we would pass an upcoming test or that we had a crush on someone. What high school kid wasn’t crushing on someone? Last year the fortune teller told me that I would find true love before the year was over. She had lied.

  The haunted house was corny as ever, but she had fun making fun of how stupid it was. We stopped for gyros. The ones served at the carnival were the best. After we ate, Felix and Gunner wanted to play a few games while Quinn and I waited in line for the fortune teller. Gunner had always thought it was a waste of time and money. We promised to meet up afterward.

  Under a purple tent covered with moons and stars were four tables, each one holding a fortune teller dressed in colorful robes. There was one line and after you paid your five bucks to the guy standing at the tent’s entrance, you would go to the next available fortune teller.

  “What do you think they’ll tell us this year?” Quinn asked, her brown eyes flashing with curiosity.

  “Probably the same thing they told us last year. I’m sure they have a script. I’m going to ask mine where I’ll be going to school next year.”

  Quinn tugged at the bottom of her skirt that kept riding up, another reason not to do minis. “That should give you an interesting response.” Her phone rang and she fished it out of her pocket. “Hey, Josh . . . what?” she frowned and looked down at her phone. “The reception sucks over here.” She pointed to her left. “I’m going to walk over that way and see if it’s better.”

  There were only three more people in front of us. “Okay, but hurry. It’s almost our turn,” I told. By the time I turned back to her, she was already gone.

  4

  Before I knew it, it was my turn. I was going to let the person behind me go ahead while I waited for Quinn who was no longer visible, but the fortune teller at the back table was summoning me to her with her long, red fingernail. “Come, Dear. I have something wonderful for you.” My spine tingled. Something told me that I need to go so I handed a five-dollar bill to the guy taking the money and headed to the back of the tent.

  I lowered myself onto the hard metal folding chair. It squeaked under my weight. My back was to the crowd waiting in line. Quinn was going to kill me for not waiting for her but it was too late to think about that now.

  The fortune teller had an interesting look. She wore a long-sleeved robe covered with purple, turquoise, and bright orange swirls. Her long, blueish-gray hair cascaded over one shoulder. She had the greenest eyes I’d ever seen, even clearer that Harper’s. They were hypnotizing. She looked like she was my grandma’s age, in her early sixties.

  She grinned at me. I tried not to cringe at the sight of her yellowing teeth. I guessed the traveling carnival didn’t have great dental benefits. She held her wrinkled hand out, palm side up, and I knew just what to do. I placed my own smooth hand in hers. She placed her other hand on top of mine. Her hands were cold as ice. That fall night was a little chilly, but not that cold.

  “I’m not like the others,” she told me. “I’m not doing this for dress up. I’m the real deal. I won’t ramble on with some rehearsed speech. I get right to the point. Now tell me, what do you want to know?”

  I swallowed hard. “Where am I going to go to college?”

  She pressed down on my hand and closed her eyes. “Your life is going to change in a way you’re not expecting it to. You’re not going to college.”

  I was tempted to pull away from her and leave. She had to be a sham. There was no way I was not going to college. That had always been in my plans, even if I had to work two jobs to pay my own tuition or take out student loans. But then again maybe something was going to happen that would derail those plans. Was I going to get into a bad accident or something? Was I going to die? What did she know that I didn’t?

  “What do you mean?”

  She didn’t answer me. She turned my hand over and ran the fingernail of her index finger over the lines of my palm. It tickled, but I willed myself not to laugh. “You are not happy with yourself. You wish to be someone else.”

  She was sort of right but that didn’t mean she was the real deal. Didn’t most people want to be someone else? I said nothing. She cocked her head to the side and stared deep into my eyes. “I’m seeing a beautiful girl. Dark hair. She is beautiful. Very beautiful. Her name starts with an H.”

  Okay. That was freaky. Who else could she be talking about besides Harper? Probably almost everyone who knew her wanted to be her.

  I pulled my hand away. “Thanks, but I should probably go find my friend now.” As I stood, the woman grabbed my hand and yanked me back down to the seat. The hard metal hurt my ass.

  “Hey!”

  “I can help you if this is what you really want.”

  “How can you help me?”

  She drew circles with her finger on my palm. “You wish to be this girl and I could make that happen.”

  Really? She could turn me into Harper? She sounded ridiculous. “Sure, you can.”

  “You want her life,” she went on, “and I can give it to you.”

  “How?” This woman really thought I was an idiot.

  “Well, everything comes at a price, my dear. What I am offering you is priceless.”

  “How much?” I demanded. I’d already paid my five dollars.

  “How much do you have?”

  After paying for the fortune teller and the gyro, I had a whopping sixty-one bucks left. “Don’t worry about how much money I have. What’s it to you?” She let go of my hand.

  “Sixty-one dollars is a bargain. As I said, this is priceless, but I will make an exception for you.” She dug into the pocket of her robe and retrieved a small silver box. The box was beautiful, covered with intricate swirls and a stone that looked like a ruby at its center. It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. “This girl you want to be, you put her picture inside this box and sleep with it underneath your pillow. The next day you will wake up as her, in her body, in her life, but you have to truly believe it will happen.”

  I laughed louder than I meant to, but the woman remained stone faced. She scowled and put the box away. “Never mind. I can see already that you don’t believe so it’s not going to work for you.”

  I looked around me. Was this woman taking me for a ride? Probably, but then how would she have known about Harper and how much money I had on me. It was like she was reading my mind or something.

  I thought about my life. Never having money. Our small cramped apartment. A mother who was wor
king all the time. A father who couldn’t be bothered to remember that Brook and I existed. Floating through high school being just another face in the crowd. Then I thought about Harper. She had everything I dreamed of—the looks, the money, the popularity, the boyfriend. Tucker alone was enough of a reason to want to be her. No matter what Harper decided to do after high school, she was probably set for life while I would always have to worry about money. Maybe this woman was pulling my chain, maybe she was telling the truth.

  “So, let me get this right,” I said. “All I have to do is put her picture in this little box and sleep with it under my pillow. I don’t have to say any special words or do anything else?”

  The woman shook her head. “Just believe. I’ve already cast the spell over the box, but yes, that’s all you have to do.”

  For a chance to become Harper Granger, sixty-one dollars was nothing to fork over. I reached into my pocket and tossed the wad of cash on the table before I could change my mind. In one fluid motion, she woman snatched up the money and left the silver box in its place. I dropped the box into my purse. “Is that all?”’

  She nodded. “That’s all, but before you do anything, be sure it is what you really want. Envy has been the downfall of many people. The grass may look greener on the other side, but if you took the time to water your own grass, it would probably be just as green.”

  I didn’t know what that had to do with me and Harper, but I thanked her and left the table. With the box in tow, I exited the tent feeling like I had either made the smartest or the dumbest decision of my life.

  I bumped into Quinn waiting at the exit. “I can’t believe you didn’t wait for me, loser.”

  “I’m sorry. I should have but something told me to go on.”

  Quinn smirked. “Right, the spirits were beckoning you.”

  I shrugged. “What did Josh want?”

  “Oh, he was letting me know that they won the game and that he scored the winning touchdown. He’s ecstatic. That guy is really going places.” Josh was banking on getting a football scholarship to UCLA. Quinn was so head over heels in love with him that I really hoped they worked out.