Dramatically Ever After

by Isabel Bandeira

  I was one of the few people there with family and friends who had come to the ceremony. Even Kris’ parents hadn’t been able to make the drive, but Mom said Dad had insisted on being there. “I’m so glad we decided to come,” he said as he hugged me tight. “A webcast wouldn’t have been the same as seeing my baby get an award in person.” He pulled back and his dark eyes were shining just as much as mine had to be. “I’m proud of you. I can’t wait to hear your award-winning speech.”

  Mom was next, squeezing me so tight I could barely breathe. “We missed you so much this week. I don’t know what we’re going to do when you’re away at college.”

  “I don’t know either, especially if you’re in Stockholm or Nairobi.” My voice wavered on that sentence, but I’d promised myself I’d be strong about it so I wouldn’t stress my parents even more.

  Mom pulled back for a moment to give me a knowing look. “Let me guess. Alec?” At my nod, she hugged me again and said, “Honestly, you two are worse than Chloe when it comes to wild speculation and blowing things out of proportion. We’re not going anywhere.” I breathed as much of a sigh of relief as I could while being squished to death.

  “You said ‘away at college,’” I said into her shoulder.

  “Considering how clear you’ve been that you’re not interested in spending time on campus with me, your wonderful and loving mom…”

  “Is Dad going to be mad?”

  Mom’s body shook with laughter, and she reached up to gently pat my hair. “Oh, honey, he’s not. You two are so much alike, when things get tough for you, you try to micromanage other peoples’ lives.” I stiffened at that incredibly untrue assertion and she laughed even harder. “We’re both a little disappointed and worried you’re not taking our advice, but…we’ll talk about that when we get home, okay?” She squeezed me even harder. “Today, we’re both over the moon for you. Trust me.”

  The guilty weight that had been sitting on my lungs from the second I saw them in the crowd lifted the littlest bit. “Okay.” I peered over her shoulder, trying to find Phoebe or Ann or anyone who could get me out of the constant cycle of hugs. It was starting to get a little embarrassing. I couldn’t see Ann, but Phoebe was on the other side of the hall, smiling and talking with Kris, who, in a Twilight Zone moment, was laughing like they were best friends. As soon as I caught her attention, I waved her over with a “help me” look on my face. And bit back a groan as she nodded and dragged Kris over, too.

  Mom let go and gave me a confused look. “Are you okay?”

  I smiled a wavery smile. “Just hug-suffocating.” As soon as Phoebe got close enough, I broke away and threw my arms around her. “Why did you bring him over with you?” I whispered in her ear.

  Phoebe gave me a giant, slightly evil-looking grin, which was a new look for her. “Payback.”

  “Wait until we get home and I pull out pictures from your vampire phase to show Dev.”

  She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything, instead stepping aside to leave a clear shot for Kris. I tried to turn and talk to her some more, but she was already talking with Chloe. Biting back the urge to head over to them, I turned back around and tried to look composed. I hated how his smile had gone from infuriating me less than a week before to making me breathless.

  “Maybe we didn’t get first and second, but at least you listened to me,” Kris said as he stepped a little closer than just friendly.

  The lack of preamble threw me off. “What?”

  “I told you to be incredible, and you were.” His smile came out full force—developing slowly enough that I just wanted to reach out with my finger and trace his bottom lip as it spread.

  I clasped my hands behind my back. “Oh.” The retort I had prepared had died on my tongue and I just stood there, unsure of what to say beyond “Thanks.”

  “Of course, if I had gone first, the judges might have been so blinded by my brilliance that they would have forgotten about you, but you got off easy. This time.” After the week we’d had together, I couldn’t tell if he was joking or just being his usual egotistic self. Before I could say anything, though, he waved at someone over my shoulder and shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, I promised Marina I’d catch the first bus with her so we could grab a coffee. I figured you’d be busy with your parents.”

  I tried to see who he had been waving to, but there were way too many people around us. “Marina?”

  “New York? You really do suck at names, don’t you? Anyway,” he looked like he was about to hug me, but then just reached out and awkwardly pat-squeezed my arm, “Congratulations again.”

  “You, too.” I resisted the irrational urge to go over to Marina and shove her into Boston Harbor like a human-shaped teabag and instead waved like an idiot as he walked away. I froze, staring after him and wishing I had some, any, stage directions to make me move again.

  “If he’s really not into you, you’re so screwed,” Phoebe said as she came back up alongside me, “because the look on your face just now almost broke my heart.”

  “That was pain from too much exposure to Kris. Stockholm syndrome, whatever you want to call it.” Grace’s excuse rolled easily off my tongue. “And since when did you become a relationship expert?”

  “I don’t need to be a relationship expert to be an Em expert.” She gently fixed my jacket and smiled softly. “You won third place, have a scholarship, and I promise we’ll get you a happily ever after in everything else, even if it takes a little bit of time. You deserve it.”

  “Your sister is adorable,” Ann said as she braided her hair back for the night. Being the responsible type, she already had most of her suitcase packed, unlike me with my overflowing mess of clothes and shoes.

  I nudged a shoe back into my suitcase. “Try living with her. The adorableness wears off really fast.” I gave up on trying to fit things in the bag and just sat on the lid. Maybe my weight would compress my clothes enough to fit more. “If you want, I’ll let you ride home in the backseat of a car for six hours with her tomorrow while I fly.”

  Her expression turned the slightest bit sympathetic. “It’s still sweet your whole family came up for the awards ceremony.”

  “Yeah, that was a nice surprise. Feebs is up here all the time because she has family in Boston, but I didn’t expect Mom and Dad to make it.”

  Ann finished her braid and looked up to see me playing a game of twister with my suitcase. With a laugh, she pulled me away from the bag. “Let me help you. If everything came here in that bag, it should be able to go home in the same one.”

  “I don’t know. My friend Grace has magical packing powers.”

  “So do I. Stand back.” I dropped onto the bed and watched as Ann sifted through my clothes, rolling them into tight fabric logs. After a few minutes of silence, she looked up and said idly, “It was really nice of Kris to ask the Council committee to move you to the last group, wasn’t it? You might not have done so well if you had to go right after the call with your ex-boyfriend.”

  My brows knit together. “What? I thought they just needed to shuffle some of us around.”

  “Just you and Wisconsin?” She shook her head, her eyes focused on her task of finding the perfect spot in my bag for a pair of rolled-up jeans. “No. When you didn’t come down for breakfast, he got really worried. When I told him about how you didn’t really sleep and that you were on a call with Wolfgang—”

  “Wilhelm,” I corrected her.

  “Wilhelm. He figured you’d need more time to prepare. So, he asked Ms. Shawnee and a few of our competitors if they were willing to switch. Since the two state representatives have to go together because the judging packets are ordered that way, he said it was for him, not you.” Ann did some sort of origami with my dress and fit it in a tiny corner next to one of the Jimmy Shoos. She finally looked up, waving the other one by its heel. “You know, he risked his placement by doing that. If they said no, it would have really reflected badly on him. But at least Casey and Mike were willi
ng to switch.”

  The air seemed to grow thick, like I had stuffed my face into a feather mattress. I dropped my gaze to the comforter and picked at the lace around its edge. “I didn’t know.” My voice sounded strange, soft and subdued.

  She shrugged, then stuffed the shoe in alongside the other one. “I know you two have some sort of messy history, but I think he’s a really nice guy.”

  Even though Ann had no reason to lie, it still all just didn’t compute. I looked back up at her and tilted my head. “What about years of being the ego king of Pine Central?”

  “Maybe it’s like what I told you the first night we got here. Maybe he was just as boxed in as the rest of us with everyone’s expectations at home. This might have been the only place where he could be himself. Or maybe you’ve been seeing him this one way for so long that it took getting you both out of your regular environment to see the real him.”

  “Or maybe having our time slot moved later gave him an advantage, too?” I said, but my argument was half-hearted.

  Ann finished sticking the last shirt into the suitcase and stepped back, regarding me with a patient look. “Right.” The bag was perfectly packed, with room for a few extras in the morning. The girl was freakishly good.

  I needed time to digest this new information about Kris. Closing my suitcase and pushing it aside, I moved on to a new, temporary distraction. “So, why aren’t you out somewhere in the hallways making out with Geoff?”

  “Because, unlike you, I’m a rule follower. And you’re changing the subject.”

  “I know. I need time to process. But I also can multi-task, and since matchmaking happens to be a forte of mine, I’m keeping busy while processing.” I shifted to sit cross-legged and leaned back. “So, hot Louisiana boy?”

  Ann played with the end of her braid, her expression shy. “He’s promised to fly out for my winter formal and, if we’re still together by then, we’re talking about going to each other’s proms. Plus, we might meet halfway and rebuild some homes that were destroyed by the tornado in Oklahoma.” The braid dropped to her lap along with her hands. “It’s a little bit crazy, especially considering what happened with your long-distance relationship…”

  “Just because things didn’t work out for me and Wil doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. We’re seniors. Even if you started dating someone in your own school, you don’t know if you’d be going to the same college. And, anyway, first-place speech winners are hot.”

  “So are selfless classmates.” If eyes could actually twinkle, hers did at that moment.

  I swatted the air in front of me like I was pushing away a fly. “Shh, still processing.”

  Ann laughed. “I’m going to miss you, roomie.”

  “Ditto. I won’t miss your flute practicing and volunteer talk, though. You made me feel like the most inadequate, lazy person on the planet, but that’s why you’re going to end up on some famous orchestra and flying out to sainthood ceremonies and I’ll keep talking about how I knew you way back when.”

  “Well, you can get a start on sainthood with this one charity I know about. It’s music-based, started in your hometown…I can put in a good word for you with the head of the teen advisory board.”

  “Yeah, well, like I said, processing. Plus, the teen advisory board guy might be busy driving up the Turnpike to hang out with Miss New York.”

  “Doubtful. I have it on good sources that last night’s coffee ended with Marina getting annoyed because she finally realized he isn’t into her.” Ann’s lips pressed together like she was trying to hold back a laugh or wide grin. “Just in case you were wondering. Which I’m sure you’re not because you’re still processing.”

  That last part made me laugh. I rolled onto my back and stared at the canopy above me. “I’m going to have to introduce you to my friend Grace. I didn’t realize it until now, but you both have the same sense of humor.” I rolled my head over to look at Ann, someone who probably wouldn’t have become my friend if we hadn’t been put together for a week. “We’re staying in touch, right?”

  “If you don’t, I’ll cyber-stalk you anyway to find out what happens when you get back home.”

  “Boring, I promise you. Kris will go back to being class president, sitting at the student council table and being too good to hang out with the little people, and I’ll go back to flirting with the hottest guys in the theatre club. Or band. Whichever comes first.” I made a show of tapping my cheek with a pointer finger. “Or maybe I can branch out and date a football player. That might be fun.”

  She shook her head, a frown replacing the smile that was there moments before. “I’m no psychic, but I think you’re wrong.”

  “And I think you don’t know how life in Lambertfield works. Trust me, it’s better this way.”

  Leaving Boston was tough. Unlike most of the group who headed for the airport early that morning by bus, all of us whose parents had driven in for the ceremony got to hang in the lobby, waiting.

  Rhode Island kept a steady stream of conversation going, but after the emotional rollercoaster from the night before and all the hugs and teary goodbyes from the morning, I was too exhausted to even act interested. When Phoebe walked through the front door, I was convinced I had to be hallucinating my escape. “Feebs?” Rhode Island paused at my confused outburst, looked up, shrugged, and went back to her story.

  Phoebe made her way across the lobby to our chairs, eyes wide and taking in the room. Knowing her, this inn was probably looked like something in her book du jour. “I’m bumming a ride home off of your parents. They offered last night.” She perched on the arm of my chair, one hand reaching out to touch the wallpaper. “I hope you don’t mind being squished with me in the back of a car for six hours.”

  I cringed at the thought. “Can we take the Acela back, instead?”

  She lifted a shopping bag embossed with “The Midnight Read” up off the floor. “Can’t. Just spent the ticket money stocking up on bookish goodies.”

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  “If you’re nice, I’ll share my signed copy of Northern Light with you.” She reached into the bag and waved a hardcover with the picture of a girl in a rainbow dress on the cover.

  “Tempting,” I said dryly.

  By the time my parents arrived, Phoebe had integrated herself into the remaining group. For someone who was really shy, she hid it pretty well while talking hot book boys with Delaware. Without missing a beat in trading her contact information with Rhode Island, she grabbed my suitcase so I only had to shoulder my Change Council bag. Phoebe waited at the door with my parents as I hugged everyone and went up to Ms. Shawnee.

  In a move I couldn’t have predicted from her starched appearance, she swept me up in a bear hug, then held me at arm’s length and said, “I’m so glad you were a part of this. Don’t lose that passion you had in the summit and in your speech.”

  I cracked a wobbly smile. “Sorry about how Kris and I exploded all your discussions.”

  “Don’t be. I’m glad you both cared enough to put all of yourselves into your debates. Though I feel sorry for your teachers if you’re in the same classes,” she added with a shake of her head.

  “Yeah, it can be fun.”

  “I’m proud of you,” she said, pulling me in for another hug. “I know we’re going to hear big things about you.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so when she let go, I just squeaked out a “thank you” and hurried to the door. Adults with high expectations scared me.

  Loading my things into the car and answering all of my parents’ and Chloe’s questions made my head spin. I grew quieter than usual just to save my sanity, like a turtle retreating into its shell. Once we hit the Massachusetts turn-pike, Phoebe seemed to sense my mood and kept Chloe busy learning how to knit while my parents argued in the front seat about the best route to get home. It was impossible to be everything they wanted when a whole week of growing came to an end and I hadn’t yet had a chance to get used to my new real
ity.

  Reality number one, I counted off as we passed Worcester, I had fallen into something beyond hormonal lust for Kris. Not love, but beyond the “wanting to turn into a puddle under his smile” stage. He had gotten under my skin in ways I hadn’t anticipated, paid attention to parts of me other boys ignored, and fired me up like no one else ever had. Everything felt a little…dimmer without that constant spark between us.

  Reality number two, Kris probably didn’t feel the same way about me, even though some of the things he did, like kissing me back in the hallway or changing our competition time, made me wonder if it wasn’t an act. But, in his defense, it was pretty hard not to kiss me back, since I happened to be an amazing kisser. Not as amazing as he was, but, still… the boy had no chance.

  Reality number three, no matter what either of us felt, we were going back to a world that expected us to act certain ways. Kris would go back to his ladder climbing and stepping on any hands that got on the rungs, I’d go back to my world of people who thought that kind of behavior was disgusting. We were both actors in this high school drama and our roles were already scripted for us.

  Reality number four—I didn’t have the energy or strength to upend any of those other realities. Breaking up with Wil might have sucked, but being rejected by Kris would make the rest of my school year unbearable.

  Phoebe leaned over somewhere around Hartford and whispered under the sound of Mom and Dad debating whether or not we needed to stop at the next rest stop, “Are you okay?”

  I leaned my head onto her shoulder. “Yeah. Just watching my realities crash all around me.”

  From: S. Lladros (S.Lladros@RUmail.edu)

  To: Em (emkatsaros@dmail.com)

  Subject: Received Audition sample

  Dear Ephemie,

  Writing personally to let you know we’ve received your audition samples for your application. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how you interpreted the A Doll’s House monologue.