by Mav Skye
Chloe was doubly stunned when Weasel tripped on a slippery rock and went down, accidentally tossing Kelly aside, right into the path of Donny. Donny tried to avoid stepping on her, and in doing so also slipped and dropped Chloe.
She plunged beneath the surface of the river. The water filled her nostrils and burned her lungs. Strong hands gripped her, and when she emerged, coughing and spitting, Donny was there, concern on his face. He patted her back as she coughed and spat out water. “I am so sorry.” He offered Chloe his hand to help her stand. But when she grabbed it, she yanked, and he flew into the water beside her.
Chloe chuckled as Donny came up. “Two can play at that game.” But Donny was laughing too hard to hear her.
Kelly was screaming, “Darn it, Weasel! This skirt was new!” Then she splashed Weasel as he tried to help her up, and she went down again.
They all splashed in the water, and every time one tried to get up, the other would knock the other down. This was about the funniest thing that had ever happened to Chloe and she laughed so hard that her voice began to go. After splashing and playing in the water for a few minutes longer, they dragged each other out of the river, soaking wet. People looked at them oddly as they walked down the path back to the parking lot, but they were all laughing so hard, Chloe didn’t care.
This was the best day of her life, there wasn’t a clown in sight, and the party hadn’t even started yet.
Weasel lived in a rich suburb. The houses were well taken care of and spread apart, so each property had privacy. The people Chloe saw walking about reminded her of the Misty Goose community, only with more money. A slightly overweight woman with soft brown curls and khaki ankle pants walked a poodle. She suspiciously watched them as they drove by in the Mustang. She squinted at the license plate, paused, and scribbled on a notepad, reminding Chloe of Mrs. Price—without the rollers. The pink housecoat was replaced by khaki’s and Doc Martins. Further up the road were two blonde boys sporting Jason Priestly flattop haircuts and polo shirts. One of them squatted on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass, burning something—Chloe suspected ants. One boy spotted them, and slapped the one with the magnifying glass in the ear. He sprang up and put the spying glass behind his back as if they were up to nothing but chatting about tennis practice on the lovely Saturday afternoon. Chloe decided they were the equivalent of Jenn and May. At the far back of the community was a spray of spectacular houses—mansions even—and the one to the far right, looming amongst the backdrop of the Cascade mountains, was Weasel’s house. It was sterile white with black accents around the windows, colonial style, and must have been three stories high. The porch was tile and high beams, a wrought iron chandelier hung above the front door.
Both girls said, “Wow.”
Chloe looked over at Kelly. “You’ve never been here?”
She glanced at Weasel and leaned into Chloe’s hair, whispering, “Nah, he said his parents fought all the time, and he didn’t want me around them.”
Weasel touched a button on his visor, and one of the four garage doors opened. The light automatically came on as they drove in and the door closed behind them.
“Home sweet home! Follow me guys. I have a few towels.”
They got out of the car, still dripping wet, and followed Weasel up the steps and into the house.
They padded down a tiled hall and into a giant room containing a washer and dryer, a seventy-five-inch TV, two easy chairs, and a sliding glass door letting in sunlight.
He plucked a few towels out of the dryer. “The maid hasn’t been by this week, so none of our laundry is folded. Mom is pretty pissed.”
“Anyways, there are a few robes in the closet over there if you want to change in the bathroom and put your clothes in the dryer.” He pointed the girls toward a door that was inside the laundry room.
“Wait, you have a bathroom in your laundry room.”
Weasel shrugged. “Yeah, doesn’t everyone?”
“No!” said both girls at the same time, eyebrows shooting to the sky.
Donny said, “See? They sign with their eyebrows, that’s how they know to say the same things at the same time.”
Weasel snickered. “I’m going to change out of these.” He turned toward Donny. “I can lend you some clothes if you’d like.”
“Heck, yeah. Hey, you promised to show me that rifle your dad bought you last week.”
“Sure, it’s in the gun safe. You wouldn’t believe the scope on this baby.” The guys walked out and shut the door, leaving Chloe and Kelly alone.
Chloe said, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wear soggy clothes the rest of the night.”
“Me neither. Did you bring a comb?” They chatted while they walked over to the closet, found two luxury pool robes and walked to the bathroom.
Kelly said, “Do you think he has a pool?”
“Hmm…your guess is as good as mine. Probably. Holy smokes!” Chloe stood in the doorframe after she flipped on the lights. Kelly peeked in behind her.
“Two shower stalls? Who needs two?”
Chloe laughed and said, “Maybe one is for the dog.”
“Oh man.” They chatted while they changed out of their wet clothes and into the robes. Chloe went to tie the inner strings, but one of them was missing. She tied the front of it snuggly and frowned at the half foot of robe on the floor. It was gigantic. So was Kelly’s. They laughed at each other. And Kelly said, “Our clothes will be dry soon enough.”
Kelly found a hair dryer, and they took turns using Chloe’s comb and drying their hair, before fixing up their makeup with Kelly’s assortment of powders and lip glosses. The laundry room door opened.
Weasel announced, “Hey, the dryer turned off. Must be done.”
Kelly had just opened the bathroom door as he said this.
Both girls froze and looked at each other. Chloe hit her palm across her forehead. “We forgot to put our clothes in.”
“Ha! Ha!” Weasel had the strangest laugh. It was like a drawn out cuckoo. “You two are funny.”
Chloe went back into the bathroom and retrieved their small pile of clothes. When she walked out, Kelly was helping Weasel put the towels from the dryer into a basket. Chloe threw the clothes into the dryer and let Weasel push the fancy machine’s buttons.
He said, “All right, now that we have you dry and robed, let’s go get some burgers before they’re cold.”
Chloe and Kelly looked at each other, then back to Weasel.
Kelly said, “Can we just wait until our clothes dry?”
“Half the football team is already here. Come on; it’s no big deal. I’ve already told them we were swimming.”
“Oh, I suppose. What do you think, Chloe?”
Chloe felt mortified. She had a hard enough time fitting in with that crowd as it was. Trying to mingle with nothing on but a robe was out of the question.
“What? No, Chloe. Come on.” Kelly tugged at her hand. “It’ll be fine.”
Chloe shook her head. “No way, I’ll wait ‘til my clothes are dry thank you very much.
Kelly put her hands on her hips. “Don’t be such a priss.”
Chloe turned her back. “I know what you are trying to do and it’s not going to work.”
Kelly sighed. “Fine. Have fun waiting.”
“I will.” Chloe folded her arms, then turned around right as they were leaving the doorway. “Where’s Donny?”
“Oh,” said Weasel, “I saw him talking with some hottie out by the gazebo. Not sure who.” He shut the laundry room door.
A fire lit inside Chloe’s chest. She did not come here tonight only to lose Donny to some other girl.
She touched her hair, then Godzilla, and glanced down at her robe and tried to smooth it out best she could, then ran to the door. “Hey, Kelly, wait up!”
9
Juggling
KELLY SHOVED A PLATE INTO CHLOE’S hands and dragged her off toward a plastic chair that was somewhat out of the crowd. “Stop giving h
im puppy eyes. You look desperate.”
Chloe sighed and played with the plastic fork, dipping it first into the baked beans, then the potato salad. She dropped the fork and picked up a ranch corn chip, she put it into her mouth and chewed before looking back up at Donny. “What’s a kimukarma?”
Kelly was setting her pop can behind the plastic chair leg so it wouldn’t fall over. “Huh? Oh, a bracelet. A black and white bead sit opposite each other. The white bead contains spring water from China’s highest mountain. The black bead holds salt from the dead sea. They are supposed to balance your karma or something.”
“Oh.” Chloe bit into another ranch corn chip. It crunched loudly.
The backyard was several acres of gardens, ponds, gazebos and greenhouses, fire pits and patios. Chloe had never seen anything like it.
Donny leaned against a brick wall bordering the property. He talked to someone Chloe couldn’t quite make out behind a gazebo. He held a soda, and hadn’t made a move to get food. “Who do you think he’s talking to?”
Kelly took a big bite of hamburger and talked around it. “I have no idea. There are lots of people here. Maybe one of the cheerleaders? Speaking of which—” She glared Weasel’s way.
Weasel had been occupied with one of the cheerleaders since they’d gone outside. At least an hour now. Chloe had followed Kelly around chitchatting with the in-crowd. Kelly pulled off the wearing-a-robe look quite well, but the girls gave Chloe snide looks. She had already felt shy, but now she found herself laughing at the wrong moment. Searching for words when asked a question. And worst? Not knowing what a kimukarma was. It was all the cheerleaders would talk about: whose was authentic, where they had bought theirs from, whether it really contained spring water from the highest mountain in China, and did it make Shannon Doherty’s boobs grow a full cup. Like, Oh my God. Ugh.
Kelly had finally decided to stop waiting around for Weasel and dragged Chloe over to the food tables to eat. They were still in their robes since neither of them knew how to get back to the laundry room.
Chloe nibbled on the potato salad watching Weasel talk to the cheerleader. “Who is she?”
The cheerleader laughed, tossing back her glistening brunette hair as if she were modeling for a shampoo commercial. She was wearing a hot pink halter top and tiny jean shorts with heels. Her tan skin accented her white teeth and electric blue eyes. Guy magnet.
“It’s McKenzie or Mercedes—or something. Just joined the cheerleaders a few weeks back. Why are her teeth so white?”
Chloe shrugged. “She swishes with bleach?”
Kelly snorted, almost dropping her plate.
Chloe picked up her hamburger and dove in.
“One-two-three—is the mic working? Hello?” Chloe and Kelly turned to find a DJ setting up behind them.
He was older, balding, and tried to hide this by wearing a baseball hat backward. He wore a Hawaiian shirt with khaki shorts. When he noticed them looking at him, he smiled, revealing a gold front tooth. “Ladies. I am your entertainment for the evening.”
Kelly said, “Are you a DJ?”
He removed his hat and bowed. “Your personal DJ for the night. Give my speakers some love. Would you like to go first?”
Chloe said, “You mean pick the first song?”
He replaced his hat and grinned, his gold tooth flashing in the light. “Sure.”
Kelly said, “Oh! What about that Sinead O’Connor song?”
The DJ snapped. “Nothing Compares to U?”
“That one.”
“Radical, dudette. Done and Done.”
They both turned to Chloe expectantly. Chloe tugged at Godzilla on her ear. “Um…” Her mind went completely blank. Kelly waved her hands. “Oh, I know! What about that new Whitney Houston song.”
Chloe shrugged. “Sure.”
He smiled. “For you girls, I can do both. I need your names and who you would like to dedicate the song to.”
Chloe gave him her name and said she’d like to dedicate it to Donny. She blushed the whole time. Then Kelly gave her name and dedicated the song to Weasel.
The DJ gave them a creepy smile. “Awesome!”
“Thanks.”
Chloe and Kelly turned back to their plates, giggling.
Kelly lowered her voice. “That tooth! It sparkles when the lights hit it.”
“I know.” Chloe jumped when the DJ got back on the mic.
“Dudes and dudettes, if you can head on over to the stage. We’ll be starting in a half hour on the button! Wazow!”
He set the mic down and glanced from Chloe to Kelly. “Ladies, you’ve got a half hour, and your songs will be up.”
The DJ turned and walked away.
Around her burger, Chloe said, “What was that about?”
Kelly shrugged. “I have no idea. Rich people.”
“Right?”
They finished up their burgers and threw their plates away. The sun was going down now. And they walked over with the crowd to the stage.
Donny hadn’t shown any signs of coming over. And Kelly didn’t see Weasel. One of the cheerleaders, the one who had teased Chloe earlier about not knowing what a kimukarma was, said, “Like, oh my God, this will be so much fun. I can’t wait for Mercedes to make a complete fool of herself.”
Another blonde said, “Totally.”
“She does not belong on the team. She’s such a kiss up.”
“I know.”
Chloe and Kelly exchanged glances. Kelly said, “Do you know where Weasel is?”
The blonde smacked her gum. Her skin was baked orange. “The last I saw him, he was going inside the house with Mercedes. They were holding hands.”
Kelly’s face completely fell, and Chloe grabbed her hand. “It isn’t what it sounds like. He really likes you, Kelly.”
The cheerleader said, “I don’t know. They looked pretty serious to me.” She blew a large bubble and popped it.
Kelly looked through the crowd again, but it was darker now and hard to see. A large spotlight faced the stage, and the DJ climbed the steps, tapping the mic again. “One, two, testing.”
Chloe said, “Besides, our songs are first.” Kelly nodded and turned back to the stage. Chloe hooked her arm through Kelly’s. “Do you see the size of those speakers? They’re taller than Donny.”
Kelly shrugged.
Chloe reassured her. “Look, I don’t know what the DJ’s doing, but I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
The blonde cheerleader turned and looked at them. “Like, oh my God, you didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“It’s karaoke.”
“What?!?” said Chloe and Kelly at the same time.
Before the cheerleader could reply, the DJ said, “First up are Chloe and Kelly! Round of applause for the icebreakers!”
Chloe froze. Both girls turned to each other absolutely horrified.
Kelly squeaked. “We aren’t even dressed.”
Chloe murmured, “We could hide.”
The DJ put his hands to his eyes and searched the crowd. “Kelly and Chloe, please come to the stage.”
Someone in the crowd, possibly Weasel, yelled, “Yeah!”
And then they felt hands pushing them forward through the cheerleaders, who gawked and chewed pink bubblegum like there was no tomorrow. Chloe’s arm was still linked through Kelly’s. She dragged Chloe to the stage steps saying, “If Weasel is watching, I have to do this, and you’re coming with me.” And then more to herself than Chloe. “We can do this. We can do—”
“Here they are! Give it up for the ladies in the robes!”
A few people clapped, but mostly they heard a cheerleader say in valley girl sneer, “Like, oh my God, like, what are they wearing?” Chloe felt a hot spotlight on her face. It blinded her, and she was grateful she couldn’t see much of the crowd.
The DJ handed Kelly a mic and offered another to Chloe. He said, “Kelly, you’re first. Chloe, second. Do you want to sing together? Or…”
Chloe shook her head no.
Kelly snatched the other mic from his hand and shoved it into Chloe’s palm. “Yeah, we’ll sing together. Thanks.”
The DJ smiled, his gold tooth sparkling in the spotlight. Chloe didn’t believe in the devil, but if she did, she was sure he had a gold tooth.
Or a hatchet, her mind whispered.
The DJ was flipping switches at the interface. The opening music to the song boomed from the huge speakers, Chloe turned and looked at the one a few feet behind her, cringing as the DJ’s voice thundered, “All right, dudes and dudettes! This is Kelly’s choice, Nothing Compares 2 U, dedicated to, uh... Weasel.”
A guy’s voice said, “Yeah! Go, Kelly!”
Everyone laughed, and then Kelly was singing. Chloe held the microphone to her lips, but she was so surprised by Kelly’s voice that no words came out. The crowd was silent as Kelly crooned. Chloe thought of stepping off to the side, not wanting to ruin Kelly’s moment, but she felt the other girl grab her elbow. Kelly gave her a look. It was a look that said, Help me.
Chloe nodded, brought the mic to her lips. She didn’t know this song well, not like Kelly, but she could sing the chorus. She joined Kelly and their voices blended—as if they had practiced.
There was a murmur in the crowd, and someone started clapping in beat with the song, followed by more and more hands clapping to the beat. Kelly pointed to a small TV screen that had the lyrics, and with boosted confidence from the crowd, Chloe sang the second verse with Kelly.
They sang to each other and began to sway across the stage, living it up. Weasel had wandered to the front of the crowd, and Kelly stood on the edge of the stage, singing at him. Chloe’s vision had adjusted to the spotlight, she searched the faces in the crowd, hoping to see Donny.
She found him.
He was standing off to the side, watching. A girl came up from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned, Kara Leigh threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.