For my outfit I’d gone with the aforementioned sweater dress, leggings, chunky boots, and a little jacket. Appropriate for the elements, yet still cute.
Terri rounded the car toward me. “Maybe I’m just jealous of all the attention you’re going to get.”
“You?” I elbowed her playfully. “I’ll bet you twenty bucks you’ll have some guy hanging all over you within the hour.” As predicted, Chris was ancient history. Terri had long forgotten him even though it hadn’t even been a full week.
She winked at me. “No way. I can’t afford to give away money like that, but don’t worry, you will have my utmost attention tonight. I need a front-row seat for this dating show you’ve got going on.”
“Me too”—Grace jumped in—“and I’ll keep my eyes open for any interesting prospects at the bonfire. Maybe I can enter a contestant, too!”
We neared the pavilion. “Forget me,” I said. “We need to find someone for you.”
“No.” Grace had a look of warning in her eyes. “We don’t.”
I held up my hands. “Fine, I won’t play matchmaker.” I raised my eyebrows up and down. “Tonight. But be prepared: Halloween’s a whole other story.” We had Gretchen Haskin’s party that night.
“Are you trying to convince me not to go?” she asked.
“Not possible,” Terri said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You love Halloween way too much to miss it.”
It was her favorite holiday. Every year she made us dress up in some sort of group costume. This time we were going as the Chipmunks. I was Alvin, Grace was Simon, and Terri was Theodore. I preferred cuter outfits, but Grace was always adamant that we go as a trio, and she was persistent. It’s how I ended up as a Sanderson sister from Hocus Pocus last year, scissors from rock-paper-scissors the year before that, and Snap from the Snap, Crackle, Pop Rice Krispies elves the one before that.
“Fine, maybe,” she relented. “But when else do you get to dress up in ridiculous outfits in public?”
“Look who you’re talking to,” I reminded her. “Try every volleyball game.” Then I threw in my badger cry for good measure.
“Keep making that sound,” Terri said. “I hear guys love that; they’ll be fighting over you.”
“It brought me over,” Luke said, approaching us, Paisley’s arm linked with his.
The five of us headed to the pavilion to get a drink, weaving our way through a huge crowd of students. While the bonfire wasn’t officially a school-sponsored event, it had school approval. A bunch of parents and local restaurants and shops even supplied food, sodas, and punch—although some people snuck in things a little stronger.
“There you are!” Nikki yelled from about twenty feet away. “We’ve been looking for you.”
She said we but was alone when she approached.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
Nikki looked at me like I was dense. “Getting your suitors ready for the big reveal.” A rose was sticking out of her purse. She noticed me looking at it. “This,” she said, presenting the flower to me like it was a sacred scepter, “is for you.”
“I am not giving that out.”
“Sure you are. It’s part of the fun.” Nikki put the rose behind my ear. “Now let’s meet Bachelor Number One.” She texted someone, and a few minutes later Miles Coffield was standing in front of me.
“Oh,” he said, his whole body stiffening.
I crossed my arms over my chest. This wasn’t going to go well.
“Cam’s the one you wanted me to meet? Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“What?” Nikki asked, her excitement fizzling like a balloon with a hole in it as Miles shook his head and walked away.
“Rejection at its finest,” I said.
Paisley tugged at Luke’s arm. She looked uncomfortable. We should go, she mouthed. I think she was trying to be subtle, but I saw it anyway.
“We’re going to go dance,” Luke said, taking a step away from me. The two of them were trying to spare me some embarrassment, but it was too late. Bachelor Number One had already seen me and made a run for it in front of everyone. “Have fun,” I said.
“I don’t get it. Why would he do that?” Nikki complained. “Miles is not that rude, and he was supposed to be the winner. Cute, sports fan but not a player, funny, our year. Will somebody please tell me what just happened here?”
“He hates her,” Terri offered.
“Obviously,” Nikki said. “Why?”
Terri snorted. “He may hold a tiny bit of resentment toward her. He wound up in summer school because of Cam.”
“It’s his fault,” I clarified. “Miles was in my social studies class freshman year and was constantly trying to cheat off me. During the final, I had enough. I yelled, ‘Stop looking at my paper!’ I hadn’t meant to scream, I was just annoyed, but it got the teacher’s attention. Miles flunked the test, needed to repeat the course over the summer, and blamed me.”
“And now, a few years later, it’s coming back to bite me.” Nikki downed her drink. “I can’t believe my guy is out of the running already. You couldn’t have told me this before?”
“How was I supposed to know you would pick Miles? You should have told him my name ahead of time. Or vice versa. The show does.”
She cocked her head and gave me a stare. “I was trying to keep it mysterious, like old-school The Bachelorette. The bachelors used to get out of a limo and meet the Bachelorette for the first time. The guys were always relieved to see who the mystery woman was. It always worked there.”
Nikki made some sort of raspberry sound with her lips and started texting again. “I hate losing. I guess it is what it is. Don’t worry, though,” she said, I think reassuring herself more than me, “I’m still on board for the rest of the competition. I told the others where we are, and to start bringing over the suitors.” She let out a sigh. “Any other guys we need to stay clear of?”
“Probably tons,” Terri answered for me, and I swatted her arm.
“Ooh,” Nikki said, switching from disappointment to hope in the bat of an eyelash. “Who’s Grace talking to? Derrick somebody, right? He could be a possibility.”
We all turned to see. Grace was at the other end of the table, chatting up a storm. She must have felt our eyes on her, because she looked up and immediately came back over.
I eyed her suspiciously. “What’s going on with you two?” This wasn’t the first time I’d caught them together.
“Nothing,” she said. “I just thought he might know someone for you.”
I would take all the help I could get, and apparently Nikki agreed.
“Good,” she said, nodding in approval. “We need as many contestants as we can find. My guy is out, which sucks, but on the upside it means I can be an unbiased judge. We’re going to find Cam’s perfect match. Just think of me as the producer, perusing all the guys in Brooksvale, testing them and narrowing the field of suitors down until Cam chooses the perfect guy.”
“Excuse me?”
It was Anthony Fazzini. He had just walked over with Naamua.
“This is some sort of contest for Cam?” He turned to Naamua. “Why would you do this?”
When she didn’t answer—she looked like she didn’t know what to say; I mean, how do you explain you’re part of a high school version of The Bachelorette?—he got annoyed and stalked off, but not before ruining my chances with the next guy.
“You might want to stay away from her,” Anthony told Cooper Matthews, who was walking up with Avery. “Bet they’re trying to get you to ‘talk’ to Cam, too, huh?” He scoffed. “FYI, they’re just trying to mess with us.”
“No we’re not,” I protested.
“Whatever,” Anthony said, and kept his focus on Cooper. “If you want to be a part of their joke, that’s on you.”
Cooper looked around at all of us standing there, me with a rose behind my ear. “This doesn’t look fishy or anything,” he mumbled. Then he said, “Sorry, Avery. I don’t know
what’s going on here, but there are a ton of girls to talk to at this thing; I don’t need this.”
Then the two guys walked off together. Two really good options, gone. My friends had done a great job in their casting of bachelors. Both guys had always seemed super nice. I’d never heard anyone say anything bad about either of them. Cooper was on the chess team, a swimmer, and totally hot. And Anthony was just as good-looking. He was in the marching band and the peer advocates—a volunteer group that spoke with students reaching out for help. Most important, they’d known that it was me they were being set up with, and they may have been interested until they found out about each other. My Mr. Perfect could have been either of them, and now neither wanted anything to do with me. I was quickly regretting this Bachelorette-style approach to dating.
“Sorry,” Nikki said, “for my big mouth. I should have spaced these meetings better.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “I think maybe we should leave reality TV to the professionals. It’s time to call it quits.”
“Without meeting Grayson?” Meg asked, approaching with some guy I assumed was him.
Guys were creeping up like roaches all of a sudden. Normally this would have been a good thing—but not when they were scaring one another away.
“Relax,” she told me, “he knows everything about the competition.”
I wasn’t sure he was so thrilled about being there. He was standing with his hands in his pockets, shuffling his feet.
“You don’t think this is strange?” I asked.
He smiled. “Maybe a little,” he said, peeking at me but not making full eye contact, “but I come from a family of Bachelor lovers, so how could I say no?”
Aw, he wasn’t looking for an escape route. He was just shy, in an adorable way, and I was here for it.
Meg pulled him closer to me. “Cam, I wanted to introduce you to Grayson. He’s my cousin’s best friend. They go to the Academy.” The Academy was the private school in town.
“Nice to meet you,” I said. I was about to shake his hand, but then he wiped his nose with it, so I gave a little wave instead.
“How about we let them talk?” Meg said to my entourage, gesturing for them to follow her.
Grace gave me a thumbs-up. This could be it, she mouthed, looking more excited than even Nikki. Then they all headed for the dance floor, leaving me alone with Grayson.
Part of me wanted to join them—the music was really good, and I hadn’t danced in forever—but I brought my attention back to my “suitor.” I had to get my priorities straight. The goal of tonight was to find a guy. Not to party with my friends. Grayson could be the one I was looking for.
“The Academy, huh?” I asked, turning my attention to him. “I don’t know, does that make us rivals?”
“I’m not into the rivalry thing,” he said, and wiped his nose again. “Unless I’m playing, I don’t go to any of the games. I don’t care who wins.”
“I was just joking.”
“Oh, ha!”
“So you play a sport?” I asked.
“I’m on the basketball team, but there’s way too many of us. So I’m basically on standby every other week.”
“Do you go to the games when you’re not playing?”
Grayson shook his head. “Nah, what’s the point?”
I couldn’t imagine not cheering on your own team. I hadn’t even been on the volleyball team for the past couple of years, but I still showed up whenever I could to root Grace and the rest of them on.
“You on a team?” he asked, pushing his hands deeper into his pockets.
“Just the mascot,” I said. “You know, the one who jumps around in a costume.” It was hard not to look over at my friends. From where I was standing, I had a perfect view of everyone. They were in a giant group. Grace, Terri, Luke, Derrick, and Paisley were there, but so were Avery, Nikki, and a bunch of the cheerleading squad. They were all dancing together. No one seemed coupled up, or like they wished they were somewhere else. They were all just having fun.
“We can go dance with everyone,” I suggested.
“I don’t dance,” Grayson said.
“How come?” I asked.
“Just don’t like it.” He wiped his nose again with the back of his hand. I wasn’t sure if it was allergies or a nervous tic, but either way, it was kind of gross. Especially when there was a whole slew of napkins about five feet away from us on the table.
“Okay, um, what do you like to do?” I asked. It was a horribly generic question, one that I personally hated to be asked, but I was struggling for things to say.
“All sorts of things.”
“Like…,” I pushed. This was getting more painful by the moment.
He answered, but I wasn’t even listening, I couldn’t stop watching my friends.
“What about you?” he asked.
Grace saw me, and she waved. I waved back.
“Same as you,” I told him, scolding myself for losing track of why I was at the party in the first place. I needed to put effort into finding Mr. Right. Meg had set me up; the least I could do was have a little energy, make the guy feel comfortable opening up. Grayson had boyfriend potential. Getting distracted wasn’t the way to win him over. I needed to pay better attention. “All sorts of things.”
There was a pause; neither of us seemed to know what to say. “Ever been to a bonfire before?” I asked, grasping for something … anything.
“Nope.”
I kicked a stick on the ground. “It’s pretty cool.”
“I guess we can go get a closer look,” he said.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Let’s grab some food,” Grayson suggested.
“Perfect.”
Only was it?
Yes, it was, I told myself as I watched him pile his plate with chips, burgers, and pickles. This was going to be a good night. Grayson was nice. So what if he didn’t want to dance? Or had no school spirit? Or a runny nose? He was a chance to have all the things I wanted in my senior year: a boyfriend to go with to parties and prom. A boyfriend to cuddle up with and talk to.
If that was what I wanted, why couldn’t I stop glancing at my friends over my shoulder?
The band started blasting a cover of a Kevin Wayward song. The one about summer, and friendship, and fun. The one that had prompted me to pull Grace and Terri up onstage in middle school, where we did an interpretive dance. I bet Terri had requested this one.
“Oh no they’re not,” I whispered.
But they were. My friends were doing my moves. The swinging of the arms in a giant circle when the song mentioned the Ferris wheel, the extension of every limb to signify the sunset, the gyrating of their entire bodies to act like waves.
I couldn’t believe they were doing the whole thing—especially without me there.
“Grayson,” I said, “I’m so sorry, but I need to go dance. You can come.”
He shook his head.
I’d offered, I had tried to include him, but I wasn’t giving my night up for a guy I barely knew. Not again.
It was time that I learned from my mistakes.
I ran over to my friends, shaking my body like I was the water crashing onto the beach, matching Grace and Terri’s moves. We were in sync. Pretty soon the others around us joined in, doing their own interpretations, each trying to top the others.
I couldn’t stop laughing, especially when Grace went and lifted up Derrick, and he held out his arms like he was doing a pirouette. They definitely won for Ferris wheel impersonation.
“Someone’s eyes are glued this way,” Avery said, and nudged her chin in Marc’s direction. He was standing by the drinks with Lissi, but he was staring at me.
I just rolled my eyes. I didn’t care what Marc did. I had better things to do, like win an interpretive-dance contest. By the time the song ended, my whole group was in hysterics. I would have hated to have missed that. Especially over some guy.
I’d thought I wanted a boyfriend, but I was rea
lizing that what I meant by that was someone who got me, who loved me despite—or maybe because of—my quirks. Someone who made me laugh, who I could talk with for hours, and who let me be me. And I already had someone like that—several someones, actually, and they were all right in front of me, jumping to the music.
Maybe I would find a boyfriend, my Mr. Perfect. But right now I had something better. I had my friends.
The band started playing another song, and Terri and Grace put their arms around me. We started spinning as fast as we could. I felt light-headed and free.
It was a feeling, a night, I would remember forever.
Chapter 31
“Woo-hoo,” I screamed from the side of the auditorium. Avery and the rest of the cheerleaders cartwheeled to the center of the room. They were part of the pep rally leading up to homecoming weekend. All the fall sports teams were involved. The principal was calling them down team by team, where they would run over, do something corny with Brooksy—the official one, Sam Raucher, not me—get tons of applause, then take a seat in the first rows of bleachers.
It was supposed to bring about school spirit in time for homecoming weekend. Most of the teams had already played their final games for the season, but it didn’t matter. Everyone was happy for a reason to get out of last period.
“I should not be going down there with you,” I told Grace, who was up on her tiptoes, stretching out her calves.
“Um, yes, you should,” she said. “You’re part of the team.”
“I ran around in a costume; you guys did the work. Especially you—you’re the one who led them to victory. I lost track of all the points you scored.” The team had won their championship game yesterday.
Grace put her hands on her hips. “A, your cheering helped motivate us; you are totally a member of the volleyball team. You know that. And, B”—she gestured to the rest of the team members, who were standing near us—“it wasn’t just me; the whole team got us the win.”
She was being modest. “Yes, everyone was great,” I admitted, “you all smoked your opponents, but just admit you were on fire.”
A slow smile spread across her face. “I was good, wasn’t I?”
Finding Mr. Better-Than-You Page 16