Realization washes over Paul’s face and he winces. “Until I acted like a big fat jerk and helped make fun of her at the Lab,” he finishes for you.
“You said it, I didn’t.” You shrug.
“Like I said before,” Paul says, “you really know your stuff.” Ah, if only you felt like that was true!
“Will you excuse me?” Paul says suddenly, checking to see where Mona is now. “I think I need to go catch up with an old friend.”
With that, he skates across the ice and joins Mona, even holding out his arm for her to latch on to. You see Paul lean over and say something to her and she whips her head to look right at you. You could be wrong, but you swear that her eyes soften and the corner of her mouth lifts into an almost smile. Whatever Paul said to her may have gotten you off the hook. But you’re still staying off the ice—just in case.
It’s been a weird day. Your two best friends bailed on you to go have fun in the city, you and Jimmy had your first falling-out, and you found yourself actually trying to help Mona, who has never exactly chosen you to share a best-friends charm with. On top of that, your classmates have mistaken you for the type to play mean jokes on people, and Mona’s secret crush somehow became the key to your redemption with her. Weird, weird, weird. But now that your day in New York is drawing to a close, hopefully some things will get back to normal. You’d settle for just one, though. (Hint: His favorite artist is Picasso.)
QUIZ TIME!
You’ve done all you can do at this point. All that’s left is to go to Ms. Darbeau’s final destination on this page and hope that the spirit of the season takes over.
You go to great lengths to prove to everyone else that you’re special. However, if you were truly secure in that knowledge, the only one you’d feel the need to prove it to is yourself. There will always be someone out there who you think is smarter, prettier, or more talented than you are. But if you learn to accept your shortcomings and embrace your strengths—everyone has both—you’ll feel less insecure and no one will be able to shake your self-confidence.
Mona has some nerve. She is determined to make you feel bad about yourself with her snide little remarks and gleefully evil looks. The worst part? It’s totally working. The longer you sit on the sidelines watching her skate circles around everyone else in the rink (and getting Jimmy’s attention while she’s at it), the more you long to show her up and knock her down a peg or two—figuratively, of course.
After the third time she sideswipes you while skating backward, you decide that you’ve had enough. You may not have had ice-skating lessons, but you’re not too shabby on the single blades. If Mona can do all those fancy moves, you’re sure you could too. Then she’ll have to admit that you’re just as good as she is. How hard could it be, anyway?
You watch as she pushes backward on one skate to build up her momentum and then spins in a tight circle, moving so fast that her features become a blur. Piece of cake.
“She’s pretty amazing,” Jimmy says as he clods along beside you on his skates. “I never knew she could do that trick.”
The admiration in his voice is just too much for you to take. “What, that?” you say, trying your hardest to seem unimpressed. “That’s no big deal at all. Watch.”
You deposit Jimmy back on the side of the rink so that he can grip the wall while you show him how it’s done. You’ve watched plenty of ice-skating and it seems easy enough. Just as Mona had done, you push back on one skate, holding your arms out for balance and bending your knees as you glide backward. Then you angle your right foot as you move into a slow spin. You’ve got it! Well, you’ve kind of got it. Um, actually, maybe you don’t got it at all. Your ankle tilts in a way you’re pretty sure it isn’t supposed to, and you go crashing to the ice, your ego crashing right along with you.
As you lie there waiting for your head to stop spinning (and your backside to stop throbbing), the other kids on the rink have to skate in a huge circle around you to avoid running you over. Too bad the ice is frozen solid. At this moment, you wouldn’t mind if it cracked and sucked you under, you’re so embarrassed.
“Hey, are you all right?” Jimmy asks as he holds out his hand to help you up. You let him pull you slowly to your feet.
“Uh, yeah,” you answer sarcastically. “I did that on purpose. Wasn’t it cool? I call it the double ankle twist.”
“Impressive,” Jimmy says, letting you lean all your weight on him as he leads you off the ice. “I give it a nine point four.”
After he sits you down on the first bench you reach, Jimmy tells you he’ll be right back. “I’ve got to find a staff member. Maybe they’ll have an ice pack for your ankle, to stop the swelling.”
“Ironic,” you mumble. “The ice caused the swelling too.”
Jimmy grins and walks clumsily away toward the skate-rental booth. As soon as he turns his back, the full horror of what just happened hits you. You tried to compete with Mona on the ice and ended up totally humiliating yourself. You can’t believe you fell! You wouldn’t be at all surprised if your Rock Center wipeout made Amy Choi’s YouTube Hall of Shame, right alongside Lena hurling into a trash can at the mall and Mark butchering a Disney classic during his choir audition. Ugh. Turns out Mona is better than you at something. Much better. And now you’ve got the swollen ankle to prove it.
You lean over, rest your elbows on your thighs, and clamp your hands over your face, trying to give yourself a pep talk. Maybe Mona didn’t even see me fall, you reason. And maybe Paul was busy getting hot chocolate or having his picture taken in front of the huge golden statue, so he missed it too. Maybe—
“Smooth moves out there.” Mona’s voice cuts through your inner monologue.
“Get lost, Mona,” you say, not bothering to come out from behind your hands.
“Well, I should expect that kind of behavior from you,” Mona says mockingly, as if she’s appalled by your rudeness. “That’s probably why Paul wants to hang with me and not you,” she continues.
At that, you finally lift your head. You may be down right now, but you’re certainly not out. “You wish,” you say hotly. “Paul has been talking to me all day and you can’t stand it that he can’t stand you.”
Mona flinches involuntarily, perhaps because what you said hit too close to home. “That’s not even true,” she protests. “He’s into me.”
“Not even,” you shoot back. “He’d rather hang with me.”
“Me.”
“Me.”
This back-and-forth is quickly descending into a Celia-and-Delia-style argument. (Lizette’s twin cousins go at it like this all the time.)
But before you have a chance to go any further, Paul comes striding over with a girl you recognize as one of the New York students.
“Hey, Picasso girl,” he says. “Are you all right? I saw you hit the ice out there. Looked pretty nasty.”
Mona smiles smugly.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” you say, trying to sound as if you actually are. “It was nothing.”
“All right,” he says with a one-shoulder shrug. “Glad you’re okay.” Then he glances at the petite blonde next to him, whose baby blue hat, scarf, and gloves all match her eyes. The bridge of her nose is sprinkled with a cluster of light brown freckles that look as if a professional makeup artist placed them there. Slipping an arm around her shoulder, making her giggle happily, Paul says, “Janine and I were just about to go get some hot chocolate. Either of you want one?”
You look over at Mona, who looks back at you, grim realization and shock registering on both your faces. “No, thanks,” you say in unison.
Paul gives you another half shrug. “Suit yourselves,” he says. “Come on, Janine. Maybe they’ll have those little marshmallows you like.”
They turn away and leave you and Mona looking at each other in utter confusion. It’s as if you were both American Idol front-runners who got eliminated in the same night.
“So … neither one of us?” Mona says in genuine shock.
/> You slump. “Guess not.”
“But that means I spent this whole trip fighting over—”
“Absolutely nothing,” you finish for her. “It was pretty boneheaded of us to go this psycho anyway. There were way cooler things to do in the museum and the Sony Lab than obsess over some boy.”
“Agreed,” Mona says quietly. “I’m not even sure I liked him anyway. Maybe I just miss New York.”
It is a stunning confession from Mona. This might be the pain in your ankle talking, but if someone didn’t know better, they’d think you and Mona were friends.
Just as you have that thought, Mona clears her throat, shakes out her lustrous black hair, and stands up. “And if you tell anyone that we had that Hallmark moment, I’ll deny it and make you wish you’d never been born.”
“Naturally,” you answer. Now, that’s the Mona you’re used to.
Before she has a chance to strut away, you hear an announcement blasting over the rink’s sound system.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, please clear the ice to welcome our surprise guest, Nick Jonas!”
No. Way. You had to have heard that wrong.
But the paparazzi that have suddenly sprung up all around the rink tell you that your ears were not playing tricks on you. You watch as Nick steps out onto a small platform at the end of the rink that wasn’t there a minute ago. “Thanks, everybody. As you know, I’m going on tour soon to promote my new solo album. The first concert will be right here in New York City!” The crowd goes wild at this news, clapping and whistling, while camera flashes pop all around Nick. “I’m just here to give four concert tickets and backstage passes to one lucky fan.”
What? Where is Jessie when you need her? She should totally be here for this.
“We chose this person at random just a few minutes ago as we were watching everyone skate. So let’s have the lucky winner come on up!” Nick shouts. “The passes are yours!”
You watch in total disbelief as one half of the gloom-and-doom duo from your school, Holly Deever (aka Holly Happy-Go-Lucky), goes gliding up to the stage in her entirely black outfit and stringy brown hair to accept the tickets from Nick. Her best friend, Mary McCullen (better known as Mary Sunshine), claps half-heartedly and smirks as if this is all so very boring. “How do you feel?” a reporter asks Holly cheerfully, shoving a mike in her face. “Are you excited?”
Holly nods. “Yeah, it’s all right, I guess.”
You tune out the rest of Holly’s gloomy acceptance and Nick’s obvious discomfort. (You’re sure he’s much more used to fans going a little crazy when they’re near him.) All you can think about is the fact that had you not been so focused on outshining Mona for the sake of a boy, you would have been on the ice when they were choosing a fan to give the tickets to, and that might have been you up there instead of Holly. Lesson so learned.
Jimmy finally returns with a staff member, who applies a cold compress to your ankle and wraps it with a beige ACE bandage, telling you the swelling should go down soon and you’ll be fine. Too bad there’s no first-aid kit for bruised egos.
What came over you today? You didn’t think you were the type to fight with anyone over a boy or to allow insecurity to make you do something foolish. But that’s exactly what you did. As a result, Paul ended up choosing someone else altogether to hang out with, you missed out on what could have been a fun day with Jimmy, you had an epic fall on the ice and twisted your ankle, and (most devastating) your preoccupation with one-upping Mona left you out of the running for some backstage passes to the Nick Jonas concert. The only bright spot was the sincere moment you had with Mona, but even that was short-lived. Overall, it just hasn’t been your day. But you do have one more stop on the itinerary. Hopefully it’ll be kind to you.
QUIZ TIME!
Sorry, but from here all roads lead to one place. Let’s hope this last bite of the Big Apple is sweet. Go to this page.
Congrats! You are one secure young lady. You may not be the best at everything, but you believe in yourself enough to try, and you actually enjoy your own company. Because you really know who you are, others would have a hard time making you feel inferior. Your happiness with yourself means you don’t feel the need to put others down or get caught up in petty fights. This is a valuable trait. Hold on to it!
Watching Mona try so hard to get Paul’s attention makes you realize how utterly ridiculous you’ve been. You don’t need to prove anything to her, and you definitely don’t need to make a fool of yourself over some boy—a boy you barely know anyway.
“Come on, Jimmy,” you say, ignoring Mona’s taunts. “Let’s see if we can get you up to speed on these skates.”
“Speed?” Jimmy asks nervously. “I don’t like the sound of that. How about we just get me up to a slow crawl? That I think I could do.”
You giggle happily. “Oh, come on. You’re not that bad. I bet in no time you’ll be—”
Your sentence is abruptly interrupted when Jimmy’s left foot slips out in front of him and the two of you go tumbling down in a heap. “You were saying?” Jimmy says sheepishly, his dark green eyes twinkling. And you both start laughing. Fighting off the giggles, you stand up, pull Jimmy to his feet, and try again. By the time you make it around the rink just once, you’ve fallen no less than four times, each spill funnier than the one before it. He does start to get the hang of it, though, and before long he doesn’t need to clamp on to your arm for support—although he does hold on to it anyway as a gentle snow begins to fall. (If Jess and Lena were here, they’d be giving you a big thumbs-up right now.)
You can’t even believe you wasted a minute on Mona drama. For the first time today, you are really having fun.
You are rounding a bend with Jimmy when you see a news camera on the side of the rink, and two brunette women waving you over. One of them extends her hand for you to shake. “Hi, I’m Tara Tallan, a reporter for Channel Nine News. You two look like you’re having fun out there,” she says.
“Definitely!” you agree, knowing your excitement is all over your face.
“Are you from New York, or is this your first time here?” the woman standing next to Tara asks.
“First time,” you respond. “And so far, it rocks.”
The two women smile and nod at each other, seeming to decide something. “Well,” the second woman starts, “your day is about to rock even more. Do you happen to be a fan of Nick Jonas?”
Is she kidding? Of course you are. If you weren’t, Jessie might defriend you on Facebook or something. “Without a doubt,” you answer confidently.
“Good.” The woman nods. “And what if I told you that I had four tickets and backstage passes for you to attend his concert next week?”
Your heart starts beating a little faster at the very thought. “I’d say are you for real?”—hoping very much that the answer is yes.
“I am,” she says, smiling broadly. Finally she extends her hand. “My name is Sarah Little and I’m one of Nick’s representatives. As you may have heard, he’s in New York right now promoting his new album, and we’ve arranged for him to do a surprise drop-in at the rink today to give one lucky fan these backstage passes.” She holds up a sealed envelope. “We used to have him pick the winner, but that has caused near riots in the past, so now we do it a little more quietly and just have him come in at the end for a brief photo op.”
You’re having trouble processing what Sarah is saying. You suddenly feel like you might be sleepwalking. “Uh … are you trying to tell me that you’re giving me these passes? And that I’ll be meeting Nick Jonas?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Sarah confirms, blinking a snowflake out of her long brown lashes. “Just make sure you don’t leave the ice. Nick will be here in a second, but we can’t stay long.”
OMG!!! This is the part where you freak out so much that Jimmy presses his hands over either side of his head to protect his eardrums from your high-pitched squeals of delight. You can’t even believe your luck! “Yes, yes,
YES!” you scream. And across the rink, you suddenly hear, “No, oh no, owww!”
Looking behind you, you see Mona sprawled out on the ice, grabbing her ankle. You may have been ignoring her, but Mona was still putting on quite a show for Paul, pulling out all the stops. It seems that her last camel spin was one too many and she went flying.
“Come on,” Jimmy urges you. “Let’s go pick her up and take her to get help. She’s going to need ice on that.” He starts heading over toward Mona, but turns back when he realizes you aren’t following him.
“Um, are you crazy?” you ask bluntly. “Didn’t you hear what Sarah said? Nick Jonas is going to be here any second. Nick Jonas. And I have to be here to accept those passes.”
Jimmy looks stunned. “But she could be really hurt.”
“Sorry, Jimmy,” you say, shaking your head. “But I … I don’t want to miss this.”
“Oh.” He blinks rapidly, as if he’s had something in his eye for hours and is just now seeing clearly. “I thought you were … Oh, never mind.” He shakes his head and turns back toward Mona, who is still planted on her behind, rubbing her ankle. Everything was great a few minutes ago, and you scored some dream tickets, which is good. So why does it suddenly feel so bad?
Will your issues with Mona never cease? So far she’s ordered you not to talk to Paul, taunted you on the ice, and somehow, without even trying, altered Jimmy’s opinion of you, making your Nick Jonas tickets win a little less sweet. But if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that it takes two to tango and it wasn’t all Mona’s fault. Right now she is legitimately hurt and you actually refused to help. It will take more than mere words to redeem yourself for that in Jimmy’s eyes and in your own. But how much are you really willing to sacrifice? You may think you know, but take the quiz to see if you’re right.
Your Life, but Sweeter Page 9