“Wouldn’t miss it,” Dad answered.
“If I don’t have time to talk to you during or after, don’t be offended. I’ll be super busy. I love you guys.” I smiled, grabbing my purse and keys.
“Have fun, sweetheart,” Mom called as I shut the door behind me.
The afternoon flew by. We only had three hours to get everything finished, and that was pushing it. It was a pain to be doing everything in my dress. I should have brought it with me and changed into it right before dinner. At least I’d had the forethought to shove my flip-flops in my purse. Setting up in a dress was bad enough, but doing it in stilettos would have been a nightmare.
Lilly’s job tonight was going to be organizing the auction dates. She was in charge of getting everyone on and off the stage in the right order. It’s the job I wanted to do, but I needed to be available to manage everything, so I didn’t have a specific assignment. I’d just float around to wherever I saw a need. Lilly rushed through the cafeteria doors at four o’clock, shouting apologies before I got the chance to chastise her. “Sorry! My parents suck. Obviously my commitments aren’t as important to them as the newest action thriller at the movie theater. I almost gave up on them and brought my brothers with me.”
“You’re fine.” I sighed. It wasn’t her fault she was late, and once I saw what she was wearing, I couldn’t be mad at her. She’d basically gone with the exact opposite of what I was in. Lilly had on a soft pink fluffy skirt that was really more of a tutu. She wore white leggings underneath and sparkly silver ballet flats. But it was her shirt that made the outfit. It was white like the leggings, with My Little Pony on the front. She’d wrapped her hair into two buns on either side of her head. “You look like you’re late for a performance at a children’s birthday party.” I laughed.
Lilly looked down at her outfit and grinned. “I know. It’s perfect, isn’t it?”
“Perfect for what?”
“For annoying Sophia. If I win the bid on Jake, I have to go up on the stage to accept my date certificate. She’ll flip out when she sees me.”
“Ooooh, that’s dirty. I like it.”
“I hope I have enough money.” Lilly frowned.
“Me too. If not, we’ll find a way to parade you in front of her.” I smiled conspiratorially. “Now, get to work. We’re running out of time.”
I set Lilly to her tasks and got lost in my work until people started trickling in and finding seats. I was taping down the wires from the DJ’s table to the outlet on the wall when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Jake grinning. “Hey, Jake,” I said. “You need to find Lilly and check in. She should be over on the side of the runway.”
“I need to talk to you about something.” Jake looked around and lowered his voice like he was getting ready to share a secret.
“Let me guess. You saw what she’s wearing, and now you want me to keep her from winning your date?” I joked.
“No.” He looked confused. “Wait, what’s she wearing?”
I dragged him around the corner of the stage so he could get a peek at her. Once he saw her, his eyes crinkled around the edges, and the corner of his mouth tipped up. “That’s perfect. It’ll piss Sophia off to no end. Plus, it’ll look even better with what I plan on wearing.” For the first time, I noticed that he had a garment bag slung over his shoulder.
I laughed. “That’s exactly what she said. Did you guys plan that?”
“Nope.” Jake grinned proudly. “I’m telling you, we think alike.”
“What are you planning on wearing?” I was curious now.
“You’ll see.” He grinned, raising his eyebrows up and down.
Jake doesn’t like Lilly my butt. “What did you need to talk to me about?”
“How much money does Lilly have to bid on me with? She is planning to bid on me, right?” Jake looked worried for a moment, his confidence faltering.
“As far as I know, she’s planning on it,” I confirmed, and his confidence raced back. “But I don’t know how much money she has to spend.”
“I want you to make sure she wins,” he stated. “Regardless of how much money she has, keep her bidding. If she runs out, I’ll make up the difference between what she has and the final total.”
I had to bite my cheek to contain my smile. “Are you rigging the auction, Jake?” I teased. His face flushed, but he tried to play it cool. “No.” He fumbled. “I heard some weird theater girls were going to bid on me, and I don’t want them to win.”
“Riiiight…” I said disbelievingly.
Jake rolled his eyes at me. “Just make sure she wins the bid,” he demanded, sounding flustered. I raised my eyebrow in question. “Fine. The squirt told me at dinner last night that she’s never been to Disney World. Who lives in Orlando metro and has never been to Disney World? It’s plain wrong. That’s where I plan on taking her for our date, but it won’t be much good if she doesn’t win.”
I grinned so big it made my cheeks hurt and saluted him. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
Jake turned for the stage but paused. “Oh, and Ivy? Don’t tell her I’m throwing down the extra money, ok?” His cheeks flushed again. “I don’t think she’d accept the donation.”
“Gotcha.” I winked, and he hurried off toward the other side of the stage. How stinking cute. If Lilly had any doubts about Jake liking her, they’d fly out the window once she realized what he’d done. I was staring across the room, watching Jake and Lilly talk when I heard someone clear his throat behind me. I froze in panic. If it was Andy, now was a really bad time for a confrontation. I swiveled around, prepared for the worst. It was only Rob. Which was just barely better than the worst.
“Has everyone checked in?” he asked.
“I think so. I was heading over to check in on them when I finished this.”
“We need to get dinner started. You need to find Mr. Matt and have him welcome everyone and explain how tonight will work,” Rob ordered, bossy as ever. I sighed inwardly. I guess regular Rob was back. I missed party Rob already.
“It’ll have to wait a minute. I still have a few more things to do,” I said. Rob huffed impatiently, which annoyed me because I was pretty sure he wasn’t doing anything important right now. “You could always go find him yourself,” I suggested, sounding more than sarcastic.
“Fine. I’ll do it,” he agreed haughtily and stomped off. I went back to taping, but a second later I felt someone standing behind me again.
“Rob, just go find him already. I don’t have time for this,” I complained, but when I realized it wasn’t Rob behind me this time, I cringed.
“I hope you aren’t expecting to walk away a winner tonight. Andy’s mine,” Sophia said, snotty as ever. “And don’t think that hobbit you call a best friend is going to get a date with my brother, either. I plan to make sure that doesn’t happen.” She smirked and walked off, not giving me a chance to respond.
What the heck? My life was getting annoyingly dramatic. At this rate, I’d end up in a catfight on a daytime TV show by next week. I finished with the wires and met Lilly at the other side of the stage. “I think Sophia has some kind of nefarious scheme worked up.”
Lilly frowned briefly, then shook it off. “Whatever. She’ll get what’s coming to her eventually. Karma sucks.”
I nodded my head in agreement. “Has everybody checked in?” I asked, scanning the room. Lilly bit her lip and shook her head. “Who are we missing?” I wondered aloud.
“We have everyone but Andy,” she answered, and winced.
My heart fell into my stomach. I knew this would happen. I was hoping it wouldn’t, but I’d had a sick feeling all morning, and this only confirmed it. Andy and I were through. He hated me enough to leave me hanging. And it was 100 percent my fault. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath through my nose.
Lilly placed her hand on my arm, and I opened my eyes. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll show up,” she whispered reassuringly.
“No, he won’t,” I whispered
back to her, fighting off tears. “I screwed up, and now I have to deal with the consequences.” I took another deep breath before slipping a mask of steel on my face. “The show must go on. We’ll make it work.” I slipped my all business facade in place. I couldn’t lose it now. Later, for sure, but not now.
I heard the microphone tapped a few times through the speakers, and Mr. Matt’s excited voice rang through the cafeteria. “Welcome, everyone, to this year’s senior class date auction.” The room was filled with clapping and cheers. “I’m Mr. Matt, and I’ll be your MC for the evening.” Our quirky guidance counselor continued to explain the program, and I completely tuned out.
“Do you have everything you need?” I asked Lilly before leaving to make sure dinner was being served adequately.
“Yep.” She nodded. “Seriously, Ivy. I have a feeling everything will be ok.”
“That makes one of us.” I smiled sadly and headed for the kitchen.
Half an hour later, all the dinners had been served, and people were happily stuffing their faces. It was time for the main event. I still hadn’t seen Andy show up, and at this point I truly believed he wouldn’t. Mr. Matt turned on the microphone again. “All right, ladies and gentlemen, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Time to spend some money!” he yelled dramatically, like the let’s get ready to rumble guy. The crowd erupted into cheers and whistles as the lights in the cafeteria dimmed and the lights on the stage popped on. “Get your bidding paddles ready, because first up on the docket is none other than your senior class president, Rob Emerson.”
A couple of girls in the audience screamed as Rob stepped on the runway. The music blasted, and the spotlight shone brightly on Rob. He started confidently down the runway, one hand in his pocket. He looked as casual and natural as he had at the dress rehearsal. Once he reached the end of the runway, he struck a pose that I’m sure was supposed to look sexy, and the music cut off. Girls were still screaming. Oh, brother.
“All right, ladies, calm down.” Mr. Matt grinned, and the crowd quieted some. “Our first date tonight is a man that needs no introduction. Honor student, varsity athlete, ladies’ man extraordinaire. Franklin High School’s own personal Adonis.”
I listened to Mr. Matt finish introducing Rob and wanted to gag. Who writes this stuff about themselves? Could his head be any bigger? Finally, it came time to bid. The standard was to open the bids at twenty-five dollars. We wanted everyone to feel like nobody was out of their reach. The bidding opened, and it didn’t take long for the total to climb high enough that people started dropping out. Around two hundred dollars, the bidding had come down to two different people. One of those people was a girl who’d hung out in Rob’s social group but wasn’t quite pretty enough to capture his attention, even though she threw herself at him constantly.
The other girl was actually two girls. I knew them from National Honor Society. It seems they’d pooled their money at the last minute. This was the reason I loved the auction. It was the great equalizer. Neither of these girls were the type that Rob would ever notice, much less date. But now they had a fighting chance at earning a whole day at sea with the most popular guy in school. For Rob’s date, he was going to take the winner out on his family’s sailboat for the day. Too bad I hated Rob so much. I’d been out on his boat, and it was super fun.
“Three hundred and twenty-five going once…going twice…and sold! To the lovely ladies over there.” Mr. Matt pointed in the direction of the two friends, and I smiled at their victory. “Come on up and claim your date voucher, girls.” He waved them up and they bounced to the stage, giggling and squealing. Rob put one arm around each of them and posed for a picture before leaving the stage. A few minutes later, he found me in the crowd and sat down.
“Pretty good start to the night, huh?” He grinned, no doubt pleased that he’d brought in a big chunk of money. “If this keeps up, we’ll make tons. I mean, I don’t expect everyone to fetch a price like that, but it should still be good.” I shook my head at his obliviousness to his own arrogance. Mr. Matt started with the next candidate.
“I haven’t seen Andy yet,” Rob pointed out. “Do you know where he is?”
“Nope,” was all I said.
“Huh. I knew he’d chicken out.” Rob shook his head. “Not that he was going to bring in that much money anyway. It’s ok, Ivy. Nine out of ten successful bids are better than I expected.”
My hackles raised, I ground my teeth. I already knew he thought I’d fail. But he didn’t have to be such a butt and say it. Even though I didn’t think Andy and I were dating anymore, I felt the need to defend him. “Andy’s likely hiding in fear for his life. Godzilla…I mean Sophia… You remember her, right? Your crazy ex-girlfriend. She’s been very explicit about the fact that she planned to win his bid. He’s probably halfway to Cuba by now.”
Rob’s jaw tightened, but he remained otherwise unaffected by my taunt. He wasn’t fooling me. I’d aggravated him, and that was good enough. He got up and walked away, leaving me to stew in my disappointment. Surprisingly, I wasn’t really that upset that Rob said he knew I’d screw up. For some reason, looking competent in Rob’s eyes didn’t matter as much to me anymore. Impressing Rob seemed silly when I thought about what my failure meant. It meant losing Andy.
Dates number two and three each brought in two hundred dollars, which was about the price of the average date. Date number four brought in two hundred and forty-three. It was a random number, but the girls bidding on him were battling it out to the last cent. You could see them scraping together money from the people around their tables each time the bid went higher. It was extremely comical and made for great entertainment. The winning bidder stood on her chair and took a bow before coming on the stage to accept her voucher and get her picture taken.
It was finally Jake’s turn to walk the runway, and I got excited on Lilly’s behalf. I watched as she pushed him up on stage, then hurried over to sit by me on the end of the second row. The spotlight hit Jake, and the entire cafeteria erupted in laughter. He was wearing tight black leather pants and a hot pink mesh tank top. His outfit was complete with neon sunglasses and a pair of high top sneakers that were puffy enough to look like moon boots. “I’m too Sexy” blared through the speakers, and he reenacted his disco moves from earlier this week.
Lilly groaned and put her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to empty my bank account on him.”
“He’s a showman.” I laughed. “He’s giving the crowd what they want.”
Jake made it to the end of the runway and did his little spin. He didn’t point at Lilly this time, but he shot her a quick grin. She rolled her eyes and shook her head in response. Some girl in the back yelled out, “Yeah, baby, shake it!” and Jake wiggled his butt, sending the crowd into more fits of laughter. It was all Mr. Matt could do to quiet the audience down.
“All right, people, don’t you want to hear what you’re bidding on?” The crowd whooped, and he continued. “This stud muffin is Jake Hill, obviously a man of taste.” Mr. Matt motioned to Jake’s outfit, then looked down at the paper and read ahead, smirking. “Jake’s hobbies include going to the disco, flexing in front of the mirror, and kissing his hand before bed each night.” Jake’s eyes went wide, and Lilly giggled. He narrowed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her. Mr. Matt continued, “He also enjoys long, romantic walks on the beach and poetry about cats.”
I leaned over and whispered through the side of my mouth. “I take it he didn’t write his own bio?”
Lilly smirked. “I might have taken some liberties and made a few changes to it while I was writing Andy’s.”
“You are so naughty. You know he’ll retaliate for this, right?”
“I’m sure he will. But the look on his face was worth it.”
“And let’s talk about his date for a minute,” the MC continued. “This might be a first in auction history, but Jake is offering a two-day date at the magical land of Disney World.” The crowd mu
rmured with excitement. Lilly gasped, mouth falling open when she realized that he’d picked the location with her in mind.
“Oh my gosh,” she breathed, cheeks turning pink.
“Ok, ladies. Let’s start the bidding at twenty-five dollars.” Hands shot up around the room as Jake stood at the end of the runway, making a big show of flexing his muscles. The bid had made it up to seventy-five dollars, but Lilly hadn’t used her paddle yet. I got nervous that she wasn’t going to.
“Aren’t you going to bid?” I nudged her. “What are you waiting for?”
“I only have a hundred and fifty dollars,” she answered with a pout. “There’s no way I’ll win his date on that. Sophia’s little minion is bidding on him, too.”
I looked to where Sophia was sitting, whispering with her friend Tiffany while sending us dirty looks. Oh no, she didn’t. Little did she know, I had a secret weapon.
“Do I hear a hundred dollars?” Mr. Matt asked.
I grabbed Lilly’s hand and flung her paddle in the air. “Over here!” I yelled.
“What are you doing?” Lilly hissed.
I looked up at Jake and saw a look of relief on his face. “Trust me,” I insisted.
The battle that ensued was one for the record books. Tiffany hit the one-fifty mark first, and Lilly’s shoulders slumped in defeat. I grabbed her paddle hand again and threw it up. “One seventy-five.”
“Stop!” Lilly yelled at me. “I’m out of money.”
“Two hundred,” Tiffany countered.
“Two twenty-five!” I yelled on Lilly’s behalf.
“Are you crazy?” she shrieked at me.
“Three hundred.” Tiffany jumped the bid by a lot, and I winced.
“Three twenty-five.” I cut a glance at Lilly.
“Oh my gosh, Ivy, I’m going to kill you!”
Tiffany paused for a moment and looked at Sophia, worried. After a second of prodding, Tiffany yelled out, “Three fifty!” This was taking too long. Lilly was going to lose it, right after she murdered me.
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