Mia the Magnificent (20 page)

Perfect. The rest of the world was falling in love while here I sat,
stuck in a wheelchair at a table with my little brother and ex-boyfriend. Life was so not fair.

“What are you doing, Tim?” Chris asked as he watched Alyssa and Nick sway together. “I can’t believe you let Cassie and Alyssa get away from you tonight. They’re both so hot.”

“It’s time I explained the facts of life to you,” Tim said.

“No way,” I said. “I’m not going to let you explain the facts of life to Chris. That’s what health class is for.”

“Relax, this is the G-rated version,” Tim said. Clearing his throat, he continued, “Chris, girls are like fish. Sometimes you need to throw one back so you can catch an even better one. If you’re a really good fisherman, like me, you can keep a lot of fish on your line and pick and choose which one you want. Look at all those fish swimming around up there. There’s Lisa, who’s like a sunfish. Cassie is a piranha. Alyssa’s a rainbow fish, and Zoë is definitely a starfish. Even though I’ve never tried a starfish, I’d sure like to. But how can I catch a starfish with a piranha on my line?”

“That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my entire life!” I said. “And besides being ridiculous, it’s also insulting. I am not a fish.”

“You’re right, you’re not a fish,” Tim said. “You’re a whale. You are my Moby Dick.”

“If that’s true,” I said, not the least bit flattered at being called a whale, “then that means you are Ahab. At the end of the book, doesn’t he die alone?”

“Details,” Tim muttered as Zoë’s band cranked it back up to a frenzied pitch. “Minor ones.”

Deciding not to pursue Tim’s inane analogy any further, I instead scanned the crowd. Nudging Chris, I pointed at the tall girl with brown hair and braces sitting next to Father Carlos. “Did you know that Gina was coming? She must be part of Father Carlos’s service group.”

“Oh, no,” Chris said, running his fingers through his hair. “What
should I do?”

“You should go over and apologize to her for being such a jerk,” I said. “I mean, Gina was your friend before she was a girlfriend. Friendships are important, and if you ever cared about her at all, you at least owe her an explanation of why you acted like you did.”

Chris turned toward Tim. “What do you think I should do?”

Staring at me with a weird look on his face, Tim said, “You know, do whatever you think is best, Chris. I’m officially out of advice.”

The Smelly Farts and Barf Bags ended their first onstage gig together playing one last blowout encore. With the last note still ringing in my ears, both bands jumped off the stage and surrounded our table.

“That was, like, better than all my favorite things rolled together in one big fat enchilada, dude,” Jake said, wiping the sweat from his face. “Like, it was Robo-Destroyer eating a Twinkie while jamming out to Van Halen. I’m so pumped there’s no way I can go to my crib and hang out with the ’rents. Who wants to shove down some ’za?”

“I would,” Zoë said. “But I told Eric I’d make sure Princess and her pea got home safely. Mind stopping by the Barbie Dream House first?”

“Any way you could drop me off, too?” Tim asked, sheepishly. “Mike already left with Lisa, and since I saw Alyssa leave with Nick, it kind of looks like I’ve just gotten dumped... again.”

As I leaned my head over the side of the bathtub, trying to scrub the black dye from my hair before my parents got home, Chris
walked into the bathroom and sat on the toilet.

“Jeez,” I said. As I turned toward him, a blob of dye fell in my eye. “Can’t you wait until I’m done?”

“Relax, I’m not that disgusting,” he said. “I’m here because I wanted to tell you something.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said, sticking my head back under the faucet. “What do you want to blackmail me for now?”

“Nothing.” Chris paused. “At least not yet. I wanted to say you were right.”

“Huh?” I said. “I must have shampoo in my ears, because I think I just heard you say I was right.”

“Don’t rub it in,” Chris mumbled. “I can still tell Mom and Dad about your belly button.”

“OK, so what was I right about?” I asked, watching the water in the tub turn to a dull gray as it ran through my hair.

“You were right about Tim being kind of messed up when it comes to girls,” he said. “Tonight, when I went over to talk to Gina, all I could think of was that I don’t want to be a fisherman. I want to be a regular guy who likes a regular girl without all the tricks and games. I want Gina to like me for who I am, not some person I made up. I don’t want to be like Tim when I get to high school. I want to be me.”

I turned off the faucet and sat up, letting the water roll down my face. “Are you being serious, or is this some kind of sick Halloween prank?”

“There’s that paranoia thing again!” Chris said. “Yes, I’m being completely serious. So, if you have some free time in the next few weeks, maybe you can help me come up with a way to get Gina back, without any tricks or schemes.”

I swallowed the enormous lump of pride in my throat and said, “Of course I’ll help you.”

“Oh, and by the way,” Chris said as he stood, “if you ever tell another living soul what I just said to you, I will hunt you down and
make you beg for mercy before I end your wretched existence on this planet.”

I shook my head as Chris left the room. This had to be the strangest Halloween night ever.

I’d just returned home from the doctor’s office with a brand new cast—it was a unanimous decision that the old one was ready for a toxic waste dump—when the doorbell rang. Using my newly acquired crutches, I hobbled to the door.

As soon as I opened it, Eric swooped me into his arms, and my crutches clattered to the floor. “Mia, you’ll never guess what happened!” he shouted, swinging me around.

“You won the lottery?” I said, clutching his shirt and praying I didn’t fall and end up back in a wheelchair.

“No! Better than that!” he said, depositing me safely onto the couch. “I got accepted into the New York High School of Music and Performing Arts!”

“You got accepted into where?”

“It’s a high school in New York for acting,” he said. “I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t think I had a chance of getting in— most kids start classes their freshman year and I couldn’t convince my parents to let me audition until this fall. But the school just told me they have an opening for me next semester. Isn’t that great?”

I put my hand to my head, trying to focus. “Wait,” I said, “you’re going to a high school where?”

“New York City! I got the call a half hour ago and I wanted you to be one of the first people I told. I still can’t believe it!”

“Let me get this straight. You’re going to high school in New York City starting next semester?”

Eric bounced around the room, too excited to sit. “Isn’t that crazy? This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me!”

“Wow,” I said, too stunned to take it all in. “Where will you live?”

“They have student housing for kids who don’t live in the city.” Eric grinned. “I’ll be living in New York City!”

“When will you come back?” I said.

“I don’t know. I might come home for the summer, or I might stay on and take more classes because I’ll be so far behind the other students.”

“So I won’t ever see you again?” I swallowed hard. Was it possible that Eric and I would never be able to start some kind of real relationship? I’d always assumed that eventually we’d start dating—if not now, then at least this summer.

Eric stopped bouncing. “Of course you’ll see me again—someday,” he said. “And we can write and call each other.”

“But if you’re not coming back this summer, and you’ll be gone next year, it could be years before I see you again,” I said, trying with all my might not to think how much I would miss him.

“I know it’ll be hard,” Eric said, “but this is the chance of a lifetime, Mia.”

“Of course it is,” I said, hoping I could hold back my tears until he left. But Eric and I had become really good friends over the summer, and now he was going away, just like that. “It just took me by surprise,” I said.

“You?” Eric grinned. “I thought I would keel over when they called and told me. But you want to know the craziest part?”

“Crazier than moving to New York City?”

“I think they decided to let me in because the director from
Jesus Christ Superstar
is the cousin of the head of admissions. He must have told the guy what a great job I did on Halloween. Filling in for that guy was my lucky break!” Eric said. “If you and Zoë hadn’t told me to go, none of this would’ve happened!”

“Then it’ll be our job to throw you a going-away party,” I said, pasting on a big smile to cover my near-tears. “I’ll call Zoë and maybe her band—”

“There’s no time for a party,” Eric said, pacing around the room.
“The next month is going to be jam-packed with trips to New York to register for classes, accelerated acting lessons, advanced singing lessons, and I have to pack—”

“So is that why you came over? To say goodbye?” I asked, my brave façade breaking down as my lip started to quiver.

“It’s not goodbye—it’s just so long for a while,” Eric said, finally settling down long enough to sit on the couch beside me. “Maybe you can come up and see me perform sometime, or we could get together when I come home.”

“Maybe,” I said as the teardrops slowly began to run down my cheeks. “But considering we barely saw each other when you lived in the same town as me, somehow I don’t think it’s going to work when we’re a thousand miles apart.”

“You know we’ll always be friends,” Eric said, brushing away the last of my tears.

“I know that.” I chucked him on the arm. “And I expect to be mentioned in your acceptance speech when you win your first Academy Award.”

“You’ll be the first one I thank.” Giving my hand one last squeeze, he said, “But I really should get going. I haven’t even told Zoë yet and I don’t want her finding out from someone else.”

“You’re right,” I said, making a mental note to call Zoë tonight. Though she would never admit it, she was going to be really upset when she found out Eric was moving away. She was definitely going to need a friend to talk to.

“I’ll miss you,” Eric said.

“Me, too,” I said, pushing him off the couch. “Now, get out of here, because there’s nothing I hate worse than a messy goodbye scene.”

Eric lifted my chin and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. “Mia, I hope you know just how truly magnificent you are.”