Perfect You (3 page)

Then my mom saw her mom at the supermarket a couple of days before school started, and I found out Anna had come home. I called her right away.

"You didn't tell me you were back! How come you didn't call me when you got home?"

"Kate, I've been home for two days and I've slept the whole time. My aunt made me get up at six every morning. How crazy is that?"

We made plans to meet at her house that night. I didn't recognize her when she opened the door. She was tan, and her hair was longer and dyed the color of corn silk, so pale it was almost white. Her glasses were gone, and her braces had come off. She also weighed about seventy pounds less than when she'd left.

"Wow, you look different," I said. She did. She looked like a model.

I was a little jealous. Okay, a lot jealous.

"I know," she said, and when she grinned at me I didn't even recognize her smile. It looked brighter and shinier somehow, different.

I should have guessed what was coming. Girls who looked like Anna didn't hang out with girls who looked like me. It's one of those laws of high school no one talks about but everyone knows. But she was my best friend, and she said she'd missed me, and when she talked about Maine she sounded just like she always had. ("So cold! But the ocean was gorgeous, Kate. I even went swimming a couple of times. Almost died from the cold, but I did it!")

That was the last time we talked. She didn't call me the night before school started to discuss what we should wear, and when I got to school she wasn't waiting outside for me like she always did. She wasn't in any of my classes or my lunch block, and whenever I saw her in the hall she was always walking away from me.

It was weird, and by the time she didn't show up for choir practice I knew something was wrong. I called her that night and her mother said she couldn't come to the phone.

"Is she sick?" I asked, and Anna's mother just said, "I'll tell her you called."

When Anna didn't talk to me again the next day, and didn't even seem to notice me when I waved at her, I figured she was mad at me. She didn't get mad often, but when she did she got really mad. I knew I should have called her more over the summer. I should have e-mailed more. I should have told her she looked amazing instead of being jealous and stupid and only saying she looked "different." I should have called her the night before school started instead of waiting for her to call me.

I knew I needed to say I was sorry and make things right, so the next day I went to the bathroom by the cafeteria before last period. Anna always went in there to check her hair and makeup.

She was there when I walked in, standing in front of the mirror like always, and I grinned at her reflection. "Hey."

Next to Anna, Diane Mullins was putting on lip gloss. She glanced at me in the mirror like I was some sort of weird bug and then turned toward Anna, dismissing me. "What do you think? Is this too red?"

Anna didn't say anything to me. She just looked at me in the mirror like she'd never seen me before, and then she turned to Diane and said, "It's perfect." That's when I finally understood what was going on. Anna hadn't stopped talking to me because she was mad at me. Anna had stopped talking to me because I was still me and she'd become someone else. She'd become somebody.

She wasn't my best friend anymore. She wasn't even my friend.

But I wanted her to be.

I wanted our friendship back. I wanted it enough to keep hoping even though I hated myself for it. I hated how she made me wish we could go back to the way things were.

I hated how I knew, deep down, that I would do anything to be her friend again.

When school ended, I walked out to Dad's car, but

Dad wasn't in it.

"Todd, what are you doing here?"

"Hi to you too," he said, and motioned for me to get in. I did.

"Where's Dad?"

"At the mall. I said I'd pick you up."

"Why?"

Todd was silent for a second, acting like he was concentrating on pulling out of the parking lot. "Just felt like it."

"Sure you did. What are you avoiding?"

"Handing out flyers inviting people to the house for a Perfect You party tonight."

"That's not funny, Todd." He glanced over at me, and then back at the road. "I'm not kidding. Dad's so-called project is a Perfect You house party. He stayed up last night reading about a woman who had one and made a ton of money."

"And so now he's inviting random people over to the house?"

"Oh no, it's better than that. He's called everyone he used to work with and then decided hey, why not invite total strangers, too? It seems a little--"

"Weird? Stupid? Insane?"

"All of them, which is why I'm going to see my friend Andy for a few days. You'll have to work by yourself tonight, but I'll leave a note for Mom to come pick you up, okay?" He dug around in the front pocket of his jeans, and the car swung into the other lane for a second.

"Todd!"

"Kate!" he replied, mocking me, and tossed a ten-dollar bill into my lap. "That's for food.

I know I'm supposed to take you home so you can do whatever it is you do before work, but I want to get to Andy's place."

"You're kidding, right?"

He sighed. "Kate, I'm sorry you can't leave too, all right? Just go get something to eat and then show up at your regular time. Dad had me make flyers for the party, but I didn't make as many as he wanted, and when you get there he'll probably have handed them all out. So at least you won't have to worry about that." He gave me one of his aren't-I-great smiles, and pulled into the mall parking lot.

"That's really nice of you," I said tightly, getting out of the car. I wished I could run away like Todd. "Hey," he said, and I turned back toward him.

"What?"

"Tell Dad I'm going to Andy's, will you? I forgot to mention it to him before."

I glared at him, because we both knew he hadn't forgotten. He just hadn't wanted to deal with Dad when he got upset. Neither of us did.

And sure enough, when I got to the booth after hanging around the food court for a while, the first thing Dad said was, "Where's Todd?"

I took a deep breath. "He's gone to see Andy."

"When? Wait, now?"

I nodded.

"Did he at least clean up the house while you were getting ready for work like he said he would?"

Todd hadn't even mentioned that request to me. Not that it was a surprise.

"He didn't--" I started to say, but Dad was looking at me with the big fake grin he wore when he was upset, so I just said, "He didn't do any cleaning when I was with him."

"Oh. Well, that's . . ." Dad sighed, still smiling his big fake smile. Then it got brighter, became a little more real. "Hey, I have an idea. What if I drive you home real fast right now? Then you can clean and have your mother bring you back to work until closing when she gets home."

Oh no. No no no. Dad was not sticking me with getting the house ready for his stupid party. I grabbed some of the sample bags he'd put out for today, Perfect You's Awesome Kids! Chocolate Chew Vitamins, and walked off, heading toward the main mall hallway.

Dad didn't call after me or anything, of course. He would do anything to avoid an argument, just smiled that stupid fake smile whenever he was upset and acted like everything was fine until it was. When Mom got upset over his plan to quit his job for Perfect You, Dad had fake smiled for days until she'd given in.

Still, I couldn't believe he wanted me to go home and clean the house. It was his party, not mine, just like the whole Perfect You thing was supposed to be his dream job and not my forced after-school employment.

But then, avoiding things he didn't want to do was Dad's specialty. Whenever he didn't like something or didn't want to do it, he just wouldn't do it. And if you got upset, he'd just smile and say he was sorry and still not do it.

I sighed, totally frustrated, and turned the corner into the main part of the mall. As I did, I felt something slam into my legs. I looked down and saw it was a little kid. He was staring up at me, mouth open, clearly ready to scream or cry or both.

Then he saw the Chocolate Chews in my hand and yelled, "Is that candy? I want some!"

"Derek, please wait a moment," a woman said, walking quickly toward me, weighed down by shopping bags. I waited for her to say something else to the kid (like "Please don't yell") but instead she noticed me--and the Chocolate Chews--and her eyes brightened when I said, "Would you like a free sample?"

"Yes," she said, as Derek tried to grab one of the bags out of my hand, yelling his head off the whole time. "But only one piece, though. I don't like Derek to have too much candy."

"It's actually kids' vitamins."

"Oh, then it's healthy," the woman said, beaming. "Can he have the whole bag?"

"Sure, but there's only one vitamin in it," I said, a little taken aback by her and Derek, but opened the bag and gave the chew to Derek before passing it on to her.

Derek, I was pleased to note, had stopped yelling and was now grinning at me around a mouthful of Perfect You vitamin. It was probably the closest thing to a miracle I'd ever seen.

Derek's mom clearly thought so too because she said, "What's in these?" just as Will, of all people, came in through one of the mall corridor doors and Derek finished chewing, swallowed, and motioned for me to lean toward him.

Distracted by the sight of Will, I did, and Derek yelled, "More!" spraying Chocolate Chew on my face.

"Hey, Kate, what's up?" Will said. He was wearing a Sports Shack uniform and a name tag that said my name is trainee.

Great. Just great. Of course I would see Will now. At least he didn't know where I worked.

I stood up and wiped my face off with the back of one hand, glaring at him.

"Go away," I muttered, as Derek screamed, "I WANT MORE CANDY NOW!"

"Is your store nearby?" Derek's mom said, as if her demon spawn hadn't just screamed at the top of his lungs. "Oh, wait. Is this bag right? Are these made by Perfect You? Don't they run those horrible infomercials?" "I've never seen one," I said, which was technically true, because I left the room whenever Dad started watching one.

"Wait, you work at the Perfect You store?" Will said, and from the look on his face I could tell he'd already heard all about the vitamin guy who dressed up like a bee. And who'd hung around Sports Shack trying to hand out free samples until the manager made him leave.

"I do," I said, hoping I didn't sound as humiliated as I felt, and gave him a go-away-and-drop-dead look just as Derek yelled, "MORE!" one last time and then started to cry.

"Your mommy can buy you lots more if she wants," I told him. I knew it was a completely manipulative thing to say, but we needed the sale and besides, the kid had spit on me.

"Mommy," Derek said, voice quivering, and his mother said, "All right, we'll get some,"

shooting me a look as she motioned for me to start walking.

As I led them back to the booth, watching out for both Derek and his mother's shopping bags, Will said, "Later, Kate," and I heard laughter in his voice. I didn't know if it was at me or for the situation he'd seen me stuck in.

Knowing him, it was probably both. I looked back over my shoulder and glared at him again. He waved.

Jerk.

"I'm sorry if we chased that boy off," Derek's mother said as I bagged the box of chews she'd bought. "He was yummy looking."

Ewww. No one needed to hear someone that old say something like that, especially when my father was around and could say things like, "Who's yummy looking?" "No one," I said, before he or anyone else could say another word. "I just ran into someone I know from school." I handed Derek's mom her Perfect You bag and credit card slip and tried not to glare as I said, "Have a nice day."

"So, this yummy guy," Dad said as soon as she'd left. "Do I know him? Is he an athlete?"

"Dad, please don't say yummy like that. And who cares if he plays sports?"

"Perfect You says sponsoring a local athlete is a great way to build buzz."

Unbelievable. Not that I wanted Dad to be interested in my nonexistent love life or anything, but did everything have to be about Perfect You? "Yes, Dad, he's an athlete.

He runs triathlons and climbs mountains and is a professional ice carver. I'm sure he'd love to do it all covered with Perfect You ads."

He gave me a bright, fake smile and didn't say anything. Why couldn't he just get mad like a normal person? Why? I forced myself to take a deep breath. "Look, here's what happened. I ran into someone I go to school with and he found out I work here and--

well, I'm going to get so much crap at school tomorrow I should just quit now."

"Why would anyone care that you work here?"

"Because I work selling overpriced vitamins with a guy who dresses up in insane costumes. Oh, and the guy in question happens to be my father. Can you see where that might cause problems, Dad?"

He turned away from me for a second, fiddling with a display he'd set up. When he looked back, he was still smiling his big fake grin, and when he spoke it was clear he was pretending our conversation hadn't happened. "I'm going to head home and get ready for the party now. I'll have Mom pick you up when the mall closes."

"Dad--"

He kissed my cheek and walked off before I could say anything else.

Unlike him, I didn't have the option of walking away, and had to stay in the booth all night. That made me mad, but then I thought about how upset Dad had been and felt sort of guilty, which then made me mad again because I hadn't done anything wrong.

He was the one who'd wanted me to do everything for his stupid party.

And, on top of everything else, I had to worry about what Will was going to tell people.

I was thoroughly depressed by closing, but then Mom came in as I was shutting down the register.

"Hey," I said, glad to see her.

"Hi, Kate." She looked exhausted, and my stomach knotted.

"Is Dad still having his party?"

"No." Her voice was brittle, unhappy. This couldn't be good.

"What happened?"