The Oracle Rebounds (18 page)

My friends are chatting it up as usual. Evgeney is with us, too, having rolled up his sleeves to tan his pale, freckled arms.

As for Amy, she’s getting less emo every day. She’s no longer glancing over her shoulder constantly for a Chad sighting and breaking down when she spots him.

“Thank God we’ll be seniors next year,” Sharese says between bites of salad. “The junior thing is old.”

“Soon we’ll be off to college, maybe going our separate ways,” Viv says.

“That’s not for another year,” Ryan points out, “and, hello, we’ll be texting and emailing each other so much that we won’t get any work done.”

“Good point,” Viv says. “I’ll have to block you so I can study.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I might have to.” Viv laughs.

I glance at my watch. “It’s almost time, guys.” I stuff the remains of my lunch into the paper bag.

“Time for what?” They all want to know.

“I’m not telling.”

“She obviously arranged for someone from the yearbook club to take a picture of us,” Ryan says. “Why else would she have told us to look good?”

“Don’t we always look good?” Amy asks. “What’s special about today?”

“You’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I have an extra brush and mirror if anyone wants to put on the finishing touches.”

Making a joke of it, my friends scramble to pretty themselves up, mockingly grabbing the mirror from each other. Evgeney, serious as ever, takes out a little mirror and runs a comb through his hair. Jared doesn’t spare his appearance a second glance, but I insist on patting his hair down a little. The wind isn’t helping.

Soon a black hatchback pulls up in front of the lawn. A guy with a camera gets out and looks around.

I run over to him. “Hi, I’m Kayla. You’re Paolo?”

“Yep. Great day, isn’t it? We can shoot you and your friends right here on the lawn. I assume that’s the group over there?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice spot with the trees behind you. Let me get set up. It won’t take long.”

I hurry back to my friends. “The photographer is here. He’s from
Seventeen
magazine.”

My friends gawk at me.

I grin. “It turns out
Seventeen
is doing an article on young entrepreneurs, and they’d like to do a profile on the Oracle of Dating. I told them my friends inspired me and asked if she could use a picture of the group of us.”

Amy starts to hyperventilate, but Sharese talks her through it, assuring her she wore the perfect outfit. Ryan and Viv battle over the brush, but Evgeney intervenes by handing Ryan his comb.

Paolo watches us with amusement as he’s setting up his equipment. He places me in the center of the group and says he wants us to lounge on the grass like we’re chilling.

“How are we supposed to chill when we’re going to be in a national magazine?” Amy demands.

After taking a couple of practice shots, Paolo adjusts the camera and looks through the lens. “Perfect! You guys look fantastic. I want to see huge smiles, people! Say
world famous!
”

“World famous!” we say together.

Snap, snap, snap. Paolo keeps shouting encouragement, occasionally telling us to shift position. It’s not hard for me to keep my smile in place, because at this moment I’m really,
truly happy. I’ve got great friends around me and a boyfriend I love.

I’m tempted to call it a fairy-tale ending, but the Oracle knows there’s always more to the story. And senior year promises to be full of surprises…