Will the Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up (8 page)

My parents were in the garage, surrounded by giant red and green boxes, when Ally’s mom dropped me off the next day. Mom was moving the boxes, arranging them according to which decorations went into what room, and Dad was wisely standing back, observing.

“Seriously, you guys?” I said, surveying their work. “Can we please get through Thanksgiving first?”

“I don’t see the porch tree here, Mike,” my mom said, ignoring me. “Are you sure you took everything down?”

“I took everything that had
Christmas
on it,” Dad replied. When she glared at him, he groaned and headed back up the ladder leading into the small storage attic above our garage. “I’ll look again.”

“Hi, sweetie!” she greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. “How was the party?”

I shrugged. “It was fine.”

“Brady said you changed your mind about sleeping over?”

“I found it, Julia!” my dad called. “It was behind a Christmas village box.”

“I knew you didn’t bring down everything!” she yelled.

A box scratched against the wood floor. “I’ll bring down the tree,” he said between grunts. “Do you want your village, too?”

Mom stood at the base of the ladder and looked up. “Which pieces are in the box? Can you tell?”

“The label says
Christmas village,
Julia. Do you want it or not? It’s heavy.”

“Sure,” she replied. “You can always put it back up if we don’t use it.”

My dad grumbled, and I ducked out of the garage before my mom recruited me to help decorate the house. I wasn’t surprised to see them getting out the Christmas decorations. It happened every year after the Katzes’ Halloween party. While Ally’s parents were busy clearing away remnants of Spooksville, my mom was at work transforming our house into a winter wonderland.

When I walked into the house, Brady was sitting at the breakfast table in the kitchen, completely absorbed in something on his laptop.

“Wow! Are you actually doing homework?” I teased. Brady had a solid GPA, but I rarely saw him studying. It was like he absorbed things through osmosis.

He glanced up at me. “College applications,” he answered. “Mom said she expects me to have them done before Thanksgiving.”

“That’s plenty of time, isn’t it?” I sat down across from him and could barely see the top of his head over the screen.

He grunted. “I have to write essays,” he said, his mouth curving into a frown.

I smiled. My brother was terrified of putting his thoughts down on paper. Mom blamed Mrs. Connelly, his third-grade teacher, for not encouraging him and building his confidence. Personally, I thought it was good there was something he thought he failed at, just so it kept his overinflated ego in check.

“How many essays? Like, one per college?”

“No, no, no,” Brady replied, sounding relieved. “There are a bunch of schools that share applications. So, like, I can apply to Stanford and Duke and a ton more with one application, and then I’ll have to do a separate one for UCLA and Berkeley.”

“So, how many schools are you applying to?” I asked. He shoved a thick, dog-eared tome toward me, its spine heavily creased. There must have been about fifteen slips of paper sticking out from the top of the book. “All of these?”

He shrugged. “Maybe not all. But most of them.”

As I flipped through the college guide, I listened to the uneven rhythm of his fingers tapping against the keyboard, and the realization that my big brother was going off to college next fall fully hit me. I wasn’t going to be “Brady’s little sister” anymore, and he wouldn’t be stealing lunch off my tray almost every day. He wasn’t going to be around next year.

“So why’d you change your mind?” Brady asked, still staring at the screen as he typed.

“What?”

He didn’t bother to stop or look up. “Sleeping over. I figured you would, but I thought you said your perfect boyfriend didn’t want to leave by himself.”

I shrugged. “Ally and Talia and I were all talking about stuff and I was, you know, thinking it wouldn’t be the same to not sleep over,” I lied. “So I told Dante it was super important to me.”

He peered over the top of his screen. “And that was enough?” he said, studying me.

I blinked but didn’t flinch. “Mmm-hmm,” I said, holding his gaze. “So he got a ride to a couple of other parties with Zack, I think, so I could stay. We didn’t want to bother you.”

“He left early?”

“He said he was kind of bored.”

Brady watched me for a few moments, and I fought the urge to fidget. “You can still do better,” he finally grunted before returning his attention to his computer.

I quickly grabbed my bag and dashed upstairs to my room.

My phone had been buzzing all morning with texts from Dante. I fished it out of my bag and had just started scrolling through his messages when it buzzed, showing his picture on the caller ID. I braced myself before I answered the call.

“Hi,” I said into the phone.

“Hey. I wasn’t expecting you to pick up.”

I nodded, though I knew he couldn’t see me. “I got home a little bit ago.”

“Oh.” There was a trace of disappointment in his voice. “You spent the night at Ally’s?”

“What do you want, Dante?” I asked, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

“Can we talk?”

“I guess.” I flopped onto my bed.

He was silent for a moment. “I feel so sick about last night,” he said at last. “I don’t even know what happened. I shouldn’t have slapped you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” I agreed as I sat up and leaned against my headboard.

“I am so sorry, baby.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“What?”

“‘Baby.’ I don’t like it.”

“Oh. Um, sorry.”

“Whatevs.”

“No, I’m really sorry, Bianca. I don’t know what happened last night.”

“Do you really want me to remind you?”

“No. I just....” He sighed. “I’ve been a mess since last night. I couldn’t sleep. I can’t believe what I did.”

I bit my lip and considered his words. He sounded so contrite and sincere.

“Bianca, are you still there?”

“I’m here,” I said.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he said. “I was jealous, and I did something really stupid, and I totally understand if you can’t forgive me.”

“You were jealous?” I asked, surprised. “Of what?”

“Of that Tim guy, of all your friends.” He seemed sort of melancholy. “It’s like you like all of them better than me.”

I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them. “Dante, I don’t like them better than you,” I promised. “But it’s different. I mean, I’ve known them longer. Like, Talia’s been my best friend since we were six, you know?”

“I guess.” He was quiet for a few seconds then asked, “But what about that Tim guy?”

“What about him? I’ve known him since I was, like, four.”

“You two seem really close.”

“Because he’s known me since I was four,” I repeated. “Come on, Dante. He’s Brady’s best friend. He’s practically family.”

“He doesn’t act like it,” he said. “I’ve seen how he looks at you, and I’ve noticed you don’t exactly look at him like he’s family.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know what I’ve seen.”

Dante had admitted to being jealous, but I was starting to think he was delusional, too. “Would you please drop this?”

He let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry,” he said at last. “I don’t want to lose you, Bianca. I mean, I really, really like you.”

I twirled a lock of hair in my fingers and studied the ends. “I really like you, too.”

“You do?” There was so much hope in the way he said those two words, and I could almost picture his hazel eyes peering into mine, changing colors like kaleidoscopes.

“Of course I do.”

“So you’re not still mad at me?”

I carefully considered that question. Was I still mad at him? No, not really. I mean, it sounded like he seriously beat himself up over slapping me. And in fairness, my snark probably set him off. I didn’t think he meant to hit me, but I also didn’t want him to think I was okay with it.

“I’m not mad,” I said at last, “but I don’t want you to hit me again.”

“I told you I was sorry,” he said.

“I know,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. “But I’m serious, Dante. I’m not cool with what you did last night.”

“I understand.”

“And I don’t want to have to choose between you and my friends. Just give them a chance. They’re awesome people.”

He inhaled sharply before he said, “Okay. Since it’s that important to you, I’ll try.”

“I really hope you will,” I said, “because I do like you.”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and I thought the call may have dropped until I heard him ask, “So, do I need to hide from your brother? Is he going to beat me up at school tomorrow or something?”

“Doubtful,” I replied, shaking my head. “I asked everyone not to tell him.”

Dante seemed to breathe a sigh of relief before he said, “Thanks. I’m not gonna lie. I’m kind of scared of him.”

I smiled. “Yeah? You should be.”

****

After I got off the phone with Dante, I called Talia and Ally and relayed our entire conversation. When I told them we were back together, neither of them was overly thrilled. Even Ally, who I kind of expected to be happy that The Slap was all a big misunderstanding, was subdued.

I may have forgiven Dante, but it sure seemed like it would take a lot more than an apology to win over my friends.

Despite the ample notice I’d given her, Talia didn’t look pleased Monday morning. I saw her waiting with Ally and Dante near the senior lot when Brady pulled into his spot. She hadn’t been excited about the news when I’d told her over the phone; she seemed even far less enthused seeing me with Dante in person.

“Hey,” I said, greeting him with a hug and a kiss as I ignored Talia’s glare.

He smiled down at me. “Do you want your surprise?”

I clasped my hands together and hopped from foot to foot. “Yes!” He’d told me on the phone the previous night that he would bring me something special, and I couldn’t wait to see what it was.

Dante reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small white box. From the corner of my eye, I could see my friends’ pinched expressions as they watched us.

“What is it?” I pried off the top of the box and peered inside to find a silver heart-shaped locket on a long chain. “Oh, Dante, this is beautiful.”

“Do you like it?” he asked when I pulled it out. “Here, let me put it on you.”

I nodded and lifted my hair as I turned my back to him. I looked at my friends. Talia’s arms were crossed, and Ally was watching us with an uncharacteristically neutral expression. I turned my attention back to my new necklace and fingered the twin hearts etched on the surface.

“It’s beautiful,” I repeated, smiling up at him.

“And it opens up, too.” He fiddled with the locket until he opened it to reveal a tiny picture of himself.

I squealed and threw my arms around him. “I love it,” I said against his mouth before I kissed him.

The first bell rang, and Talia cleared her throat. “Are you coming?” she asked as she and Ally started for homeroom.

“Thank you for my necklace,” I said to Dante as I picked up my backpack. “Will I see you at lunch?”

“Of course,” he said with a kiss on my nose before I turned and ran to catch up with my friends.

“I can’t believe you took that jerk back,” Talia said after we’d walked in silence for a while.

“I told you,” I replied. “He was physically ill over what happened at the party. He’s really sorry.”

“Yeah? Well, you should send Brady and Tim after him. Then he’ll really know what it means to be sorry.”

“He wouldn’t have given me this if he wasn’t really sorry, Talia.”

“What? That dog collar?” she said with a nod toward my necklace.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s lovely,” she said as we walked into the classroom. “Don’t get me wrong. But that’s nothing more than a collar. Did he give you a leash, too?”

I took my seat in front of hers. “How can you be so mean?”

“I’m calling it like I see it,” she said, not looking at me. “He probably even put his picture in the locket, too, right?” She snorted. “It might as well be an ID tag.”

“Leave her alone, Talia,” Ally said, sliding into the seat beside me. “I’m not über thrilled with this, either, but I think Bianca knows what she’s doing.” She looked squarely at me. “Right?”

I nodded. “He promised it won’t happen again.”

“Until next time,” Talia scoffed.

“There won’t be a ‘next time,’” I said.

“There’s always a next time.”

Talia was starting to annoy me. My friends were usually supportive, but at the moment, I was on the defensive. It was like they didn’t trust my decisions or something.

“Well,
if
it happens again,” I said, not bothering to hide the snark in my tone, “then I promise I’ll tell Brady everything and let my brother have at him.” I straightened in my seat and faced the front of the room saying, “But that won’t be necessary because it’s not going to happen.”

Talia poked the back of my neck. “You have a lot more faith in him than I do.”

November was always a busy month for Brady, even without worrying about college applications. He was still wrapping up football season, he had basketball try-outs to sit through, and this year, he’d agreed to help his girlfriend Kira organize Westgate’s annual food drive. So he wasn’t all that stoked when Mom told him he needed to take me to drama auditions, too.

“They’ll probably overlap with your schedule, anyway,” she said over dinner. “It’s not like you have to sit in the auditorium the whole time.”

“They never overlap, Mom,” he complained.” The first week of auditions go until, like, nine. And then callbacks the next week run even later.”

“Then you can do homework or work on your college essays while you wait for her,” Mom said. Brady knew better than to argue with her once she’d made her final decision, but he was pushing it.

“Can’t you get a ride from someone else?” he asked me, whining.

“Maybe, but Ally hasn’t told me yet if she’s trying out or not,” I replied. “You know how she is. It’ll depend on what Riley announces.”

“And they both may not get called at the same time,” Mom reminded him. “Plus, I hate imposing on Evelyn’s goodwill every time your sister has an audition,” she said, referring to Ally’s mom. She looked at my brother and added, “It would be a big help if you’d bring her home after auditions, Brady.”

I tried not to snicker. When Mom said that we’d be helping her by doing something, it kind of eliminated any chance of getting out of it, whatever it was.

“I don’t know why you want to be part of that club so much,” my brother scoffed, stabbing his asparagus.

I didn’t bother to respond. He was annoyed because he hated being my chauffeur. Brady knew Westgate Prep had an amazing drama program. Some kids went to the school specifically to work with Mrs. Riley, the director — that’s how impressive her reputation was. And it wasn’t only actors and dancers who wanted to work with her, either. She recruited the best students taking art electives to be costume and set designers, and she oversaw the AV Club, too.

Mrs. Riley directed one major production each semester, plus another smaller show every quarter. I’d auditioned for every show since I started at Westgate, and I had only been cast as Dinah Lord in last year’s production of
The Philadelphia Story
. It was an intense eight weeks working with her, and I had no idea how I’d managed to keep my grades up. I’d been bummed I hadn’t been picked to be in any of the fall shows, but I was determined to be in the spring musical, whatever it would be.

The next morning, while Brady was pulling into the parking lot, I got a text from Ally.

CHICAGO
, it read.

I gasped, and Brady looked over at me, concerned. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I said as I texted her back.
Shut up!

“Ally or Talia?” he asked. “Or Dante?”

I grimaced at the way he said his name. We had officially been together for almost a month, and Brady still didn’t approve of him. “It’s Ally,” I replied. “Riley posted the spring musical.”

“And she couldn’t wait thirty more seconds to tell you?” he asked, pulling into his parking spot where Ally was waiting for us.

“No way!” I greeted her as soon as I got out of the car.

“I know!” she shrieked.

“Are you sure?”

She bobbed her head. “Absolutely. It’ll be in the AM announcements.”

“No way,” I said again. We both looked at each other and screamed in unison.

Tim sidled up to my brother and watched us. “That is precisely why I will never understand girls.”

I smiled at him. “Hey!”

“Hey, yourself,” he said, hooking his thumbs into the front pockets of his khakis. “What’s with the hysterics?”

“
Chicago
,” Ally gushed, as if that single word said it all.

“Are you moving?”

“Riley’s announcing the musical today,” I explained, ignoring Ally’s scowl. “Rumor has it it’s going to be
Chicago
.”

“Isn’t that the movie with, like, Renee Zellweger dancing around in her underwear?” he asked.

“It’s a period piece,” Ally retorted, “based on actual criminals and crimes of the 1920s.”

“So in a word, yes,” I said. “Auditions are next week.”

Ally and I glanced at each other and screamed again.

Tim glanced at my brother, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Well, break a leg, you guys,” he finally said. “I’m sure at least one of you will make it.”

Brady grimaced. “Easy for you to be supportive. I’m going to be driving her everywhere unless they both get in.”

“Get in what?” Dante asked, coming up behind me and putting his arms around my waist.

“Hi!” I said, giving him a quick kiss. “We were telling Tim that Riley’s probably going to announce
Chicago
as the spring musical.”

He frowned. “I didn’t know you were in Drama,” he said.

“There’s probably a lot about her you don’t know,” Brady said. I glared at him, but he wasn’t looking at me.

Tim cleared his throat. “Hey, Katz, sorry to bug you, but can I get you to listen to Betty really quick?” he asked, his eyes trained on Dante and me. “She’s got this weird hum when she’s idling. I’m hoping it’s something really simple.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay,” she replied.

“I’ll catch you later, Bianca.” Tim was scowling, and it seemed to be directed at Dante.

“See you in homeroom!” Ally called as she followed Tim to his car.

“I thought I told you I didn’t want you around that guy,” Dante said as he walked me to my class.

“And I thought I told you that he’s my brother’s best friend and will be impossible to avoid.” I stopped and looked up at him. “Look, it’s not like we were even alone together. Brady was there. Ally was there. We were standing in the middle of the senior lot, talking.”

“You’re right,” he relented after a few seconds, sounding a bit defeated. “I guess I’m making a big deal out of nothing.”

I reached up and kissed him. “You have nothing to worry about,” I promised.

He took my hand in his and we continued on to my class. “So, Drama Club,” he said.

“I always audition,” I explained. “I only made it into the cast once, though.”

“Then why do you keep doing it?” he asked. “Is this like your big dream? Like you want to be an actress when you grow up?”

I laughed. “Are you kidding? I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.” I toyed with my locket, moving it up and down the chain. “But I like being in shows and stuff. I like being up on stage and pretending to be someone else. And I loved working with Mrs. Riley.”

“But won’t you have, like, rehearsals all the time?”

“Not all the time. It’s not that different from, like, football practice or whatever, but it also depends on what part you get.”

We walked the rest of the way to my class in silence. I had this weird feeling that Dante disapproved of the Drama Club, specifically the time commitment it required, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. I mean, Drama was
my
thing. Ally was involved in, like, a billion extracurriculars, and Talia did some stuff with artsy groups outside of school, but theater was the only thing I was really interested in.

“You aren’t mad or anything, are you?” I asked.

“About what?”

“Auditions. Drama.” I shrugged. “I mean, there’s no telling if I’ll even be cast or anything, but….”

The first bell rang and he gave me a quick hug. “We’ll talk about this at lunch, okay?” he said. The tone of his voice wasn’t very encouraging.

I must have had a strange expression on my face because Talia noticed something was wrong as soon as I dropped my backpack in the seat in front of her.

“You look like you ate a bad apple,” she said. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” I replied a little too quickly. When I saw her eyes narrow, I lied, “Dante reminded me about today’s biology test when we were walking. I totally spaced last night and didn’t study for it.”

She studied me for a moment before she said, “He has his dates mixed up. It’s not until tomorrow.” She returned her attention to her sketchbook. “And, really, as long as you don’t fall asleep in class like Jake does, Ellison’s tests are super easy.”

This was the most Talia had said to me since I told her Dante and I were back together. I didn’t see her at lunch anymore; Ally said she was hanging out in the band room watching Ephemera rehearse. I knew it was because she was giving me the cold shoulder. But since she was sort of talking to me, I wished I could tell her what was going on with him. I wished I could ask her how I should explain to him how much being in the spring musical would mean to me.

I stood by my seat for a moment, watching her work. “Is that something for class?” I asked.

Talia glanced up at me and shook her head. She finished shading something with her charcoal pencil before she turned it around to show me. It was a black-and-white sketch that looked like it could be a concert poster or album cover for Ephemera. She had played off the meaning of the band’s name and had drawn crumpled ticket stubs, ripped-off wristbands, and other things that normally get thrown out after shows. Then she’d made the band’s name come out from the background in big capital letters.

“Wow. That’s awesome.”

She shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess. They’ve got a gig at some fraternity house next Saturday, and Zack said he wanted something cool to pass out and put up around campus. It’s at Pepperdine, I think.”

“I’m sure he’ll love it.”

She turned her book around and studied her sketch. “Maybe,” she said. “He already shot down four other concepts.”

“Seriously?”

“He’s like a total perfectionist,” she said, smudging a line with her eraser. “Nothing’s good enough.”

“You know him much better than I do.”

She glanced up at me again but didn’t say anything.

“I wish you would talk to me,” I said as I moved my backpack and sat down. I twisted myself to look at her.

“I’m talking to you now.”

“Barely.”

“What do you want? You have a boyfriend now.”

“It doesn’t mean I don’t miss my best friend.”

She snorted. “Whatevs.”

I fiddled with my locket. “I know you don’t like him, Talia, but he’s really nice to me.”

She put down her pencil and fixed her gaze on me. “That’s not how I see it. And I’m not going to stand by and watch him destroy you.” She continued drawing as Ally swept into the room.

“I just talked to Francesca,” she said excitedly. “And she totally confirmed the rumors. It’s definitely
Chicago
.”

Talia didn’t bother looking up. “Don’t you think
Chicago
might be a little risqué for Westgate?”

I stared at her. “Are you kidding? They did
A Chorus Line
last year!” Of course, a bunch of parents had initially been up in arms about it, but Mr. Hamilton had sent out some memo defending Mrs. Riley’s selection and explained that the musical provided important insight into the realities of pursuing a theatrical career. And it had been such an amazing production, no one who’d seen Mrs. Riley’s interpretation of it complained.

“So I’m going to need your help picking out a song, okay?” Ally begged as the final bell rang. “I think I know what my monologue is going to be, if I even get that far, and you know I can master whatever choreography Horowitz throws out, but I’m horrible at the music part. And I
really
want to be in this show!”

“Okay,” I promised her.

“Maybe we can start reviewing music at lunch?” she asked.

I watched Talia’s pencil fly across her notebook and nodded. I really wasn’t looking forward to hearing what Dante had to say, anyway.