Wish Upon a Star (3 page)

“Who did she ask?”

Then I noticed the caption beneath the picture. “Guess we know who David Stauffer is going with.”

The room decided to tilt on me. I sat back as the walls, ceiling and floor moved to the wrong locations. Amidst the spinning, I realized I’d been too slow. My chance was gone. David was going with Selena, they would be the perfect couple for the rest of high school, go to the same college, graduate, get married, have the perfect girl and boy and live life happily ever after. She’d probably make him stop gaming and everything.

I felt an arm patting my shoulder. I looked over and saw Dierdre and Jamie gazing at me with sympathetic looks. I fought back the heart ache and smiled at them. It’s all good. I won’t go stag alone. Yes, it will stink to have to see Selena with my David, but with good friends, it wasn’t impossible to have fun.

***

A few days later at lunch, Jamie rushed up. I’d been basking in my misery over David’s unavailability and absence from our table for the last few days. As she dropped her platter next to mine, I jumped.

“Guess what?” Jamie grabbed my arms.

“What?” I struggled to pull myself out of the doldrums to feign interest.

“He said yes!”

“Of course he said yes.”

“Well, I didn’t know if he would or not, but he did!” She held her hands up to her mouth as though she were holding back a scream. Her eyes were bright with excitement. At first it felt like betrayal. Then something clicked.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Deonte, of course!” She slapped me on the arm.

Deonte.
The guy she’d mentioned at lunch a few times.  Deonte, the skater guy. The one who posted the picture of David’s car. The one she’d been crushing on since last year.

I forced a smile to my lips. “I’m so happy for you!”

She grabbed me in a huge hug.

Lacy sat down across from us. “What are we celebrating?”

“Deonte said yes!”

Lacy quick stepped around the table to join our hug. I wondered if I could get away with crying and blame it on tears of joy. I didn’t get the chance to experiment because I felt another pair of arms wrap around us.

Dierdre asked, “What are we hugging about?”

They all released and stepped back to include Dierdre.

“I’m going to the Sadie Hawkins dance with Deonte!”

Dierdre grabbed Jamie’s hands and jumped up and down with her while screaming.

“What are you going to wear?” Lacy asked Jamie.

“I don’t know, yet. He doesn’t seem like the type to do a lot of dressing up.”

“We could try to co-ordinate or something,” Lacy suggested.

“That could be fun!” Dierdre interjected. “What do you think, Jen?”

Everyone looked at me. “Yeah, I guess that could be fun.”

As they discussed colors, types of dresses, what the guys should wear to match and other details, I
was stuck in a Charlie Brown movie. Their voices made the wah, wah, wah like the adults in the show. I pictured myself in a yellow t-shirt with the black zigzag design running to kick a football held by Selena who was dressed in a blue dress. At the last minute she snatched the ball away as I kicked, causing me to fly through the air and land on my back. Over dramatic? Maybe. Accurate to how I felt? Definitely.

I realized my friends were looking at me. “What?”

“Are you cool with that?”

Uh oh.
They’d asked me a question. “I spaced out. What’s going on?”

“We’ll all meet at Dierdre’s house to get ready. We’re all going to wear a shade of blue.”

“Works for me.” I turned to Dierdre. “Want to buy each other corsages?”

She looked at me funny. “I have that covered.”

“Oh. What are we doing?”

“You really were spaced out, weren’t you?”

Jamie and Lacy looked uncomfortable. My stomach dropped. Whatever followed was going to be bad.

“What did I miss?”

“I have a date.”

*Crack*

That’s the sound my heart made. Everyone had a date. Except me.

I tried to put on a happy face. She was my best friend since Kindergarten. ‘Who are you going with?”

She hesitated.

“I knew she took it too well,” Jamie whispered to Lacy.

“What?” I looked at each of them in turn waiting for a response.

“I’m going with Eric.”

It took a second for the name to permeate my brain. I couldn’t think of a single Eric in our school except for . . .

“Longstein?”
I half said, half screeched. The enemy? The kid who tortured me in elementary school? The one who sealed our fate as best friends forever?

“Yeah.
I think he’s kind of cool.”

“No one ‘kind of cool’ pulls hair on a little girl!” I argued.

“That was a million years ago. He’s grown up since then.”

I did my best fish impression opening and shutting my mouth as I struggled to find something to say. There was nothing to say. She’d chosen. She was going to the dance with the evil boy and I would be all alone.

“Jen,” Dierdre called, but I held up my hand as I walked away with my tray half full of food. I dumped it in the trash can and fled the cafeteria. The frosting on my perfectly miserable day? I had to pass David sitting next to Selena. They were bent over a book and discussing intently. I didn’t even exist.

***

Normally, I loved my art teacher. Mr. Brewster could somehow relate to us even though all the other adults seemed to have amnesia of their teenage years. What he asked a little over a week before the dance threatened to ruin his reputation. He pulled me to the side after art –my last class of the day.

“Me? Take over decorations?” Were there cameras on me? Was I being punked? I knew there was no chance my favorite teacher was asking me to take over decorating for a dance for which I didn’t want to go with only days left.

“Yes.”

“I thought Missy was handling them.”

“She’s going to be gone from school for a while,”

“I’m sure there are other people who would do a better job.”

“I think there are other people who could handle it, but I think you’re the right person to make it special.”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure I’m going to the dance.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged.

“You don’t like any boys at the school?”

A picture of David’s face flashed in front of my eyes. I blinked his visage away.

“Or is the guy you like going with someone else?”

I looked at my hands and nodded.

“Ah. No back up plans? No friends you could go with?”

Misery filled me as I thought of Lacy, Jamie and Dierdre. I hadn’t sat with them at lunch for a week. I also wasn’t answering any texts or direct messages. I really missed them, but I was so embarrassed. I didn’t know if they would let me back after the prima donna way I’d left things.

“The dance is meant to be for fun. I encourage you to go. Especially since you’ll need to make sure your decorations look amazing.”

I looked up. He was smiling.

“There’s so little time left.” I whined.

“There’s never much time. Life is short.
Too short to miss out on fun things like this dance.”

I shrugged again.

“Besides. There’s extra credit in it for you.”

I perked up. I wasn’t worried about my grade in Art, but extra credit could offset the “C” I expected from Biology. It might help keep my GPA high enough to keep mom and dad off my back.

I nodded so Mr. Brewster showed me the room where the decorations were stored. He also handed me a binder with some sketches and lists. I had to sneak out into the hallway and look at a poster to see what the theme was for the dance. I felt a little silly not paying attention before. A sign declared the theme to be “Wish Upon a Star”. Kind of cheesy, but all the stars in the closet made more sense.

I sat at the table and sketched out a few additional ideas. I knew I needed to look at the room while planning. I grabbed my sketch pad and wandered to the gym. Outside the door, I heard the noise of shoes squeaking, male voices calling to each other and the unmistakable sound of a basketball dribbling. I slipped in and grabbed a seat towards the top of the bleachers. I looked at the ceiling rafters to get a sense of what I had to work with. I gazed around the walls. Ugh. This would take a lot of work.

I sketched out a few ideas, each cheesier than the last. I scratched out the last sketch and closed my art book. I looked down at the basketball floor and realized the varsity team was practicing. David had the ball and was driving to the basket. He juked the kid trying to guard him and swished a layup shot. If I wasn’t mistaken, he glanced up towards me after he did. After the briefest of moments where our eyes met, he was down the court defending.

I clutched the drawing pad to my chest. Even if he wasn’t mine, he was glorious to watch. Obviously, he took it easy on me when I played in his pick-up games. To my untrained eye, he owned the court weaving in between defenders and blocking the other side from making baskets.

When the coach blew the whistle, I jumped. I had no clue how much time had passed. The guys all headed for the shower. I grabbed my things and headed down the bleachers. Because I was concentrating on where I stepped, I didn’t notice David until I almost ran into him.

“Hey.” He held out a hand to steady me.

“Hey.” A familiar crushing sensation grabbed my heart. He had a really nice voice.

“I haven’t seen you online. You okay?”

“I’ve had a lot of homework lately. No time for gaming,” I lied. Actually, I didn’t want to face Jamie or him online. My heart wasn’t in it.

“Dwork stepped in as healer. He totally sucks. He let me drop twice on the Dragon in the Citadel.”

Ouch. Even a noob in rare gear could heal the Citadel fight without letting a tank as well geared as David die.

“Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, things aren’t going to slow down for me anytime soon.” I tried to walk away, but he matched step with me.

“So what were you doing?” He jogged ahead of me and walked backwards. “You’ve never watched me play before.”

I paused
. He thought I was there to watch him? Weird.

“I was here to get ideas for the dance’s decorations. Mr. Brewster asked me to take over. Missy’s not going to be in school for a while.”

He nodded his head. “I heard she has mono or something.”

I shrugged.

“What did you come up with?”  He glanced at my sketch book.

“Nothing really.”

“Lemme see.” He grabbed it out of my hands before I could protest.

I bit my lip as he flipped through pages. I breathed a small sigh of relief I hadn’t brought the sketch book with his name surrounded by hearts on it.

“I like your ideas –except for the big Xs on each page. I think you could do without those.”

I glanced at the pages and realized he was talking about when I crossed things off. “Very funny,” I said as I smacked him in the arm. I regretted my action as I pulled my hand back, covered in his sweat.

“Do you need any help?”

I thought for a minute. While it would be nice to spend time with him, it would also be agony. “I think I have it covered. I’m sure there’s a committee.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“So, who are you going to the dance with?” For some reason he seemed nervous or something. He looked at the floor and kicked at scuff marks.

“I’m not going.”

His head popped up. “Why not?”

“I’m not interested in anyone available.”

“Oh.”

“Davey!”
Selena’s annoying voice floated across the gym. She was waving from the other side of the gym. 

David waved then turned back to me. “Jen, you know what might be fun?”

“David!” Selena called louder.

“Just a second,” he called back to her. “So, a group thing could be fun at the dance,” He said to me.

I glanced at Selena. There was no way I would spend a night hanging out with her. Especially since she’d be hanging all over David the whole night. As Mr. Brewster said, life is too short. “No thanks.”

“David! I need your help with something!” Selena called out.

“I need to get going and you’re being paged. I’ll see you later,” I stepped around him and headed to the door again. I could hear the squeak of David’s shoes as he slowly walked towards Selena. By the time I reached the doors, they were loudly discussing something. I didn’t stick around to find out what.

***

Since I was taking over, I called an emergency decorating committee meeting. I asked Mr. Brewster to set it up since I had no clue who had volunteered. When I walked into the art room after school the next day, I tried not to groan. Front and center, in all her perfection, sat Selena. I should have guessed. She had a hand in everything. She was bent over towards her friends gossiping. “Yeah, so what I heard was she made out with three different guys so she doesn’t even know where she got it. Goes to show what happens to girls who give it to anyone.”