Can True Love Survive High School? (7 page)

“You would do that for us?”

“Of course.”

Britta started crying again. “Thank you … so much …”

Holly wrapped her arms around her and let her cry. A tear sprang up at the corner of her own eye. Ed and Britta needed her. Without Holly to protect it, their relationship would be trampled by a cruel world.

The doorbell rang. Holly got up to answer it, leaving Britta crumpled on the couch.

It was Rob. They were supposed to go out that night. In the midst of Britta's crisis, Holly had forgotten all about it.

“Hey,” she said, kissing him lightly on the lips.

“Ready to go? I thought we could grab some Chinese food—” He came in and saw Britta on the couch. “What's up?” he asked, nodding at her.

“An emergency,” Holly explained. “I can't leave her right now.”

“Oh. What happened?”

“Her parents won't let her see Ed more than once a week,” Holly said. “They're ruining her life!”

“Bummer.” Holly could tell that Rob was trying to be sympathetic, but he really didn't get the implications of this. “Can we go out later, after she's calmed down?”

“I don't know.” Holly led Rob over to the couch. Britta's face was buried in a cushion. “We'll see.” She helped Britta up to a sitting position. “Would you like a glass of water?”

Britta nodded. Holly went to the kitchen. Rob followed her.

“How long do you think this is going to be?” Rob asked.

“I'm not sure,” Holly said. “She's so in love, she takes everything to heart, you know?”

Rob didn't look too sure. Holly brought the glass of water to Britta. He followed her.

Britta drank the water and seemed to feel better. “Thanks, Holly. I guess everything is okay now, since you're going to help us. I'll call Ed and tell him what's going on.” She pulled her cell phone out of her purse.

Holly and Rob stepped away so she could have some privacy. “Isn't it amazing?” Holly said. “I've never seen two people so in love. It's like this incredible Shakespearean super-love, like a fairy tale. Unreal.”

Rob looked uncomfortable. “Unreal is a good word for it.”

A few minutes later, Britta was off the phone, wailing. Holly and Rob ran to her.

“What is it?” Holly asked. “What's the matter now?”

“I'm—just—so—in—love—with—him,” Britta choked out.

“Um, you know what? I think I'm going to go now,” Rob said. He was practically squirming with discomfort. Holly felt sorry for him. Most boys, ordinary boys, couldn't handle this level of emotion.

“I'm sorry, Rob,” she said, walking him to the door. “I can't leave her like this.”

“I know. I'll call you later. Maybe we can catch a late movie? If she's gone by then, I mean.”

“Okay.” More wails issued from the couch. Holly turned her head.

“I'd better go.” Rob left quickly. Holly hurried back to the couch.

“He's coming over,” Britta said. “That's okay, isn't it?”

“Of course it is,” Holly said. “But he's got to leave before Curt and Jen get home, or your parents will find out—”

“He will, he will.”

“Britta, you've really got to stop crying now,” Holly said. She grabbed a box of Kleenex and started dabbing at Britta's eyes. “There's nothing to cry about, right? Ed's coming over!”

Britta nodded happily. Holly helped her straighten her clothes in preparation for Ed's arrival. She felt like the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, helping the young lovers arrange a rendezvous. So much excitement, so much emotion. This wasn't high school. This was real life.

I hope this happens to me one day,
Holly thought. She was happy to play nurse to Britta. But someday she wanted to be Juliet.

10

Naked Halloween

To: linaonme

From: your daily horoscope

HERE IS TODAY'S HOROSCOPE: CANCER: An irresistible opportunity presents itself today. Which is too bad for you, since resisting it is the only way to avoid catastrophe. But the stars say you won't, so I guess you're doomed.

L
ina! This is it! The goddess is smiling down on us!” Ramona was running down the hall toward her, waving a piece of paper. Lina sat on the floor in front of her locker, trying to squeeze in a last-minute cram for her history quiz. She closed her book. It was a lost cause now.

Ramona sat down next to her. “Look. It's the answer to everything.”

Lina didn't have to ask what Ramona was talking about. What was Ramona always talking about? Or almost always? Dan.

Lina read the piece of paper. It was a flyer announcing Rosewood's annual Writer's Potluck Supper, for all students who write for school publications. This included Lina, of course, and Ramona, who was an editor and poet, specializing in death imagery, for
Inchworm
, one of the school's two literary journals. Lina was sure it would be somewhat fun, for a school party, but she didn't get what Ramona was so excited about.

“So?” Lina asked.

“Look where it's being held.”

Lina read the smaller type at the bottom of the page.
Date, time, and address: the home of Dan Shulman,
Inchworm
Faculty Advisor.
Aha.

“There's got to be a way we can use this,” Ramona said. “I mean, we're going to be
inside his house!
For a legitimate reason!”

“But what can we do?” Lina asked. “Chain ourselves to the bed?”

“I know—we'll steal something of his. And he'll have to ask you back to return it … No! We'll find his journal, or some personal letters or something, and blackmail him with them. He has to kiss you or we'll publish them on your Web site.”

“That's horrible,” Lina said. “Very mean. And it won't make him like me at all.”

“You're right. It will make him hate you. Both of us. But what can we do? There's got to be something.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes, thinking. Slowly a plan began to take shape in Lina's mind.
I'm really sick,
she thought as the hazy details gradually became clearer.

“I've got it,” she said. “When the party is winding down, I'll hide in his bedroom closet. His bedroom has got to have a closet, right?”

“I'm liking this so far,” Ramona said.

“Then, after everyone is gone, I'll come out. We'll be alone together. Maybe I'll offer to help him clean up.”

“Which could lead to other things.” Ramona nodded her head happily. “Like kissing … ”

“It could work,” Lina said. “Don't you think? I mean, it will be nighttime, we'll be alone together … anything could happen.”

“Guess what? The Markowitzes said Mads can go to Stanford with Holly,” Lina announced to her parents at dinner that night. With her Dan plan settled, it was time to attack her second problem—getting permission to go on the crazy college weekend.

“That doesn't surprise me,” Sylvia Ozu said. They sat in the spare, minimalist dining room at a table too big for the three of them: Lina's father, Ken, at one end, her mother, Sylvia, at the other, and Lina marooned in the middle. It wasn't easy to pass dishes from one person to the next; you kind of had to stand up a little bit or slide the platter along the table with a push. Sylvia reached as far as her short arm would go for the bowl of green beans almondine. Lina helped her by giving the dish a shove.

“The Markowitzes are too lax with their children, I've always thought,” Sylvia continued. “I mean, they're lovely people, very nice, but I wouldn't call them disciplinarians.”

“Actually, they're pretty strict with Mads,” Lina said. “Well, not strict exactly, but very protective. They worry a lot.”

“That's not the same as setting out a clear set of rules and sticking with them,” Sylvia said. “One look at their house tells you that.”

Mads' house was messy, true. It was an eclectic jumble of stuff gathered over the years by every member of the family. They didn't seem to throw anything away. Lina's house was cool and modern, spare and very neat, with a faint Japanese influence. Lina preferred Mads' house.

“We're getting off track here, Sylvia,” Ken said. “What difference does it make what the Markowitzes' house looks like? The question is, Can Lina go away for the weekend with her two best friends?”

Thank you, Dad. Sylvia, an allergist, was a little chilly and could be stern with Lina. But Ken, a banker, usually took Lina's side. Still, even Lina and Ken teamed up together could rarely defeat a determined Sylvia.

“Ken, do you remember what you were like in college?” Sylvia said. “Do you remember how you spent your weekends? Do you really think Lina is ready to be exposed to that?”

Ken scratched his chin as if trying to summon up the memory. “I remember having a hell of a lot of fun,” he said.

“You were a lacrosse player,” Sylvia reminded him. “They were
the worst
.”

Ken laughed. “What about you? The theater crowd?”

“I was pre-med.”

“But all your friends were theater kids. Your parties were notorious! Remember ‘Naked Halloween’?”

Lina's ears perked up. Naked Halloween? Sylvia?

Sylvia looked annoyed. “You're only proving my point—a college campus is no place for a fifteen-year-old girl.”

“What's Naked Halloween?” Lina asked.

Sylvia shot her a freeze-glare, but Ken said, “It was a big costume party where everyone was supposed to come as a ghost—only you had to be naked under the sheet.”

“Mom? You did that?”

“No, I did not. I always wore a flesh-colored leotard under my sheet,” Sylvia said.

“Once the party got going people tried to rip each other's sheets off,” Ken explained.

“And anyway, I secretly attached my sheet to my waist, so you couldn't pull it off if you tried,” Sylvia said.

“And believe me, people tried,” Ken said.

“It was barbaric,” Sylvia said.

“Hey, that was your crowd,” Ken said. “We didn't stoop that low at Toad Hall.” Toad Hall was the name of Ken's lacrosse fraternity. Lina had heard a few wild stories about their parties, too.

“Toad Hall was a slime pit,” Sylvia said. “Lina, pass the fish.”

That was her signal that the subject was closed. Lina passed the fish. They ate in silence for a few minutes, flatware clicking against china.

Lina and Ken traded surreptitious glances while Sylvia focused on her plate. “More water, Lina?” Ken asked, standing up to fill her glass from a pitcher. He gave her a little wink. She took this as a signal.
I've softened her up.

Yo u take it from here.

“It's so interesting to hear you two talk about your college days,” Lina said. “Do you know what I've learned from this? I've learned that a person with strong character, a good family, raised with the right values, can withstand almost any temptation or corruption. Just look at what you both went through at college—the decadence! And see how well you turned out? Moral, upstanding citizens. And you raised me to be that way, too. It will take more than a wild frat party to change that.”

She was afraid to peek at Sylvia's face—did that snow her? But she couldn't resist. Sylvia didn't look up. She chewed on a bean. She took a sip of water. She kept her eyes focused on the gleaming wooden table.

Aha,
Lina thought.
She doesn't want to look up at us because she knows once she does it's all over.

Sylvia swallowed. She looked up. First at Ken, then Lina.

“I still think you're too young,” she said.

“It's only a weekend, Sylvia,” Ken said. “Piper Anderson will look out for them.”

“That's what I'm afraid of,” Sylvia said. She turned to Lina. “If I let you go, will you leave you cell phone on
the entire time
so we can check on you at any moment, day or night?”

“Yes! I promise,” Lina said.

“Do you know what will happen if your cell phone rings and you don't answer it?”

“Grounded for eternity?” Lina guessed.

“Correct. And do you know what will happen if we call you and you answer in a compromising position or some state of intoxication?”

“Death by scolding?”

“Or worse.” Sylvia paused, just for dramatic effect. She had once run with the theater crowd, after all.

“All right. You may go.”

linaonme: guess what? I can go to stanford!

hollygolitely: sylvia actually said yes?

linaonme: 10-4. And wait till you hear what she used to do in college. I'll tell u tomorrow at school.

mad4u: so it's all settled? We're all going now?

hollygolitely: all settled.

mad4u: yay!

linaonme: this is going to be so much fun! The crazy college weekend is on!

11

Jane Starts Talking

To: mad4u

From: your daily horoscope

HERE IS TODAY'S HOROSCOPE: VIRGO: You got yourself into this mess. What are you looking at me for?

El Diario

To my dear loyal readers,

Never
act in a play written by your own mother. In fact, if your mother expresses any interest in
writing
a play, do everything you can to stop her. And if she manages to get some words on paper, destroy them!

“Someday, little Mariah, you're going to grow up and marry a farmer just like your Papa.” A woman named Kendall, who played Mama in
Touched,
was reading from the script. The whole cast was assembled for a read-through of the play. Mads thought Kendall didn't look much like anyone's Mama, with her spiky crimson hair and clanky jewelry, but she figured costumes and makeup would take care of that.

“No, Mama,” Audrey read. “Papa is a good man. But I won't spend my life toiling in the soil. I want to be FREE AS A BUTTERFLY!” Audrey's voice rose to a screech and she flung her arm in the air.

“All right, Audrey, good,” Charles Huang, the director, said. “But you don't have to scream at the end of the line. Just say it like you normally would. Try it again.”

“The problem is nobody normal would say a line like that.” Damien Chopra, who played Buck, Mariah's first love, leaned close to Jane and whispered those words. Mads, who was sitting on Jane's other side, overheard them. She couldn't agree more.

Jane glanced at Mads as if worried they'd offended her. The woman who wrote those words was Mads' mother, after all. They probably assumed she thought the play was great. Mads would have to set them straight as soon as she could. She smiled and nodded to let them know she was on their side. Jane turned away.