Crush Alert (13 page)

A
fter school on Friday, Isabel showed up in the art room to face her giant pile of cardboard hearts.
All this work…and I won’t even get to see the dance.
Even though she knew that honoring her promise was the right thing to do, Isabel just couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for herself.

Betsy was already there, of course, fretting over a tangled mass of hot pink streamers.

Isabel lifted an armful of hearts. “I’ll take these down to the gym,” she called out.

“Mm-hmm,” Betsy murmured. “Be careful,” she called after Isabel.
Poor Betsy.
Isabel shook her head. She was actually obsessing over the length of each streamer.

Isabel made her way down the halls, dodging crowds of kids hanging out and talking about…what else? The dance.

“Ooh! Can I have one?” Henry Yurt danced up behind Isabel, trying to grab the purple heart on top.

“No!” Isabel swung her creations away from the class clown. “They’re for the dance.”

“Duh…Betsy asked me to help you guys set up. So can I have one?”

Isabel sighed. “Just don’t bend it or anything. I worked hard on these.”

“Yes!” Henry held up the heart and cheered. “Dudes, look, I earned a purple heart!”

“Henry, you better be careful or I will sic Betsy on you.” Isabel almost laughed out loud when she saw his shaken face.

“Oh, don’t do that, Isabel.” He got down on one knee and pressed the purple heart to his chest.

“Betsy is my Valentine,” he pleaded.

“Yurt,” Isabel laughed, “join the drama club. They need goofballs like you.”

Isabel hurried ahead while Henry followed her like a puppy dog down the hall. The first thing she heard as she approached the gym was a throbbing hip-hop beat and giggling voices that sounded very, very familiar.

“BSG!” she shouted as she burst through the door. There was Maeve, playing with the settings on a CD player, and Katani, studying the gym walls with a calculating look. Avery was tossing a tennis ball against the wall while Charlotte watched the door. When Isabel walked through, Charlotte ran over and reached for the pile of painted cardboard hearts.

“What’s this all about, Char?” Isabel asked, so startled, she managed to drop most of her hearts on the floor instead of handing them over.

“I’ll get those!” Katani picked one up and held it up to the wall, turning slowly.

Charlotte took Isabel’s hand. “We’re here to help you decorate, Izzy! It’s not fair that you have to do all this work, then miss the dance! So Maeve brought the tunes, and we’re going to have our own little decorating dance party.”

Just then, Henry Yurt burst through the door, trailed by a few other kids carrying shopping bags full of supplies. “Hey! Nice music!” He grinned, grabbed a roll of masking tape out of his pocket and taped his purple heart next to the door. He couldn’t reach any higher.

“People will knock it off if you put it there, Henry,” Katani pointed out, and easily moved it up higher.

The Yurtmeister jumped and grabbed for it, but he couldn’t reach. “Hey, that’s my purple heart!”

“Come on, dude,” one of his friends called, setting his bag down on the gym floor. “There’s a ton more stuff back in the art room.”

The boys left, and Maeve ran over to see what was in the bags.

“Ooh, look! Streamers! Glitter, cupid cutouts…” She dumped everything on the floor while Katani found masking tape, scissors, and string.

“Let’s get to work, girls!” she announced. In a matter of minutes the gym was a beehive of activity. At one point Isabel reached over and hugged Charlotte. “I just can’t believe you all decided to do this. I have the best friends in the world.”

When Betsy finally made it down to the gym twenty
minutes later with the last bag of decorations and a notebook detailing exactly where every last streamer and heart was to be placed, she stopped in her tracks. “What,” she exclaimed, “is going on?!”

Henry rushed to her side. “Betsy, your committee has fulfilled your dream. This place is going to rock. Check it out!”

Maeve was dancing to her favorite song with a masking-tape bracelet on her wrist, handing rolls of tape up to Charlotte, who was standing on a chair and hanging hearts and cupids all over the walls, according to Katani’s directions. Avery was in the middle of the floor with a roll of pink streamers. Squinting to get her aim just right, she wrapped a length of streamer around her tennis ball, and tossed it up into the basketball hoops. A pink rocket shot up, then down on the other side.

“Bull’s-eye!” she shouted, and ran to pick up the tennis ball. Streamers were hanging through all the hoops, irregular and twisted.

“Betsy!” Isabel ran up to her, eyes shining. “Isn’t it wonderful? We’re almost done!”

Betsy shook her head soundlessly and opened her notebook. “But, but…I had it all planned out! The streamers are for the doorways! And the hearts are supposed to be lined up in a
pattern
above the bleachers! I even got the key to the janitor’s closet to get a ladder!”

“Chill, girl!” Katani laughed. “It’s going to look great.”

Charlotte stepped down from her chair and dashed over to the pile of backpacks next to the CD player. “I
know just what you need, Betsy!” she returned with a bag of Swedish fish in one hand, and M&M’s in the other. “Refreshments!”

Maeve grabbed a handful of Swedish fish, laughing. “You’re right, that’s
exactly
what I need!”

Betsy eyed the candy suspiciously. “Well, I guess…I guess the hearts look okay…but we
have
to do something about those streamers!”

“This is only step one!” Avery protested as Betsy headed toward the janitor’s closet for a ladder. “Maybe if I used a basketball?”

Everyone laughed, even Betsy.

Isabel looked around at her friends, “You guys are the awesomest ever!” she shouted, then spun around in a circle as a new song came on the radio. This was the greatest decorating dance party ever!

The Tower Princesses

That night, Charlotte stood in the middle of the Tower room with Katani and Avery. Katani looked absolutely fabulous in the halter-top sunshine yellow dress with beaded detail at the neckline that she had sewn herself, and Avery wore her simple but elegant white dress with the black sash. Charlotte was spinning around in front of the mirror, admiring her lilac perfection, shimmering with little rainbows of light as she moved.

“Girls, the BSG are looking fierce tonight!” Katani announced.

“We’re like princesses preparing for a ball!” Charlotte laughed. Nick was coming in half an hour, along with
a bunch of other friends, but it was mostly the thought of seeing him again that put her in a giddy mood. She’d talked to him at school, of course, all through lunch and study hall! But that seemed like such a long time ago.

“You can be a princess,” Avery said. “But I’m a dance ninja…watch this!” she made a high-pitched squealing noise and sliced the air in front of Marty with one foot. The little dog jumped back and barked softly. Then Avery broke into one of her signature dance moves. She flailed her arms and legs, bobbed her head, hopped on one foot, and completely failed to look like the guys in the rap videos.

“Avery,” Katani said, bent over with laughter, “you
need
to stop.”

Charlotte warned, “Watch out, innocent bystanders of Abigail Adams Junior High, Avery Madden is on the loose!”

Even Avery lost it at that comment, and the girls collapsed together in a huddle of colorful fabric and jewelry, shaking with laughter. The fancy dresses were forgotten for a moment as they relished their moment of zany togetherness.

“Didn’t Maeve give you lessons a few months ago?” Katani asked in between gasps of air.

Avery grinned and spun away from the group. “Yeah, that ended when I broke her mom’s favorite antique vase.”

Marty whined at Avery, and she patted his head. “Poor Mr. Marté! I didn’t mean to scare you, little guy. How is the little dude doing?”

“He’s a little better,” Charlotte sighed and then turned and asked Katani, “So where’s Maeve?”

“If Maeve ever arrived on time,” Katani said, “we’d know the world was about to end.”

“Okay, everyone, remember…we can’t say a thing about why Dillon asked her!” Charlotte reminded them. “We have to pretend we don’t know.”

“Uh-huh,” Avery promised. “But I still think it’s not a big deal. I mean, we’re all walking over in a big group, right? What does it matter who goes with who?” Avery picked at the sash on her dress, managing to undo the bow.

Katani sighed. “Let me fix that,” she straightened Avery’s dress,

“It matters because…well, because it just does!” Charlotte commented, realizing that, for once, she couldn’t think of the right words to explain.

Avery looked at her like she had two heads. “Whatever you say….” Avery reached up and tightened her ponytail.

Katani frowned. “Hmm…we have to do something about that hair! I can’t let any of my girls walk out of here looking less than fab. I have my reputation to protect, you know.”

Avery plopped herself in the lime swivel styling chair. “I like my ponytail,” she pouted. “But if it will make you happy…”

“Hey!” Charlotte called out. “Look, everybody.”

Avery jumped out of the chair and stood on tiptoe to see over her friend’s shoulder.

“Avery!” Katani waved her hairbrush and a bottle of glitter, then gave up and looked out the window too. “Isn’t that Yuri?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Charlotte. “I’ve never seen him so dressed up before. I wonder…”

The Russian fruit seller was walking up to Charlotte’s front door wearing a dark blue suit, a spiffy red tie, and carrying a single red rose.

“Ooh—he’s got a flower!” Katani said, the palms of her hands pressed against the window.

The melodious bong of the doorbell echoed up to the Tower.

“Should we answer?” Charlotte asked.

“What if it’s for you, Char?” Avery joked as she bounced up and down on her toes, trying to get a better look.

“It’s not for me, Avery.” Charlotte knew whom the rose was for.

“Talk about romantic,” said Katani.

“Look!” Charlotte pointed out the window. “It’s for Miss Pierce.”

The BSG peered down at the sidewalk just in time to see Charotte’s landlady, the very shy astronomer who never left her basement lab, step out the front door. Charlotte almost didn’t recognize her in the breezy light blue dress, her hair done up in a glamorous French twist. She took Yuri’s arm and smiled up at him.

“Very interesting,” said Katani, tapping her index finger against the windowsill. “Love is definitely in the air.”

“Hey, girls!” Maeve’s fiery hair suddenly appeared at the top of the ladder-like stairs, followed by glittering
earrings and the top of a pink spaghetti-strap dress with an embroidered yoke. Maeve jumped off the final step, twirled around on one of her pink-heeled sandals, held up her arms, and bowed, tossing her red curls dramatically.

“Oh, Maeve,” Charlotte said. “You’ve definitely got some serious fabulosity going on!”

“Thanks! This is all so exciting! It’s almost as wonderful as going to a premiere of my very own blockbuster movie!” Maeve bowed again. “But, wow, have I got some huge news! I mean, huge! Huge! Huge! I just saw Miss Pierce and Yuri together like they were going out on a date! And get this! He gave her a red rose. That proves he’s totally into her.”

“We know!” Charlotte said. “I saw them together the other night, too.”

“Do you think they’ll get married??” Maeve exclaimed. “Oh, that would be so enchanting!”

It was unbelievable. Miss Pierce never left her computer monitors, stars, and secret NASA assignments, but now she was going out on a date with Yuri the human bear.

Avery sat back down in the swivel. “I still think they’re too old.”

“Avery!” Katani exclaimed. “Old people can fall in love.”

Maeve spun around so that the skirt of her dress flared out around her. “But I have some more news! Extra-super-front-page-special-announcement-huge! Dillon is coming to walk me to the dance! And he’s going to wear the baseball tie clip I found for him! I’m so happy, I could just die! Isn’t it great?”

“Wow, Maeve, that’s…awesome!” Charlotte looked around for support, but Katani was brushing Avery’s hair like it took all her concentration.

“What’s a tie clip?” Avery asked.

“It’s a little clip that a man uses to hold his necktie to his shirt,” Katani explained. “My dad has some. Does Dillon even
own
a necktie?”

“Of course!” Maeve proclaimed, imagining Dillon in a full suit and tie, wearing a silver tie clip that matched her earrings. They were walking together up a pathway lined with rosebushes to her very own mansion in the Hollywood hills. Maeve danced around in the lime green swivel chair, lost in her fantasy.
Dillon leans down and plucks a rose, just for me! Then he whispers in my ear…

“Are you okay? Maeve?” Charlotte did not belong in the Hollywood Hills. The roses faded.

“I’ve never been better, darling!”

“It’s really too bad Izzy couldn’t be here,” Charlotte sighed, relishing the feeling of being in her favorite place in the world with the friends she loved best.

“I brought a camera!” Maeve reached into a tiny purse that looked like it couldn’t even hold a tube of lipstick, and fished out a slim silver case. “It’s my mom’s. She said to take
tons
of photos! Let’s take one right now, for Izzy.”

Katani nodded. “I’m almost done with Ave’s hair.”

Charlotte and Maeve watched with admiration as the Kgirl put the finishing touches on her latest makeover subject. Finally, Katani gave Avery a thumbs-up, and she bounced out of the chair.

“Ta-da!” she shouted, and looked in the mirror. Katani had turned her hair into a shimmering cascade, like a waterfall at midnight.

“I guess we really are princesses,” Avery admitted.

“Say cheese!” Maeve exclaimed, and held out the camera with one arm.

The flash caught Avery with her eyes closed and cut off half of Katani’s head. “Try again! Try again!” she shrieked, looking at the preview window.

It took at least twelve more tries before they got the perfect picture.