Crush Alert (16 page)

Chelsea nodded and hummed along with the music,
trying not to look at Trevor and Anna dancing together across the gym.

Loserville

“Will someone please explain why traitor Avery made me look a complete total, unbelievable, Valentine’s Day loser?!?” Maeve plopped herself down in a folding chair someone had left in the bathroom.

Charlotte and Katani stood together, exchanging glances. Avery hung back, like she thought Maeve might leap up and attack.

“Well…,” Charlotte started.

“First of all…,” Katani said at the same time.

“Okay, I’ll explain.” Avery couldn’t let her friends take the heat for her, so she ducked between them and put a hand on the back of Maeve’s chair. “Look, I knew you wanted to go with Dillon more than anything, so I kind of asked him to ask you. Then everyone told me that wasn’t cool. But it was too late and…”

Katani nodded. “We thought it would be easier if you just didn’t know.”

“We were wrong.” Charlotte put an arm around Maeve’s shoulders. “We all just wanted the dance to be perfect for you.”

“You did?” She sighed.

Then Maeve surprised them all by jumping up and splashing her face with cold water from the sink. “So that’s it?” she demanded.

“Well…yeah,” Avery responded.

“All right then,” Maeve said matter of factly. “If
Dillon really
doesn’t
want to dance with me, it means =I can dance with anyone I want now, right? I can’t let this night go to waste.” And just like that, Maeve was back to her usual happy and vivacious self.

She got up and gave Avery a hug. “Don’t do that again, okay? It’s really kind of embarrassing for me.”

“Cool.” Avery nodded, stunned that she got off so easily.
But then again,
she thought,
that’s Maeve…unpredictable…and forgiving
.

“Maeve!” Charlotte laughed as she stood in front of the mirror reapplying her lip gloss. “Who are you going to dance with?” She was glad her friend was back to her usual bubbly self.

“Hmmm…I’ll get back to you!” Maeve ran through the list of seventh-grade boys in her mind, but couldn’t think of a single one who actually knew how to dance like Fred Astaire.

“Speaking of boys, how is it going with Nick?” Katani joined Charlotte by the mirror and took out her own tiny makeup case.

“Nick is so sweet,” Charlotte said. “I think I like him better than any boy I’ve ever met.”

She wasn’t sure how to explain to her friends their conversation on the phone the other night. In fact, she didn’t really know how to explain it to herself, either. Nick was still just her friend, but in a way that meant they could share anything and not worry about what the other was thinking. “He’s…well,” she told her friends, “
special.”

Maeve smoothed down her skirt and fluffed out her
hair. “You two make a cute couple.
Almost
as cute as me and Dillon were!”

Charlotte smiled, keeping her thoughts to herself, where she could treasure them. “Thanks.”

When Katani finished her makeup, she grabbed Avery by the shoulder. “Your hair is going wild! What have you been doing? Hanging upside down?”

Avery crossed her arms and sighed. “I like to move around a lot when I’m dancing. I can’t worry about hairdos when I’m trying to break it down.”

Katani rolled her eyes and got to work fixing Avery’s hair with a hairbrush as slim and chic as a cell phone. “I should have brought some hairspray,” she muttered.

Maeve grinned. “There’s no hairspray in the world that could hold MKT’s curls down!”

“Okay,” Katani said. “Avery’s hair is somewhat better. Ready to go back out there?”

Trouble on the Dance Floor

The gym looked even more crowded than when they had left. As Charlotte and her friends walked back onto the dance floor, she tried to pick out Nick from the horde of bodies.
Where is he?
she thought, her eyes scanning the faces around the room.

The first notes of the theme song from
Titanic
drifted through the air. Charlotte hummed along. She couldn’t help it. Ever since she had first seen the movie with her dad when they were living in Paris, she had loved the way Céline Dion’s voice rose and rose.

Katani made fun of her for listening to such old music,
but Maeve was totally into it too. Charlotte remembered watching the movie at one of their BSG sleepovers, singing along with Maeve at the top of her voice while Katani and Avery screamed at them and threw pillows until even Maeve couldn’t sing anymore because she was laughing so hard. “Near, far, wherever you are…”

Charlotte anxiously searched for Nick. He would love to hear that story! And then they’d dance together again…maybe even holding hands. Charlotte closed her eyes for a moment, relishing a moment in the song that lifted her away from the dance, into a world of waves, disaster, lost love, and hope.

When she opened her eyes, one of the flashing colored bulbs in the ceiling cast a beam of harsh light on two dancing figures. They moved together, just a little closer than the other couples.
Nick and Chelsea!
At first Charlotte didn’t believe it, but the light wouldn’t move off of them, and the song wouldn’t stop. Céline Dion’s voice kept rising and bursting: “and you’re here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on…” Charlotte stood there, frozen in place, trying to not to react.
It means nothing,
she told herself.

But why this song? Why tonight? Why couldn’t Chelsea find someone else to dance with?
Has Nick been lying to me? They’re dancing really close!
Charlotte couldn’t believe that she was back to square one again.

“Hey, isn’t that Nick…dancing with Chelsea?” Maeve pointed out.

Charlotte swallowed once, hard, then turned and walked out the door.

“Uh-oh,” Katani said. “I’ll be right back. YOU, go talk to Nick.”

“Me?” Maeve stammered, but there was no time to argue. “Come on.” She grabbed Avery’s hand, and pushed through groups of dancers as Céline Dion’s voice rose in a final, heart-wrenching crescendo.

“Nick!” Maeve announced. “What in the world are you doing?”

“Ummm, dancing?” he said. Chelsea let go of Nick and stepped back, cheeks flushed red. She hadn’t meant to touch his hands, the song had just swept her up. She couldn’t help it! She kept imagining that Nick was Trevor….

“I think you better go find Charlotte,” Maeve scolded.

“Yeah!” said Avery, though she really had no idea what the big deal was. They were all friends, what did it matter who danced together?

“I did, I mean, I will, I mean…” Nick looked around. “Oh no, Charlotte saw, didn’t she?”

Maeve folded her arms and nodded. The look in her eyes could have drilled holes through metal.

“Where is she?!” Nick asked anxiously.

Maeve pointed toward the door, then bolted away, neatly swerving past the ninth-grade basketball team dancing in their own little circle beneath one of Isabel’s giant painted hearts.

Nick stood in place, stunned. “Should I, um, go too? Or…”

Avery shrugged, and Chelsea shuffled from foot to foot. “It’s my fault,” she whispered to Avery, looking
down at her feet. “I love that song, and well, Nick asked me to dance…. I didn’t realize…I thought it would be okay…. I guess I’ll go back to taking pictures.”

“I should probably go,” Nick decided, and with one quick apologetic smile to Chelsea, he made his way toward the door.

A
gust of wind swept through the courtyard as Nick called out, “Hey!” Charlotte looked up and then leaned against Katani, who was sitting next to her on a frozen picnic bench. Maeve had one hand on her shoulder and tightened her grip as Nick came up behind them.

“Do you want us to go, Char?” a hesitant Katani asked.

“No…yes…I don’t know,” Charlotte squeaked. Maeve thought her voice sounded a little like one of her guinea pigs.

Katani handed Charlotte a tissue. She sniffed and wiped her nose.
This is
great, she sighed.
Now my nose is all red and runny, and I look like Rudolph. What happened to my dream date?

Seeing Nick standing there looking all sheepish, Charlotte simply couldn’t understand why she felt so awful.

Nick already had explained that he and Chelsea were
just friends. And Nick had danced with her for at least ten songs, and they had been the greatest moments of her whole life.
It’s just plain dumb to be jealous over one dance,
she scolded herself.

“It’s okay. You two go ahead.” Charlotte tapped Katani’s hand and forced a smile at Maeve. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Katani asked, her eyes narrowed at Nick.

“I’m sure.”

Hearing her friend’s voice return to normal, Katani stood up.

“Okay, then,” Maeve said. “Come find us again as soon as possible!”

Katani brushed past Nick and walked back inside with Maeve. “There is just way too much drama going on around here!” she pronounced.

Charlotte watched her breath billow in and out in little clouds as Nick sat down on the bench. He stared at his hands while Charlotte sniffed up a drip.

“Have you been crying?” Nick asked

Charlotte shrugged, trying to keep her voice from sounding too pitiful. “I wouldn’t exactly call it crying…it’s more like snuffling.”

Nick let out this huge whoosh like he had been holding his breath for an hour. “I tried to tell you before. Chelsea’s just my friend.”

“I know.” Charlotte hugged her shoulders and listened to the drum beat coming from inside the gym. “I don’t know why I freaked out.”

“It’s okay.” He scooched over on the bench, so just
his shoulder touched hers. “This is weird, huh?”

“Yeah,” Charlotte agreed. “It was kind of easier to just be friends.”

“I guess.” Nick sighed.

They sat quietly together for a minute as the snow drifted around them. Nick reached over and brushed off some flakes that had settled on Charlotte’s nose and eyelashes. A light over the door to the gym illuminated the flakes as they began to twirl down, faster and faster.
It’s like a beautiful ballet
, Charlotte thought,
put on just for me and Nick.

Nick grinned. “Ready to head back in there?”

“Sure.” Charlotte smiled, while secretly wishing they could stay out just a few minutes longer. Somehow she didn’t feel mad at him anymore. She just felt confused.

Nick jumped up and brushed some snow off his shoulders. “You know, Chelsea was feeling really down after the QOM made a few of their
special
comments. That’s why I asked her to dance.”

“Let’s go see if she’s okay now.” Charlotte reached out her hand to Nick. It was mind boggling to her how just a minute ago she was a wreck, and now everything was fine. She wondered whether the BSG should issue a
crush alert
should one of the them ever get bitten by the love bug again.

Food, Glorious Food!

Katani went off to dance with Reggie, so Maeve made her way over to Avery, who was standing next to a dejected Chelsea.

“Hey Chels, let’s show Maeve your collage.” Avery
suggested, remembering how proud she’d been when she showed it to her and Trevor.

So they walked out to the hall where Chelsea had left the large frame by the water fountain.

“Oh, Chelsea, this is
marvelous
!” Maeve pronounced. “You should sign it! Or,” she joked, “I’ll sign it seeing as I’m such a major soccer star.”

“Woo-hoo, Maeve!” Avery hugged her friend.

Chelsea just shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal.” She looked over Maeve’s shoulder to see if Trevor was nearby. She hadn’t seen him since that glimpse before her dance with Nick.
Where did Anna take him? To a secret Queens of Mean hideout somewhere?

“No, really, you deserve an award! AAJH photographer of the year!” Maeve continued.

“I’m the
only
photographer,” Chelsea pointed out.

“I’m gonna get us some pizza,” Avery suggested, feeling her stomach growl. “Be right back.”

Dillon was guarding the refreshments table, snarfing down some chips and salsa, and another slow song was starting.
What’s with all this slow stuff?

Avery started to put her hands in her pockets until she realized her dress didn’t have any.
Mental note
, she told herself,
Next time you buy a dress, get one with pockets.
How else were you supposed to stash stuff if you didn’t have anywhere to put it?

“Don’t even think about asking me to slow dance,” Avery said to Dillon, hands on her hips instead.

Dillon laughed. “Are you crazy? I’d rather eat slugs on toast.”

Avery sighed with relief. Maybe Dillon didn’t like, LIKE her, after all. “That makes two of us, dude,” she said, and she swiped a couple of brownies. The pizza boxes were all empty.

“Whoa, don’t hog all of the food!” Dillon ordered.

Avery rolled her eyes. “First come, first served.”

“Well, I was here first and the rest are for me, me.” Dillon grabbed two brownies and stuffed them both in his mouth at once.

“I swear, Dillon, you are such a doofus!” Avery turned to walk away.

“Thank you so much,” he said, wiping chocolate off his mouth with his sleeve. “So, what’s up with Maeve? She was, like, dragging me everywhere and then you all disappeared!”

Avery turned around and lowered her voice. “I kind of told her about asking you to take her to the dance.”

“So?” He looked baffled.

Avery sighed. “I know, dude. I don’t really get it either. But I guess it really matters.”

“Huh,” Dillon grumbled. “Do I get to keep this cool pin?” He held up the tie clip.

“Who knows?” Avery laughed, and slipped off with her brownies.

But when she got back to the hallway, Maeve, Chelsea, and the framed collage were nowhere to be found.

Joline’s Wide Retriever

“Maeve, come on,” Chelsea insisted. She and Maeve had moved to the other side of the gym to get out of the
way of a crowd of rowdy ninth graders, and now Chelsea could see Anna walking up, trailing Trevor. “Let’s get out of here.” But Maeve shook her head. She was tired of the QOM trying to ruin everyone’s life.

“Where’s
Dillon
?” Anna asked Maeve, with a queenly sneer.

“I think I saw him wolfing some brownies with Avery,” Trevor started.

Joline interrupted. “What’s it like having your date hang out with one of your best friends?”

Maeve shrugged. “He’s not really my
date
, and Dillon is allowed to hang out with whoever he wants. We’re not in prison here.”

Jolene smirked and pulled on the arm of a tall boy standing behind her, staring blankly at the ceiling. “This is Brandon. He’s on the eighth-grade football team. He’s the wide retriever.”

Maeve cracked a smile. “Don’t you mean…wide receiver? Like Kelley Washington?”

“Hey, this girl knows what’s going on!” Brandon snapped to life suddenly.

“Ha-ha…wide retriever,” Trevor laughed. “Is that, like, when you have a golden retriever on your team?”

Chelsea and Maeve laughed as Joline scowled. “That’s
not
what I said. Whatever.” Joline stormed off.

“Come on, Trevor,” Anna went to follow, but Trevor hung back.

“I’m going to chill with these guys for a while.” His eyes landed on Chelsea. “Hey, Chels, want to dance?”

“What?!” Anna’s eyes flashed. “I give you a second
chance, spend my precious time introducing you to
every
cool person in this school, and you want to dance with
her
?!”

“Ahh, yeah, actually, I do,” Trevor held out a hand to Chelsea, who suddenly felt like Sleeping Beauty awakening from her hundred years’ sleep.

“Okay!?” Chelsea said with a surprised smile.

Trevor nodded. “Come on, this is a great song.”

Maeve watched Trevor and Chelsea walk away, feeling a certain satisfaction at the furious look on Anna’s face. She watched Anna stalk off in the other direction, then noticed Chelsea’s collage forgotten against the wall.

Huh,
she thought,
what am I supposed to do with that?
Not wanting Chelsea’s work to get ruined, Maeve moved it back out into the hallway, out of the way behind the coats, just so no one would step on it or something.

Now, I’m going to dance!
She ducked in the bathroom for a quick second to make sure her curls were all in place, then made her entrance onto the dance floor, just in time for her favorite song.

Dancing Queen

To her surprise, Chelsea didn’t feel weird at all dancing beside Trevor.
Definitely not like dancing with my brother,
she sighed as Trevor held on to her hand. She remembered the dance with Nick; she was glad he’d asked her, but sorry she’d made Charlotte so upset.
I hope she’s okay….

“I love your photos,” Trevor said over the music. “Do you think you could teach me how to make collages like that? I take lots of pictures, but then I never know what to do with them.”

Chelsea nodded. “Sure. It’s not that hard to do. We should get together after school and work on something.”

“That would be cool.” Trevor moved in close as Chelsea spun around, her red dress billowing out around her legs. She felt like a queen—not a queen of mean, but a dancing queen.

“Hey, Chels!” Charlotte’s voice broke into her thoughts. Chelsea and Trevor waved as Charlotte came running over, followed by Katani, Nick, and Reggie.

“You okay, Char?” Chelsea asked, holding out her arms to her good friend.

Charlotte hugged Chelsea. “Yeah, everything’s fabuloso!” she said with a laugh, imitating Maeve. “How about you?

Her friends were so cool. “Everything’s great,” Chelsea responded. “You should have seen Maeve take on the QOM!”

“Only Maeve!” Charlotte laughed as Chelsea told the story.

Then Katani waved her arms in the air. “Come on people, let’s dance!”

Mustard Monkey Moves

I had no idea Riley was such a good dancer,
Maeve thought. She’d walked over to hang out with his band members and a group of music kids because she couldn’t find her friends anywhere. Of course, with so many faces, voices, the loud music, and so little light, she could have walked right by one of them and not noticed. She hoped Charlotte and Nick were okay.
Oh, well, we’ll find each other eventually.

Maeve turned her attention to Riley. All of a sudden she
noticed how cute he looked with his hair all gelled back.

Before Maeve could ask if he wanted to dance, Riley turned to her and said, “I can’t believe they’re playing this!” He grinned. “This band is
totally
the next big thing!”

“Really?” Maeve shouted over the ringing chords. She’d never heard it before.

Riley nodded. “People don’t realize how hard it is to come up with great lyrics and a catchy melody. I write a lot of songs for Mustard Monkey and I can tell you that it’s a lot of work.”

Maeve leaned her face closer to his so she could talk in his ear. “I bet it is. It’s really cool you compose your own stuff! When are you going to perform again?”

Riley paused as he bopped his head along with the song’s beat. “Well, I’ve got one new song…I’m not sure if it’s really ready to go yet, though. Want to give it a try sometime?”

Flattered, Maeve laughed. “Riley, I have a great idea!”

“Oh, yeah? What is it?”

She put her lips to his ear and whispered something that made his eyes light up with excitement.

“We should get some punch and discuss this,” Riley suggested as Mustard Monkey’s guitar player jumped straight up in the air, kicking his legs out to the sides.

“Sounds fantabulous,” Maeve gushed, feeling a little flutter of excitement.

All Together Again

At the end of the next song, the BSG found Maeve and Riley deep in conversation at the refreshments table. A
flurry of quick hugs, high-fives, and questions were interrupted by Avery, who came bouncing over, followed by Dillon.

“My feet are killing me!” Avery wailed, slipping off her right sandal and rubbing her toes.

“Yeah,” Dillon joked. “And you almost gave Billy Trentini another nosebleed!”

“How do you always manage to knock into people when you dance?” Katani asked.

“It’s a gift, I guess,” Avery added with a proud smile.

“Avery, you should go with me to my hip hop class!” Maeve suggested, handing Avery a cup of punch. Then she glanced at Dillon. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Dillon looked a little panicked.

“It’s okay,” Avery urged Dillon.

Maeve led him a little way away from the table. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“Why?” Dillon looked confused.

Maeve threw up her hands.
Is Dillon as clueless as Avery?
she wondered. “’Cause you asked me to the dance then I didn’t even really dance with you!”

He lightly punched her shoulder. “It’s cool, Maeve. Forget about it. Can I keep the pin?” He pointed to the tie clip, which was fastened on his T-shirt sleeve.

“Yeah.” Maeve grinned as Riley came up behind her.

“Ready?” he asked.

Ten minutes later, Maeve’s voice rang through the gymnasium. She and Riley had hopped onstage and Maeve spoke into the mic.

“Attention! May I have your attention, please!” she
said, putting as much drama as she could into each word. “Riley Lee and Mustard Monkey, and me, Maeve Kaplan-Taylor, are here to rock the mic. But first, I’d like to thank Chelsea Briggs for making such an amazing tribute to every single student here at AAJH!”