The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (11 page)

Chapter
Seventeen

“I
left it right here, I know I did.”

“You’re
sure you didn’t take it off at home?”

“Positive. 
I remember taking it off and setting it on my towel because I didn’t want a
weird tan line.”

Ariel
was on her hands and knees searching frantically in the grass for the bracelet
her mom had given her.  The other four girls and Dave had found her this way
when the Surf N’ Swim announced that they were closing and they had come to
gather their stuff.  Cinderella dropped to her knees and began moving blades of
grass aside with her hands.  Soon they were all crawling around like dogs, with
their noses to the ground, hoping for a glimpse of silver.  After ten minutes
of this, a lifeguard approached their group and told them they needed to
leave.  Dave quickly got to his feet and explained the situation.

“I’m
sorry,” the lifeguard said, “but I really need to ask you to leave.  If we find
anything, it will be in the lost and found.”

Dave
put his arm around a sniffling Ariel and guided her towards the car.

“They’ll
find it,” Aurora said, putting an arm around her sister’s waist from the other
side.

The
car was silent on the ride home except for the sound of Ariel’s attempts not to
cry.  As they were pulling into the small parking lot, Cinderella spoke up.

“Hey
Dave,” she asked, tilting her chin up and looking at the back of his head
through squinted eyes.  “Did your brother ever find
my
bracelet?”

“Oh
man, I forgot to check to see if he ever found it!  I’m sorry!”

“Can
I get his number?”

Dave
shifted in his seat slightly.  “Um…sure.  Here,” he said, tossing his phone
back to Cinderella.  She caught it between her hands and found ‘Scott’ at the
top of the S’s.  Cinderella copied the number into her own phone and then
handed it back to Dave as she stepped out of the car.

“You
don’t want to call him now?” Dave asked, holding his phone out to her.

“No,
I’d rather call him in private,” she said.

“Oooooh!”
Aurora and Belle said in unison.  But Cinderella ignored their teasing and
walked toward her house.

“See
ya guys later,” she waved.

“Say
hi to Scott for us!” Belle yelled back in a sing-song voice.

Cinderella
ran up to her room and carefully set her phone on the dresser before hopping in
the shower to rinse off all the chlorine she brought home.  From the time she
stepped out of the shower and began getting ready, Cinderella kept glancing at
the phone.  She wondered what she would say to him as she pulled a green polo
over her head.  Then she wondered if Scott would even answer or if he was on a
date or something, as she applied mascara to her eyelashes.  Then Cinderella
became concerned over how Scott would feel about her having his number while
she blow-dried her hair.

When
Cinderella was finally all ready, and had stared at the phone for about ten
minutes, she looked up Scott’s number and punched send.

“Hello?”

“Hi
Sc-Scott?”

“Yeah…”

“Hi
it’s Cinderella.  I don’t know if…”

“Hey! 
How’s my favorite Princess?”

“Good,
how’re you?”

“I’m
great!  What’s up?”

“Um…Remember
that night I stayed up there?”

“Of
course!  How could I forget?”

Cinderella’s
face grew very hot at the memory of kissing Scott in the moonlight, and it took
her a couple seconds to continue.  “Do you remember my bracelet?”

“Oh
yeah!  Hey I’m really sorry ‘bout that.”

“So
you never found it then?”

“No,
I checked when I was on campus the next day and I checked the lost and found at
the club, but no luck.”

“Oh. 
Well thanks for checking anyway.”

“Of
course.”

“Ummm,
I still have your sweatshirt too,” Cinderella said.

“Oh,
yeah, I’d forgotten about that,” Scott said.  “Just give it to my brother, and
I’ll pick it up next time I’m home.”

Cinderella
didn’t know what she had been hoping for, that perhaps he would pick it up
himself, or even ask her on a date or something, but she found she was
disappointed by Scott’s response.

“Well
listen, I actually gotta go.  But it was nice talking to you again,” he said.

“Okay,
see ya.”

“Bye.”

Cinderella
fell back onto her pillows and sighed.  All the feelings from that first night
rushed back to her.  Then she thought about the last time she had seen him. 
She grabbed his sweatshirt and pulled it over her head, a wave of his cologne
washing over her.  Before she had any more time to think about him, there was a
knock on her door and then it was opening as Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, and
Belle trooped inside.

“So?”
Belle asked, sitting beside Cinderella on the bed.  She grabbed the sleeve of
Scott’s sweatshirt and held it up, eyebrows raised.

Cinderella
blushed and quickly yanked the sweatshirt back over her head, tossing it on the
floor.  “How did you guys do that?” she asked, hoping to avoid any more
‘knowing glances’ from Belle.

“Oh
come on Cindy,” Aurora said.  “We’ve been trying to call you for the last
fifteen minutes.  Don’t tell me you were too blinded by love to hear us beeping
in.”

“Actually
I did notice my other line going crazing and I found it really annoying!” she
said smacking Aurora in the head with her pillow.

“Oh
no you didn’t!” Aurora said jumping to her feet.  She grabbed a pillow off the
floor and threw it in Cinderella’s direction, but she ducked just in time. 
Belle grabbed another pillow from off the bed and hit Cinderella straight in
the face.  This, of course, turned into war.  There were pillows flying across
the room and lots of screaming as the five teenagers chased each other around
the bed and into the closet.

“This
is every guy’s dream come true…except you’d all be in your underwear.”

The
Princess sisters froze in their various positions and turned toward the door,
as if in slow motion.  Dave stood in the open doorway, grinning ear to ear. 
His new tan from that afternoon was looking very dark against his white
T-shirt.

“Please
continue.  Don’t let me stop you.”

Dave
had to duck as five pillows flew at the door with exceptional speed.  The girls
scooped up their pillows and began attacking the intruder.  The front door shut
downstairs and Cinderella halted mid-swing, her face dropping.

“Wait. 
How’d you get in here?” she asked, looking hard at Dave.

“The
front door was unlocked and I just followed the screams to see what was going
on.”

Cinderella
grabbed the front of Dave’s shirt and pulled him further into the room.

“What’s
going on?” he asked.

“I’m
not allowed to have boys in my room, especially when my mom isn’t home!”
Cinderella said, poking her head out the door and peering down the stairs.

“That’s
lame.  You’re almost sixteen,” he said.

“Yeah,
all the more reason my mom doesn’t trust you.”

“Your
mom doesn’t trust me?” Dave asked, pretending to look hurt.  But he somehow
appeared more proud than hurt.

“Quick! 
She’s coming!  Get in the closet!”

The
cousins moved like lightening to shove Dave into place.  Then they situated
themselves on the bed in a circle and all started talking at once.  Dana pushed
the door open the rest of the way and stepped in.

“How
was swimming?”

“It
was lots of fun mom, you should come next time!”

“Yeah,
I’m sure you’d have just as much fun with me there.”

“Ariel
actually got in the water!” Snow White said.

Dana’s
eyes flew to Ariel.  “Really?”

“Just
for a little while,” Ariel said.

“Oh
sweetie, that’s great!” Dana said, giving her a big hug.  “I’m gonna go call
your mom!”

“Dana,
please don’t make a big deal of it…”  Ariel tried to say, but Dana was out the
door and down the stairs before she got a chance.  “Great.  Now Mom will
probably bake a cake or something to celebrate.”

“I
like cake.”

All
five girls jumped.  They’d almost forgotten Dave was there.

“How
are we going to get him out?” Snow White asked.

“If
Mom is on the phone in the kitchen, she won’t really be paying attention.  Why
don’t you all leave in a big group and I’ll meet you at Belle’s house for the
movie.”

Belle
and Ariel started down the stairs slowly, with Dave ducking down in the middle,
and Snow White and Aurora bringing up the rear.

“Don’t
think you can get out of telling us about lover-boy,” Aurora whispered as she
stepped out the door.

Cinderella
gave her a playful shove and waited quietly until the front door closed.

“Cinderella?”
Dana’s voice sounded aggravated as she came up the stairs.  “Can you explain to
me why you just had a boy in your room?”

***

They
were all gathered around Belle’s TV, popcorn popped and
What About Bob
loaded and ready to go when Snow White’s phone rang. 

“No! 
She can’t...oh tell me you didn’t!  No!” she exclaimed, putting her free hand
on her forehead.  Then after a few seconds of silent nodding, “Okay, I understand. 
Yeah, I’ll talk to you later.  Bye.”  Snow White snapped her phone shut and
turned to the rest of the waiting group.  “Cinderella’s not coming.  She’s
grounded until school starts!”

“What?!”
everyone shouted.

“Not
only did Dana see us trying to sneak Dave out of her room, but then Cinderella
chose tonight to come clean and tell her the truth about staying the night up
in Logan too!”

“What
do you mean, the truth?” Dave asked, nervously.

“She
told Dana you guys lied to her about the weather being bad so you could stay
longer,” Snow White answered.  Her eyes narrowed in on Dave, who seemed to
breathe a sigh of relief at Snow White’s answer.

“I
didn’t make her do it!” Dave responded to her dirty look.

“Yeah,
but you didn’t stop her either,” Snow White said angrily.

“There’s
no use in pointing fingers,” Belle said, coming to Dave’s defense.  Then
turning to her cousin she asked, “Snow, why on earth did Cinderella tell her
mom about that?”

“I
guess when Dana started freaking out over Dave being in her room, she retorted
by saying something about sleeping across the hall from him in Logan and nothing happening.  Then she had to explain how they had lied about the building
not being co-ed, which basically turned into the whole truth spilling out.” 
Snow White threw her hands up in the air and slouched down, into the couch. 
Then when she noticed Dave stiffen again, she added, “Don’t worry, she didn’t
tell Dana about kissing your brother. She’s not suicidal!”

They
started the movie, but no one was really in the mood to watch.  Instead, it
became background noise as the five of them sat in silence.

“This
really sucks!” moaned Ariel, half an hour later.

“I
know,” agreed Aurora.

“Is
there anything we can do?” Dave asked.

“I
think talking to Dana right now would probably just make her more upset,” said
Belle.

“I
don’t understand!  Just because her mom saw me in her room, she’s grounded for
a month?” Dave exclaimed.

“Yup,”
said Ariel.  “Plus the lying.  She probably would only be grounded for a week
if it were just about you being in her room.”

“I
don’t understand!  You were all there too!  What did she think was going to
happen?” Dave asked.

“It
doesn’t matter.  That’s just Dana,” said Aurora.

“You’re
male and you breathe.  That’s more than enough evidence for a conviction,”
added Belle.

After
a long moment of silence, Snow White was struck with a sudden realization. 
“What about Lagoon?” she whispered.